Together with partners at the KIT, the Hochschule Pforzheim and the Hochschule für Technik Stuttgart, the IIP has set up a Research Training Group for doctoral students.

This joint undertaking focuses on the integrated analysis of energy systems and resource efficiency, regarding both the technological and the socio-economic aspects. In this project the IIP cooperates with the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (also KIT), the Centre for Sustainable Energy Technology at the Hochschule Stuttgart and the Institute of Industrial Ecology at the Hochschule Pforzheim.

The four research institutes of the participating universities offer a total of 12 doctoral scholarships for three years which are funded by the Ministry of Science, Research and Arts (MWK) Baden-Württemberg in line with the State's support for Ph.D. students. The focus at IIP is on three topics:

• Impacts of the increasing diffusion of PV-battery storage systems on the (central) electricity markets
• Municipal energy autonomy: a model-based analysis of the technical, economic and environmental impacts from a micro- and a macroeconomic perspective
• Analysis of the impact of increasing generation from renewable sources in the European electricity market on transmission grids considering flow-based market coupling

Starting in July 2016, this program shall provide the opportunity to investigate innovative research topics and support the professional and transdisciplinary exchange of its members for the next three years. The participating institutes also offer joint events for the doctoral students.