Fourteen (14) PhD Scholarships in Engineering, University College Dublin, Ireland (2015-2016)

Training in Reducing Uncertainty in Structural Safety (TRUSS, 2015-2018, http://trussITN.eu/) is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSC) Innovative Training Network funded by Horizon 2020. The growth of cities, impacts of climate change and the massive cost of providing new infrastructure provide the impetus for TRUSS which aims to maximize the potential of infrastructure that already exists. If flaws in a structure can be identified early, the cost of repair will be vastly reduced, and here an effective monitoring system would allow identifying the optimum time to repair as well as improving structural safety. But safety is difficult to quantify and requires a deep understanding of the uncertainty associated to measurements and models for the structure and loads. For that purpose, TRUSS brings together an intersectoral and multidisciplinary collaboration between 4 Universities, 11 Industry participants and 1 research institute from 5 European countries. The consortium shares expertise and offers training at an advanced level to qualify graduates for dealing with the challenges of an aging infrastructure stock. There are currently 14 Early Stage Researchers (PhD students) vacant positions. Each position is for a period of 36 months starting in August or September, 2015. The recruitment is done on a competitive basis across all applicants for each position.

The MSC programme offers highly competitive and attractive salary and working conditions. Exact salary will be confirmed upon appointment [Living allowance = approximately 37320 euro/year (depending on a correction factor to be applied per country) + Monthly mobility and family allowance = 600 or 1100 euro depending on the family situation]. In addition to their individual scientific projects, all fellows will benefit from further continuing education, which includes internships and secondments, a variety of training modules as well as transferable skills courses and active participation in workshops and conferences.

The available 14 ESR positions are:
- ESR 1: Reliability of concrete structures reinforced with braided FRP (Host: UCD, Ireland)
- ESR 2: Reduction of uncertainty in assessing concrete strength of existing structures (Host: Ove Arup, Ireland)
- ESR 3: Reduction of uncertainty in design of free standing nuclear spent fuel rack (Host: ENSA, Spain)
- ESR 4: Probabilistic optimization of the design of offshore wind turbine towers (Host: TCD, Ireland)
- ESR 5: Integrity management of ship structures (Host: Lloyd’s Register, United Kingdom)
- ESR 6: Residual life assessment and management of ship unloaders (Host: Lloyd’s Register, United Kingdom)
- ESR 7: Railway Weigh-In-Motion for bridge safety (Host: FSDL, United Kingdom)
- ESR 8: Probabilistic modelling of bridge damage based on damage indicators (Host: Phimeca, France)
- ESR 9: Railway bridge condition monitoring and fault diagnostics (Host: UNOTT, United Kingdom)
- ESR 10: Assessment of bridge condition and safety based on measured vibration level (Host: UPC, Spain)
- ESR 11: Development of optical fibre distributed sensing for SHM of bridges and large scale structures (Host: UPC, Spain)
- ESR 12: Bridge damage detection using an instrumented vehicle (Host: UCD, Ireland)
- ESR 13: Using truck sensors for road pavement performance investigation (Host: UNOTT, United Kingdom)
- ESR 14: Reduction of uncertainty through regularized, automated road inspection (Host: UCD, Ireland).

Further details:
http://academicpositions.eu