POTENT

Ports as Energy Transition Hubs

POTENT

Ports as Energy Transition Hubs

The Kühne Logistics University is part of the POTENT (Ports as Energy Transition Hubs) project, bringing together several prestigious universities and key industry partners with the goal to address critical knowledge gaps essential for facilitating the clean energy transition in ports.

The POTENT Doctoral Network is a research project funded by the European Commission through a MSCA grant. The project is coordinated by Copenhagen Business School and will hire 15 doctoral candidates to work on questions of the future of port energy infrastructure. The project runs from September 2025 until December 2029.

The Copenhagen School of Energy Infrastructure (CSEI), Department of Economics and CBS Maritime (CBSM), Department of Strategy and Innovation are excited to announce the launch of the Horizon Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network on Ports as Energy Transition Hubs (Potent). This initiative is organised by Henrik Sornn-Friese, Tooraj Jamasb and Philipp Alexander Ostrowicz and has been awarded a grant of 4.38 million EUR.

Key focus areas include:

Infrastructure Requirements: Analysing the needs for alternative fuels, bunker consumption, Power-to-X (PTX) demand, and the dynamics of shipping markets.
Integration of Digital Technologies: Optimising energy use through technological advancements and innovative approaches.
Technological and Economic Aspects: Examining the regulatory, policy, social implications and future potentials of green energy ports.
Strategic and Governance Challenges: Identifying business model opportunities and addressing the governance issues ports encounter in the clean energy transition.

The grant of the POTENT project will support 15 PhD candidates across Europe, with two of them based at the Center for Shipping and Global Logistics at Kuehne Logistics University in Hamburg.

For an overview of all 15 positions, please visit the POTENT project website: https://potentmsca.cbs.dk/

The two positions at Kuehne Logistics University (Kühne Logistics University) are the following:

1) Governance structures and strategies to foster the clean energy transition (DC9) working with Gordon Wilmsmeier (Center for Shipping and Global Logistics) and Johannes Meuer (Center for Sustainable Logistics and Supply Chains) as project leads. The research will focus on the topics of governance structures, low-carbon management and strategies, electrification, hydrogen operations, infrastructure life cycles, policy impact assessment.

2) Low and zero emission fuels port geographics (DC10) working with Gordon Wilmsmeier (Center for Shipping and Global Logistics) and Hanno Friedrich as project leads. This project will focus on global shipping networks, port system transformation, and hydrogen value chains.

For details please visit our website: https://lnkd.in/esratSeu

“This network not only fosters academic excellence but also bridges the gap between research and real-world application, ensuring that our findings contribute to significant advancements in sustainable practices within port operations,” says Philipp A. Ostrowicz, CSEI Coordinator.

The Potent network represents an interdisciplinary collaboration involving several prestigious universities, including the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), World Maritime University (WMU), Chalmers University of Technology (CTH), Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Kühne Logistics University (KLU), KEDGE Business School, and Copenhagen Business School (CBS). Additionally, the project engages key industry partners such as the Ports of Esbjerg, Hamburg, Cartagena, Mombasa, and Marseille, as well as international organisations like the World Bank, the United Nations, and the Mærsk-McKinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping.