Valeria Jana Schwanitz

Field of work

Professor of Energy Economics and Distinguished Fellow at the Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Systems, Bristol. Jury member of the World Wide Fund for Nature One Planet City Challenge 2024. Advisory board member for the National Research Data Infrastructure for Interdisciplinary Energy System Research in Germany. Research on energy systems, human–nature interactions, and climate solutions. Publications: ResearchGate

Ongoing Projects

• Since 2026, we are installing traffic flow counters across Sogn and the wider Vestlandet region to complement national transport statistics with more detailed data from smaller rural roads. Live traffic data is available through Telraam Mobility Vestlandet. The project aims to improve understanding of how people travel in rural areas and to support the development of better public transport systems in Western Norway.
• Living Lab Sogndal (since 2026) and part of the ARTEMIS project. The lab is located in the local mobility hub Skysstasjon. It serves as a platform for discussions on regional development. In collaboration with students from the Climate Change Management master’s programme, we organized the rural mobility exhibition “The Way Forward.” 
• LCA - Digervarden vs. Modern Skis. Together with students from the Climate Change Management master’s programme, we conducted in 2026 a life cycle assessment (LCA) comparing the carbon footprint of the oldest ski ever found in Reinheimen National Park, Norway, in 2021 with that of a modern ski. The project explored how materials, production methods, durability, and consumption patterns influence environmental impact across time.
• The Erwin-Knipping Project (2024-2026). Digitalization project with the German Society for Natural and Ethnological Sciences of East Asia (OAG Tokyo). Analyzes and digitizes 19th-century handwritten weather records.
• ARTEMIS (2024–2029) – European Universities initiative, co-financed by ERASMUS+; our group contributes to the joint research agenda.
• WHITECYCLE (2022–2027) – Horizon Europe project on recycling complex PET waste; our group leads data management and sustainability assessments.
• Jean Monnet Chair (from 2019) – Supported by Jean Monnet/ERASME, focusing on Industrial Ecology and Circular Economy with University Clermont-Auvergne.

Selected Completed Projects

• STORIES (2021–2025) – EU Green Deal project on energy storage research infrastructure; contributed FAIR data tasks.
• WWF Carbon Footprint Validation (2022–2023) – Funded by WWF, city-level carbon footprint validation.
• EEA Education Grant – Fossil Fuel Free (2023–2024) – Funded by EEA, development of an online course on fossil fuel–free energy.
• EERAdata (from 2020) – Horizon 2020, FAIR and open data ecosystem for low-carbon energy research. We lead the project.
• DRES2Markets (2020–2023) – Horizon 2020, enhancing renewable energy participation in electricity markets.
• COMETS (2019–2022) – Horizon 2020, Europe-wide inventory of citizen-led energy projects.
• AI for Sustainable Energy (2020–2022) – HVL-financed research collaboration between Data Science and Energy System Analysis.

Research Areas

• Energy systems & modeling
• Human–nature interactions
• Renewable energy & technology
• Rural mobility
• Model validation & FAIR data

Research groups

• ​​​​​​​Data-driven energy system analysis
• ​​​​​​​ERASME - Jean Monet Center of Excellence on Sustainable Development at the University Clermont-Auvergne, France