Stefanie Horian is a PhD researcher at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). Her work is situated at the intersection of energy policy, energy-efficient renovation, social housing, and decision-making processes in the built environment. She is particularly interested in how housing associations, tenants, and other stakeholders navigate the organisational, behavioural, and institutional challenges that shape renovation outcomes. Stefanie focuses on the human side of the transition by combining behavioural insights, economic thinking, and data analysis. In this way, her work contributes to a better understanding of the hidden barriers that affect the energy transition in the affordable housing sector.

She completed her education at two leading universities in Germany: Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (B.Sc.) and Ruprecht-Karls University of Heidelberg (M.Sc.) as an economic geographer. Both of her thesis projects focused on energy and heat transition.

Stefanie is involved in research and collaboration projects that connect academia with practice. She currently contributes to the European SHAPE-EU project through the Affordable Housing Initiative consortium, as well as to the Dutch ALIGN4Energy project, where she supports a user-centred behavioural approach funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). She is also active in field-relevant networks such as the European Network for Housing Research (ENHR) and the Urban Energy Institute (UEI), contributing to discussions on advanced, practical, and people-centered pathways for affordable housing. Within TU Delft, she also promotes PhD activities through the group Young Researchers Impact.