What is EERA JP e3s?

MISSION

ico e3sThe mission of the EERA Joint Programme on clean Energy tranSition for Sustainable Society (JP e3s) is to coordinate and provide the interdisciplinary Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) perspectives and expertise required to support the Clean Energy Transition, with particular attention to its sustainability.

JP e3s approaches the energy transition as a complex socio-technical transformation, involving technological, social, economic, institutional and environmental dimensions. Its role is to generate robust, evidence-based knowledge and analytical tools that can support EERA, other Joint Programmes, policymakers and the wider research community in understanding and addressing the non-technical dimensions of the transition.

A key ambition of JP e3s is to strengthen the science-policy interface, ensuring that interdisciplinary research can effectively inform policy design and implementation and contribute to a just, sustainable, secure, resilient and competitive European energy system.

OBJECTIVES

JP e3s pursues its mission by:

  • advancing interdisciplinary understanding of the socio-technical pathways shaping the Clean Energy Transition;
  • supporting just, inclusive and citizen-centred transitions, including through research on energy justice, participation and empowerment;
  • assessing the environmental, economic and social sustainability of energy technologies and transition pathways;
  • improving knowledge on energy demand, consumption practices, flexibility and sufficiency;
  • analysing the role of markets, governance, regulation and policy frameworks in enabling a secure, affordable and competitive transition;
  • developing integrated evidence, models and decision-support tools for robust and evidence-based policymaking.

Across these areas, JP e3s also works to integrate knowledge across disciplines, coordinate research capacities within EERA, and translate scientific knowledge into policy and societal impact.

Our Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda

In 2022, JP e3s launched a comprehensive renewal of its Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda (SRIA) to respond to the profound changes affecting the European energy landscape and to broaden its focus from assessing the impacts of the energy transition to understanding the wider socio-economic, institutional and environmental factors that shape the transition itself.

The September 2026 version of the SRIA represents a further step in this process. It updates the Programme’s scope, objectives, ambitions and activities in light of an evolving European context increasingly shaped by strategic autonomy, industrial competitiveness, energy security and resilience, while remaining fully aligned with the EU’s climate neutrality objectives.

The SRIA defines JP e3s’ role in providing interdisciplinary Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) expertise, evidence and analytical tools on the non-technical dimensions of the Clean Energy Transition. Its ambition is to complement technology- and techno-economic approaches with a systemic understanding of the transition, strengthening collaboration between SSH and STEM communities and supporting the development of energy pathways that are not only technically feasible, but also just, sustainable, competitive, secure and socially resilient.

Compared with the previous version, the 2026 SRIA places greater emphasis on emerging research and policy challenges and on strengthening the science-policy interface, with the aim of translating scientific knowledge more effectively into policy design and implementation. It also reflects a rapidly evolving European policy framework, including new priorities related to industrial resilience, critical resources and strategic autonomy.

The Agenda is structured around six Research Priorities and three Cross-Cutting Strategic Objectives, implemented through five Sub-Programmes and complemented by three Thematic Groups on Education and Skills, Gender Perspectives in the Energy Transition, and Societal Readiness. Together, these activities provide the framework for JP e3s’ work towards 2030 and its contribution to a more integrated, evidence-based and socially responsive European Clean Energy Transition.

READ the sria the 

JP e3s in the words of our Coordinator Alessandro Sciullo

This video hears from EERA JP e3s Coordinator Alessandro Sciullo, as he explains the work the programme has been carrying out over the past number of years and its relevance in advancing the integration of societal, environmental, and economic dimensions in the development of key energy technologies.

Sub-Programmes

EERA JP e3s is structured in 5 Sub-Programmes (SP):

You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.
Marie Skłodowska Curie

Contact

Alessandro Sciullo Coordinator of JP e3s
University of Turin (UNITO)