My first study visit (the previous visits were not possible or were canceled due to the travel restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic) was aimed at establishing research cooperation with the team of Prof. Dominik Mösta from the Chair of Energy Economics at TU Dresden. Our consultations were led in the field of the hydrogen economy and the development of a long-term research project aimed at evaluating public policies and strategies that shaped the development and deployment of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies at the regional level in the German state of Saxony in the last decade, with particular emphasis on cluster structures and the so-called hydrogen valleys, i.e., local value chains related to these technologies.

Additionally, I :

• discussed the potential effectiveness of the proposed research methods, as well as the availability of data necessary for the construction of an econometric model based on the concept of an agent-based model (ABM),
• identified economic entities and public institutions that should be taken into consideration in conducting a future research project as part of case studies and individual in-depth interviews,
• planned a long-term stay on a research internship in the academic year 2023/2024.

Funding was obtained from the home university’s INTEREKON program.