PhD Courses in Denmark

It is DTU’s ambition that research at the university shall support sustainable development, including contributing to the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). All PhD students at DTU must therefore achieve an understanding of sustainability and sustainable development that enables them to position and develop their research in the context of these goals and contribute positively to the achievement of these goals in their research and future professional work. As part of this objective, they must also have an overall practical understanding of carbon footprinting and its link to planetary boundaries. Moreover, DTU wants its PhD students to be able to reflect on the role of science and research in the public debate. All PhD students must therefore train their communication skills and be able to communicate their research to a non-expert audience in a popular science form.

A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to:

• Know the fundamental principles of sustainability assessment of technologies and be able to use sustainability issues to communicate about research in public.
• Be familiar with different prevailing definitions of sustainability, including absolute sustainability, and know the history of the sustainability concept and the development of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Understand the importance of considering the outcomes of their project in a systemic/life cycle perspective
• Understand the importance of considering a broad coverage of impacts within each sustainability dimension - environmental, social, economic
• Be able to perform a sustainability screening of their own project against the SDGs in a systemic perspective
• Understand the main features and limitations of carbon footprint, and be able to perform a simplified carbon footprint and interpret and position the results in an absolute environmental sustainability perspective
• Define the conceptual framework of absolute sustainability assessment and be able to apply it for climate change
• Understand why it is relevant to communicate science and identify opportunities for communication
• Identify the use of jargon and translate jargon into language that fits the audience and situation
• Create engaging and captivating content, written and orally
• Analyze the communication situation and tailor the content accordingly
• Master techniques that improve stage presence

The course introduces you to the concept of sustainability and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and to the role of technology in sustainable development. You are introduced to a methodology and guideline in life cycle based evaluation of the sustainability implications of research projects, and you will apply the methodology to your own PhD project (or, alternatively, to a pre-defined research project) to analyse the potential sustainability implications that the outcomes of your research may have. Moreover, you will be introduced to carbon footprinting and to the concept of absolute sustainability assessment. You will apply carbon footprint to a predefined case study and complement it with an absolute sustainability assessment (for climate change only) to acquire practical experience and grasp the type of interpretation and decision support that can be derived from these assessments. The course also introduces you to theory and practice of communication in general and to a non-expert audience in particular. During the course you are introduced to theory and tools for communicating, and via individual exercises and group work you get to practice your communication skills during the course. As part of the course, you are expected to prepare and deliver a presentation at either a Danish high school or submit a video of yourself giving a presentation aimed at a high school audience. The course workload of 2.5 ECTS includes the 5 in-class days of lectures, exercises and group work (expected 30-35 hours) as well as homework related to both the preparation and finalisation of the SDG evaluation report and communication support (expected 35-40 hours). Unless agreed before course start with course responsibles, onsite attendance is mandatory for all days in the course.