Help to set the agenda for bioenergy education and training in Europe

ThermalNet, a bioenergy R&D network funded by the European Commission, is conducting a two-part survey on the supply of and demand for higher education and training in the bioenergy field in Europe. Survey results will be used to benchmark this emerging field and to identify gaps and opportunities in bioenergy education and training over the next 5-15 years.

Renewable energy sources are expected to provide up to 50% of the world’s energy supply by 2050, with bioenergy widely anticipated to be the biggest contributor.

The resulting boom in the bioenergy sector is expected to create a wealth of new agricultural, industrial and research jobs, underlining the importance of high quality education and training in the field of bioenergy. Employment projections for bioenergy jobs in Europe vary from around 250,000 to 1,000,000 new jobs being created in the bioenergy sector by 2010.

Despite this anticipated growth, very little work has been done to develop and analyse the emerging field of higher education and training in bioenergy.

Interested stakeholders are encouraged to complete the surveys. The first survey, ‘Mapping of existing activities’ aims to collect information on all current undergraduate, Masters, PhD and training or short courses involving bioenergy in the EU. The second survey, ‘Investigation of Existing Needs’ is aimed at the bioenergy industry and the public sector to determine the medium to long-term needs for human resources and skills in bioenergy. Each survey can be completed online in about 15 minutes, please go to: http://crear.unifi.it/survey

Survey results, apart from confidential information, will be available on the ThermalNet website and will be used to make recommendations to improve the field and to promote existing courses.

“The implementation of high-level, well designed educational activities is essential to provide the EU bioenergy industry with trained producers, scientists and researchers and engineers and managers. This study should give us a clear picture of supply and demand for education and training in the sector, so that we can build a stronger base to support the growing bioenergy industry in Europe,” said Dr. David Chiaramonti of the University of Florence, who is leading the initiative.

Keywords

Intelligent Energy Europe

Countries

Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, United Kingdom