The European Union (EU) funded Horizon 2020 ‘Social sciences and Humanities for Advancing Policy
in European ENERGY’ (SHAPE ENERGY) project organised an international summer school for Early
Stage Researchers (ESRs) working within energy-social sciences and humanities (energy-SSH). This
multidisciplinary summer school – entitled ‘Advancing Energy Policy Summer School’ – focused on how
energy-SSH research can contribute to tackling the many energy-related challenges in Europe. Key energy
topics were discussed with an emphasis on interdisciplinarity and on the translation of academic research
into policy and practice, including:
• Global energy dilemmas;
• Energy transition;
• Public engagement and energy citizenship;
• Consumption and social practices;
• Energy poverty.
Advanced researchers and practitioners involved in leading European energy projects were presenting their
expertise and the role of energy-SSH research for policy and practice while the summer school was also an
opportunity to meet and collaborate with other ESRs from a range of disciplines.
Analysing the outputs of the summer school allowed us to draw attention to four recommendations, which
could serve as points of reflection during the organisation of any future ESR and/or interdisciplinary SHAPE
ENERGY activities:
• Make more explicit/visible the ‘implicits’ of the various disciplines and, while proposing a workshop,
consider more carefully the time needed by each discipline to produce a ‘rigorous’ outcome/output.
• Pay attention to the fact that mainstream economic thinking innervates all disciplines. This element
should be taken into greater consideration in prospective research as it influences the way the future is
envisioned and closes alternative paths that could have been taken.
• Better consider the cultural background of the participants when asking them to work together, or at
least make more explicit not only the rules of the exercise but also the cultural implicit behind it.
• Be sensitive to the gender and age of the participants, as these obviously play a role in how individuals
express and put themselves forward. As it is crucial to devote time and resources, and to employ experts
when implementing gender perspectives in research programmes and policy-making; more attention
should be paid to this point as well as to how older researchers might influence the youngest