ESRA 101

With EURO Major Katherine Johnson

Introduction and Greetings

If you’re reading this blog post, then you might be interested in applying for a European Summer Research Award (ESRA), or maybe you’re just generally curious about the EURO major at Carolina. My name is Katherine, and before I begin, I should introduce myself. I am a rising senior here at UNC, and I am pursuing a double major in Contemporary European Studies and Economics. More importantly, I am here to tell you about my summer experience conducting research abroad.
This summer, I had the honor of traveling to France and Belgium as a recipient of the ESRA, and I conducted original research on the energy transition in Europe.

My Topic

In the months preceding my application for the ESRA, I had started reading up on the energy difficulties facing the European continent in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. For some context, shortly after the war broke out, Russia cut off gas supplies to EU member states. This dramatically increased energy prices in Europe and threatened massive energy shortages across the continent. Generally speaking, the crisis highlighted Europe’s energy “insecurity” from a geo-political perspective and emphasized the need for the EU to transition away from imported fossil fuels and employ more renewables into its mix. Once I had picked my area of interest, it was time to narrow it down. Since I speak French and am currently minoring in it, I decided to hone in on evaluating the role of France within the EU’s energy transition from oil and gas to renewable energy sources.

A little bit of context for my topic…

Once I received the award, I began planning my independent research project. If you’re also thinking of applying for the ESRA, I would suggest that you consider choosing a hot topic that is “of the moment.” For example, the topic I chose was easy to investigate because of the high volume of energy conferences happening all over France and Europe this past summer.

My Itinerary

I spent the month of June in Paris which was my home-base. From there I traveled to Bordeaux to attend a European-wide energy conference which was conducted entirely in French and included various lectures, round-table events, and a company fair. Later in the month, I traveled to Nice to attend a more local energy conference which focused on the Cote d’Azur. And finally I traveled to Brussels to attend the European Sustainable Energy Week, where I mingled with young European professionals and learned so much about the European Green Deal. After returning from Europe at the end of June, I spent a few weeks turning my findings into a research paper.

I am so grateful for the experience that my time abroad afforded me, and I feel like I grew a lot during my month there. I am also grateful for the fundraising that made the trip possible. If there is a subject that you would like to learn more about, I would not hesitate to apply for the ESRA!

The ESRA is funded by generous donations from Betsy Blackwell and John Watson.