The eScience Center and NWO-Shell join forces for future energy

22 Mar 2017 - 3 min

Future energy requires innovative solutions. Current energy developments are advanced by scientific research on geoscience, wind and solar energy, multiphase flows, computational chemistry and material sciences. The eScience Center and NWO-Shell’s Computational Sciences for Energy Research programme (CSER) are joining forces to support this research by opening a joint call for PhD project proposals with eScience support. This new joint call addresses research challenges in the computational sciences for future energy and develops sustainable software tools.

The CSER programme started in 2012 with the aim to strengthen the computational sciences in the Netherlands and to contribute to societal issues such as the Energy Challenge, as described by the Topsector Energy. The programme has not yet addressed the sustainability of the software tools and results of its research projects. The joint call with the eScience Center concentrates on both the scientific challenges and the sustainability of the software tools. The eScience Center is tasked to enhance science by working collaboratively in data and compute intensive research projects. It contributes to projects by providing eScience Research Engineer support to effectively use and develop modern digital tools and methodologies. The eScience Center also provides an online platform, the eScience Technology Platform, to sustain the developed tools and methodologies beyond the life time of the project.

About CSER

The Computational Sciences for Energy Research (CSER) programme is a joint large-scale public-private partnership in fundamental research in the energy domain between Shell and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The goal of the programme is to strengthen the computational sciences in the Netherlands and to contribute to societal issues such as the Energy Challenge, as described by the Topsector Energy.

The programme has started in 2012 and a strong relationship between the partners is now established. The programme consists of 75 PhD projects spread over a range of computational sciences disciplines such as computational geoscience, wind and solar energy, multiphase flows, computational chemistry and material sciences for energy research. Besides developing top talented PhD students in the field of computational sciences, the programme also focuses on strengthening the knowledge infrastructure within the Netherlands through tenure track positions at various universities and research institutes.

About the Netherlands eScience Center

The eScience Center is the national hub for the development and application of domain overarching software and methods for the scientific community. The eScience Center develops crucial bridges between increasingly complex modern e-infrastructures and the growing demands and ambitions of scientists from across all scientific disciplines. The application of digitally enhanced scientific practices is nowadays fundamental toolbox for all researchers and is a prerequisite to ensure that the Dutch knowledge sector remains competitive and the greatest return can be achieved from scientific investments. In support of this goal, the eScience Center funds and participates in multidisciplinary projects with optimal data-handling, efficient computing and big-data analytics at their core.