Tenth Annual Workshop of the Sustainable Energy Transitions Initiative (SETI)

Call for Papers! SETI 2025 Annual Meeting

New deadline: March 23, 2025, 23:59 ET USA

Dates and location: August 13-16, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.

We are pleased to announce the upcoming Tenth Annual Workshop of the Sustainable Energy Transitions Initiative (SETI) Collaborative Program. The dates are to be determined, but the event will likely take place on August 13-16 at University of Gothenburg, ensuring alignment with key academic and policy events while avoiding scheduling conflicts with other relevant conferences.

This year’s SETI Annual Meeting will feature regional workshops and will be expanded to a 4-day event to allow for in-depth discussions and collaboration in strategic planning meetings to coordinate across global regions. The venue and final dates will be confirmed as soon as possible.

The purpose ofthe meeting is twofold. First, to advance SETI’s strategic plan over the coming 4-year period (2025-2028). Throughout 2025, SETI’s activities will be shaped by key themes identified through semi-structured interviews and working group sessions of EfD network and other SETI researchers. The Annual Meeting will provide a focused opportunity for much of this work. A core objective – consistent with Sida funding mandates for EfD and therefore SETI – is to achieve alignment with policy priorities of the African EfD centers, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Yet, global coordination and opportunities, and the potential to tap other supporting funding opportunities, will also be considered.

Second, we will continue to share research findings and interact on energy transitions policy-making needs.

Call for Papers

We invite researchers to submit original research manuscripts or extended abstracts (1,000 words) on a broad range of issues related to sustainable energy transitions, with particular emphasis on emerging SETI Collaborative priorities. While all topics relevant to sustainable energy transitions are welcome as usual, we highly encourage submissions related to the following areas:

1. Cooking and heating energy transitions: Addressing energy poverty, indoor air pollution, and deforestation through cleaner solutions.
2. Off-grid and grid electricity networks: Overcoming barriers in off-grid markets, enhancing grid reliability, and ensuring equitable electricity access.
3. Impacts of renewable energy: Exploring social, economic, and environmental outcomes of renewable energy technologies, particularly in SSA.
4. Nexus of energy technology and air pollution: Investigating the interactions between energy systems and air quality, focusing on pollution reduction strategies.
5. Energy-gender nexus: Advancing gender-equitable energy transitions, ensuring that women’s roles and needs are recognized and addressed.
6. Inclusive and just energy transition: What does this mean, and how can it be supported with human and financial capital?
7. The role of energy access and energy interventions in fostering social resilience in the face of growing macroeconomic, policy, and natural systems (e.g., from climate change) uncertainty.

In addition, we encourage contributions on the following recent Inclusive Green Economy (IGE) program priorities: Overcoming biomass dependency, energy efficiency. We also welcome work that seeks to synthesize lessons across contexts, or that focuses attention on contextual features that lead to systematic variation in energy transitions dynamics and outcomes.

Call for session proposals for regional workshops

Given the expanded regional focus of the SETI 2025 Annual Meeting, we also invite proposals for creative sessions to explore key energy transition topics in different regions. They may deliberately engage with an energy transition issue in a single region or sub-region, or may foster cross-regional interactions (but with regional relevance clearly specified and articulated in the proposal).

We encourage creativity, but these sessions may include:

• Keynote addresses, panel discussions, breakout sessions, or moderated plenary discussions on region-specific energy transition challenges.
• Multi-country policy sessions (particularly those covering SSA) that allow for practitioner and policymaker engagement.
• Policy-maker roundtables for thinking about their most knowledge gaps as they relate to energy transitions policy objectives.
• Collaborative sessions that bring together researchers, policymakers, and funders to discuss impactful research agendas and funding opportunities.
• Research sketches or ideas pitched to policy-makers.

The aim of the workshops will help be to provide input for development of concept notes in support of the following objectives:

• Elaborate and initiate policy-relevant research agendas through co-creation processes tailored to the goals of collaborative sub-groups, ensuring alignment with funders’ priorities.
• Identify and pursue funding opportunities, assigning responsibilities to key SETI fellows to develop competitive grant applications.
• Establish an engagement plan for policymakers and disseminate research findings effectively through co-created policy briefs, blogs, and outreach materials.
• Create a communication mechanism (e.g., virtual meetings, online forums) to sustain collaboration among SETI members from 2025 to 2027.
• Publish blog posts and social media content after each working group meeting to highlight key discussions and insights.

Submission process

Submit your paper/extended abstract and/or session proposals by March 23, 2025. Single date, to notify accepted works on time (logistics issues mainly).

Submission form here: https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1ZzUle16jEX7BzM.

If you cannot access the form, please send your submission to SETI@udec.cl.

We encourage early submissions, especially for policy session proposals, as these require additional planning time.

Important information:

• Multiple submissions are allowed, but each requires a separate form. Please, consider separate submissions for extended abstracts/manuscripts and session ideas.
• We will notify those with accepted papers and sessions during April.
• Participation in the workshop will be open and free to all, though pre-registration will be required.
• Full/partial travel funding may be available for participants from LMIC’s, as well as for students from the same regions. This will be informed in future communications to accepted submissions.

If you have any questions, please contact Cristóbal Vásquez-Quezada (SETI Project Coordinator) at SETI@udec.cl.

We look forward to your contributions and an engaging discussion on sustainable energy transitions at SETI 2025!

Sincerely,

The Sustainable Energy Transitions Initiative

Find us on X: @SETIenergy.

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