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Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

General Description

NTNU is a university with an international focus, with headquarters in Trondheim and campuses in Ålesund and Gjøvik. NTNU has a main profile in science and technology, a variety of programmes of professional study, and great academic breadth that also includes the humanities, social sciences, economics, medicine, health sciences, educational science, architecture, entrepreneurship, art disciplines and artistic activities. With more than 42.000 students and more than 7.400 person-years in staff, NTNU is the largest university of Norway. NTNU has 9 faculties and 55 departments and a strong tradition of research both in technology and technology implementation. Every year, about 400 doctoral degrees are awarded by NTNU. NTNU is an experienced participant in EU level funding with coordinating and participating in a large number of international research projects (at the moment 126 H2020 projects are running with coordination or participation from NTNU. NTNU has 10 ongoing ERC grants. NTNU has four strategic research areas: Energy, Health, Oceans, and Sustainability in which strong interdisciplinary collaboration is nurtured. The strategic research areas Energy and Sustainability are directly related to the topic of ENTRANCES, which make it a strategic priority of NTNU. The strategic research area Energy addresses the assumption that development and integration of a renewable and sustainable energy supply is a key challenge for the world community. NTNU commits itself to contribute to such a transition by minimizing the ecological footprint in developing the existing resources, and to massively invest in research related to renewable energy sources, storage solutions, energy consumption and transportation. The social science component is an essential part of this transition, which is also addressed in the newly awarded nationally funded social science based Centre for Environmentally Friendly Energy “N-Trans”, which is one of only two funded centres in social science based energy research in Norway. N-Trans is coordinated by NTNU. The strategic research area Sustainability brings together the best minds from a range of disciplines to create the knowledge needed by society to understand and change unsustainable patterns of behaviour and development. NTNU Sustainability aims to be an international leader. NTNU’s research on sustainable development of society includes environmental, economic and social aspects in the broadest sense. NTNU Sustainability consists of several core partners from research environments that excel within the field of environmental sustainability. In addition, other actors are affiliated partners on a project basis. Furthermore, NTNU established the Energy Transition Initiative. NTNU Energy Transition is established in order to build a world leading research programme focused on strategies for the transition to a future sustainable energy system. The research objective is to explore different alternatives for the future energy mix and corresponding transition pathways that may lead us to a low carbon society. In the Energy Transition initiative, human behaviour and energy policy are two pillars of research which are relevant for ENTRANCES.

Role in the project

In ENTRANCES, NTNU will participate in a number of work packages of the project: WP2, WP4, WP5, WP6, WP7 and WP8. NTNU will provide its knowledge on citizen behaviour, energy choices, energy innovation diffusion, municipal policy making in the energy sector in interaction with the citizens, and conventional and unconventional environmental communication. NTNU will further be the local partner for the Norwegian region participating in ENTRANCES. NTNU will capitalize on the results produced by projects and initiatives related to ENTRANCES objectives by feeding them into the project.

Christian A. Klöckner

Christian A. Klöckner is a professor in social psychology and quantatitve methods at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He leads the research group for “Citizen, Environment, and Safety” which is focusing on researching individual, social and contextual drivers of environmental decisions (including food, energy, mobility, housing). His personal research interest are modelling of environmentally relevant decisions and behaviour in the social and structural context, innovative environmental communication methods, societal disruption and transition, and psychologiocal trade-offs in sustainability issues.