Task Area 2 strengthens the role of social and political science in energy research by highlighting the importance of non-technical factors, such as societal values, political dynamics, and behavioural patterns, for understanding and shaping the energy transition. We aim to broaden the academic input into policymaking, which currently focuses heavily on techno-economic models, by promoting a socio-technical perspective.

Data: We develop best practices, ontologies, and infrastructures for publishing FAIR and privacy-aware data on non-technical, policy and regulatory aspects—such as citizen acceptance, and policy logics.

Modelling: We support the integration of non-technical, policy and regulatory factors into energy system models and empirical policy analyses to improve societal realism and policy relevance.

Mediation: We support actors who mediate between scientific data and public or political audiences, such as data journalists, in making research data understandable and reusable for broader communication.

Data informs modelling, modelling shapes communication and participation, and societal feedback flows back into data collection—enabling a responsive, inclusive research cycle.

Objectives

• Identify relevant public stakeholders, understand local conditions, and involve citizens directly in the design and development of the research data services.
• Provide a data collection method and structure as well as detailed machine-readable data on policy instruments and policy logics to integrate socio-political dynamics into energy data infrastructure and models.  
• Investigate public acceptance and social trends, and link these insights to political priorities and regulatory frameworks relevant to the energy transition.
• Assess the current extent to which societal and political factors are integrated into energy system models, and develop guidelines and data sources to improve future practice.
• Build services and tools that enable citizens to actively contribute to and participate in energy system research.
• Communicate data and modelling results effectively to diverse audiences—from policy makers to the general public—by applying and sharing best practices in science communication.

Participating partners

• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
• Soziologisches Forschungsinstitut Göttingen (SOFI)
• Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
• Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)

Services used or developed

In Task Area 2, the following Services are currently under development:

• A crowdsourcing platform to identify energy data gaps with contributions from researchers, data journalists, NGOs, and other policy- and society-facing data users.
• A toolkit supporting researchers in communicating their data through interactive visualizations inspired by journalistic and policy-relevant data communication practices.

Links to output thas has been generated

• NFDI4Energy Deliverable 2.2.1.1: Data on landscape and environmental regulation for energy production and infrastructure
• NFDI4Energy Deliverable 2.2.2.1: Data on policy support for renewable electricity and electric vehicles
• NFDI4Energy Deliverable 2.2.2.2: Data on climate and renewable electricity targets
• D2.1.1.1 List and graphic overview on relevant stakeholders
• Building Bridges: An Interdisciplinary (Energy) Research Framework
• Datasets and time series for energy policy research and modelling