On behalf of the team of the A:RT-D Grids research project, Paderborn University (Germany), ECOLOG Institute Lüneburg (Germany), in partnership with the College of Engineering and Technology (CoET) of the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) invite you, with pleasure, to the^3rd Graduate Training (GT) for Sustainable Energy Development. This year's GT will take place from August^7th to^11th, 2023 at the CoET of UDSM. This GT is organised by the A:RT-D Grids collaborators consisting of industrial and research partners from Africa and Europe. The A:RT-D Grids project focuses on international and interdisciplinary research to develop modern socio-technical systems to provide robust, intelligent, and decentralized power systems for rural communities in Africa.

The CoET of UDSM will host the 2023 GT, which will be held for the first time in presence, after two successful virtual Graduate Trainings with around 300 active participants in June 2021 and September 2022. We feel honoured to invite you to participate in this interdisciplinary training. Additionally, you can actively contribute with a presentation. Abstract submissions with discipline perspectives of economics, social sciences, engineering/technical education, and electrical engineering related to sustainable energy development are welcome. Certificates for participation and presentation will be issued accordingly.

The GT programme includes plenary sessions, reports, workshops, and a field trip to a microgrid. The main goal of the GT is firstly to increase the knowledge regarding sustainable energy resources and secondly to improve the understanding and communication between experts of the various disciplines, and thirdly contribute to the further growth of the microgrid market in East Africa. The interdisciplinary program will contain contributions from professors, researchers, and experts from various fields including:

• an introduction to the A:RT-D Grids project and its current research results
• sustainable energy aspects focusing on sustainable engineering, sustainable community perspectives, sustainable economics, gender and conflict perspectives, didactics, and education for sustainable development
• expert presentations from professionals of various disciplines
• various scientific and practical workshops
• possibly a field trip to an existing microgrid

Access to the virtual e-learning-platform will be given in advance. Certificates will be awarded to deserving participants. For further information about the A:RT-D Grids project, please visit the project website.

Participation by attending: To attend the^3rd GT, please click here to register (Registration deadline July^15th, 2023).

Participation by presenting: Besides attendance, prospective participants are encouraged to submit abstracts for presentation during the^3rd GT. If you have an interesting research topic or workshop idea that you would like to present, please respond to the Call for Contributions by clicking here (Submission deadline July^10th, 2023).

For any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the organizing team via microgridtraining@ei.upb.de

After a successful graduate training with just under 300 active participants in June 2021, we are pleased to be holding a second virtual graduate training this year. The "Graduate Training for Sustainable Energy Development" will take place from Monday 5 September to Friday 9 September 2022. Participation is free of charge.

The interdisciplinary programme will include contributions from professors, researchers and experts from the different fields and will include an introduction to the A:RT-D Grids project and the different perspectives on sustainability. Therefore, the programme will explore sustainable energy aspects with a focus on sustainable technology, sustainable community perspectives, sustainable economy, gender and conflict perspectives, didactics and education for sustainable development. In addition, the A:RT-D Grids Team invites experts from the field to give presentations. The latest research results of the A:RT-D Grids project will also be presented.

Interactive sessions in which participants work together on a designed case that includes all the above perspectives on building a microgrid are also part of the graduate training. At the end of each day, the workshop results will be presented.

With the "Call for Contributions" we invite graduate students, doctoral candidates and professionals to share their current research topic and relevant professional experience during the virtual graduate training. The presentations should be understandable for all participants, regardless of their academic or practical background.

All important information about the whole project can be found on our website.

After successful participation, participants and speakers will receive a certificate of participation or presentation.

New ways to electrify remote regions in East Africa

Experts provide information on microgrids and sustainable energy concepts at virtual graduate training course

Affordable, reliable and clean energy for all - this is one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. But people still lack access to electricity. To change this, scientists from Paderborn University and the ECOLOG Institute Lüneburg are working with partners from industry in an international project team to develop new ways to electrify remote regions in East Africa through microgrids, i.e. mini power grids that are separated from each other. The first graduate training course, for which more than 300 participants from Africa, Europe, Asia, North and South America as well as Australia have registered, shows how great the worldwide interest is in these future-oriented and sustainable solutions. The aim of the training is to advance the research and development of sustainable modular energy networks to achieve better grid stability in remote areas of East African countries.

2021

The virtual event titled "Approaching Sustainable Energy Development in East African Countries through an interdisciplinary project on Microgrids" was held from 28 June to 2 July. Through training programmes like this, scientists within the project, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), passed on practice-relevant knowledge to young scientists and experts.

For five days, international experts imparted basic knowledge about rural electrification through microgrids. The lectures and workshops were held and led by project participants from Paderborn University, Makerere University (Uganda), the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology (Tanzania), the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), the PI Photovoltaic Institute Berlin, the ECOLOG Institute and Asantys Systems. The focus was on very different topics and ranged from education and social sciences to engineering and economics to the didactics of technology. The focus was on the sustainable development goals of the United Nations, the economic perspective on sustainability, technical aspects of microgrids, but also research topics in the field of sustainable energy.