PhD Positions, Centre for Marine and Renewable Energy, Ireland (2019)

The ‘Energy Resilience in the Built Environment’ (ERBE) CDT represents an exciting partnership between MaREI (Ireland), University College London (UK), and the University of Loughborough (UK) that is funded through the SFI-EPSRC ‘Centres for Doctoral Training’ (CDT) Programme, which aims to promote excellence in research through the training of cohorts of doctoral students and the fostering of collaboration between UK and ROI based researchers. ERBE will train innovative leaders with the necessary skills to transform the relationships between buildings and the energy system, providing sustainable, affordable, and healthy places to live and work. In doing so, a whole system multi-disciplinary approach will be implemented to draw on the skills of each partner, involving the training of 68 students across five separate intakes.

What will I be studying?
MaREI will train 18 PhD students in Ireland across five separate intakes, who will participate in a four-year integrated programme of energy demand research in a whole energy system context. You will be registered in one of MaREI’s seven institutional partners, but will be co-supervised by a UK-based investigator, and will undertake an immersive six-month placement comprising taught modules at either University College London or the University of Loughborough during the first year of your studies. These modules have been co-created with partners from across industry, government, and academia, and will cover topics such as energy policy and society, energy data and analysis, building modelling, physics of the built environment, and socio-technical theory and methods, while you will also attain skills in areas such as researcher ethics, technical writing, and project management. You will subsequently undertake your PhD under one of three themes:

1. Flexibility and resilience: the interaction between buildings, both domestic and non-domestic, and the whole energy system, through new generation, storage, and energy efficiency technology, enabled by smart control systems and new business models
2. Technology and system performance: demand reduction and decarbonisation of the built environment and its utilisation through design, construction methods, technological innovation, cyber-physical monitoring and control systems and regulation
3. Comfort, health and well-being: building, energy, and ICT systems that create productive and efficient work and operational environments and/or affordable, clean, safe homes

Who Should Apply?
Applications are invited from motivated graduates with a background in one of the following areas: Engineering; Materials Science; Data Analytics; Computer Science; Physics; Social Science; Mathematics; or Architecture. Applicants with other building, manufacturing and energy-related qualifications or extensive industry experience may also apply.

For more information please visit the following link:
PhD Positions, Centre for Marine and Renewable Energy, Ireland (2019)