The Research Council of Norway awarded SFFE and the Gas Technology Center (GTS) a total of 10 PhD and Post Doctoral scholarships in 2005. Five of those was given to SFFE for administration within research areas of renewable energy. In 2007, the Research Council of Norway awarded three additional scolarships, so that the PhD pool of SFFE by 2008 comprises 7 PhD students.

The primary focus of the first part of the PhD pool was offshore renewable energy, and the fields of power electronics, hydrodynamics, construction, innovation and net-integration are covered in the project. The interdisciplinary group of PostDoc/PhD students work with various concepts within wave power and offshore wind power.

The PhD and Post Doctoral students involved are:

Offshore renewable energy

• International Business Development: Mr. Nicolai Løvdal, Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management, NTNU. Supervisor: Prof. Truls Erikson.
• Phase controlled wave energy converters: Mr. Jørgen Hals, CeSOS, Supervisor: Prof. Torgeir Moan.
• Offshore wind tower construction: Ms. Haiyan Long, Department of Civil and Transport Engineering, NTNU. Supervisor: Prof. Geir Moe.

The rest of the PhD pool is distribuited to various special fields within renewable energy:

3rd generation solar cells

• Rune Strandberg, Department of Physics, NTNU, Supervisor: Turid Worren.

Life cycle assessment of biofuels

• Ryan Bright, Industrial Ecology Programme, NTNU, Supervisor: Anders Strømman.

System impacts of large scale wind power

• Tobias Aigner, Department of Power Engineering, NTNU. Supervisor:Terje Gjengedal

Bioenergy in Norway and Sweden, seen in a societal perspective

• Tomas Moe Skjølsvold, Dep. of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, NTNU. Supervisor: Marianne Ryghaug