1. PhD position: Sustainable Stable Ground – from nano to macroscale
Deadline :14th October 2022
We have a vacancy for a PhD position in experimental Soft Matter Physics at PoreLab, Department of Physics, NTNU. The appointments have a duration of 3 years with the possibility of until 1-year extension with 25% teaching duties in agreement with the department. The PhD student should start no later than December 2022.
Duties of the position
The PhD project will focus on experimental research and development of sustainable, low-CO2 emission deep mixing stabilization technology for quick clay. The position is part of the Large Scale Interdisciplinary project on Sustainable Stable Ground (Bærekraftig Grunn). Quick clay is a type of marine clay deposit. Clays are disk-like natural nano-colloids that are charged in aqueous suspensions. Over millions of years these solidified in the presence of appropriate salts, that can screen the Coulomb repulsion between the particles. In present day Norway, many urban areas and coastlines that are rich in such quick clays have become unstable due to sweet-water undercurrents and rainfalls that can cause mechanical destabilization under sufficient pressure leading to suddenly liquify and catastrophic landslides. Stabilization, for example in building roads, is usually done using lime cement, which has a high carbon footprint. This project aims to reducing this carbon footprint. We will explore the stability of suspensions of purified clays in the presence of different ionic strengths, employing zeta potential and rheological studies, and explore different additives, both plant based and recycled building materials to stabilize such suspensions.
The project involves scientists from a wide range of backgrounds, including structural engineering, civil and environmental engineering, physics, and chemistry, experimental as well as theoretical. The student will have the opportunity to work closely with the entire group, including close collaborations with the postdoctoral researcher (supervised by Prof. Astrid de Wijn) who will build a simulation model based on our experimental findings. View details & Apply
2. PhD position summary/title:SINTEF Ocean
Deadline : 15th October 2022
We have a vacancy for a PhD candidate at the SFI HARVEST, Department of Marine Technology, NTNU. The position is for three years. One additional year of teaching assistant duties may be agreed upon, and belongs to
SFI HARVEST SFI Harvest is a research-based innovation centre for developing new technology aimed at solving the global challenges of securing enough food for a growing population, in a sustainable way. Targeted research and innovation challenges are:
- Continuous, unattended sampling of the concentrations of zooplankton, mesopelagic fish species and marine plastic litter/microplastic.
- Surveying and monitoring biomass and plastic concentrations using data-driven data collection strategies.
Currently, autonomous vehicles such as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), gliders and autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) are being used for environmental assessment, geophysical surveys, and ecosystem assessment, but they are rarely used in marine resource research and hardly at all by fisheries. Autonomous surveys are usually pre-programmed and monitored by an expert user. A targeted research challenge for the vacant position is operation of ASVs in harsh environments with extreme waves, wind, and possible ice floes. We will in this project study improved autonomy in terms of sensing performance, endurance, and resilience by strengthening situational awareness and adaptive sampling strategies integrated into autonomous guidance, navigation, and control systems for ASVs. View details & Apply
3. PhD position: Systems Neuroscience
Deadline : 16th October 2022
For a position as a PhD Candidate, the goal is a completed doctoral education up to an obtained doctoral degree. Dr Ziaei group at the Kavli Institute for System Neuroscience (KISN) explores the structural and functional neural networks underlying social and emotional processing in aging. We are seeking a motivated and enthusiastic PhD student to join the lab in Fall 2022, or early 2023, to help better understand the emotional and brain changes that occur in aging.
More specifically, Dr Ziaei’s group aims to explore how individual differences in cognitive functions and biological markers influence brain networks involved in processing social and emotional cues in the environment. We are running a multi-component, comprehensive study to explore biological, neural, and behavioral responses to social and emotional cues.
Additionally, we are interested to investigate if these factors contribute to mental health among older adults.
Required selection criteria
- You must have a professionally relevant background in neuroscience, biomedical sciences, psychology
- Your education must correspond to a five-year Norwegian degree program, where 120 credits are obtained at master’s level
- You must have a strong academic background from your previous studies and an average grade from the master’s degree program, or equivalent education, which is equal to B or better compared with NTNU’s grading scale. If you do not have letter grades from previous studies, you must have an equally good academic basis. If you have a weaker grade background, you may be assessed if you can document that you are particularly suitable for a PhD education.
- Master’s students can apply, but the master’s degree must be obtained and documented
4. PhD position: Synthetic Biology
Deadline : 17th October 2022
For a position as a PhD Candidate, the goal is a completed doctoral education up to an obtained doctoral degree. A three-year PhD position in synthetic biology is available in the group of Assoc. Prof. Johannes Kabisch at the Department of Biotechnology and Food Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway. The PhD candidate will work as part of the PolySpore project funded by the NovoNordisk Foundation. In the project we will develop novel biological and hybrid materials as well as new data-storage concepts using bacterial spores. The PhD candidate will work on genetically optimizing and manipulating spores of the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis to present and produce load bearing proteins and characterize the resulting product.
Duties of the position
- Genetic engineering of Bacillus subtilis to present heterologous proteins
- Genome engineering of B. subtilis to optimize spore display
- Data analysis
- Preparation of manuscripts and doctoral thesis
- Presentation of results at group meetings and scientific conferences
5. PhD position: Material-carbon nexus of urban systems
Deadline : 19th October 2022
We are looking for an excellent PhD candidate to join our Industrial Ecology Programme (IndEcol) at the Department of Energy and Process Engineering. As a PhD Candidate, your main goal is to write and successfully defend a PhD thesis. The appointment has a duration of three years with an anticipated start date in January 2023. The appointment is financed by the Department of Energy and Process Engineering (EPT).
The focus of this PhD is the material-carbon nexus of urban systems. Materials production is an important driver of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and its role in the context of the built environment is increasing due to the energy transition towards renewable energy sources. At the same time, the energy transition, smart solutions, and digitalization, e.g. in the building and transport sectors, increase the demand of critical materials. Circular economy solutions aim to increase material- and energy efficiency and to narrow and close material and energy loops. While resource efficiency and climate change mitigation often go hand-in-hand, there are also situations, where they conflict.
These sort of connections between materials production and GHG emissions, and circular economy and climate change mitigation, can be called the material-carbon nexus. Nexus refers to intersections among various environmental pressures. Nexus studies highlight that environmental problems should not be dealt as if they were isolated. In the case of materials production and consumption, climate change is not the only relevant connection. Materials are also linked to plastic pollution, release of toxic substances, and land-use, which affects climate change and biodiversity, for example. The focus of this PhD is on material-carbon nexus, but the scope can be slightly modified according to the personal interests of the applicant. View details & Apply
6. PhD position: Integrated resilient products & value chains for a sustainable future
Deadline : 31st October 2022
We have a vacancy for a PhD Candidate at the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. For a position as a PhD Candidate, the goal is a completed doctoral education up to an obtained doctoral degree. While Industry 4.0 is primarily a techno-economic vision, indicating how more general technological advancements are brought to bear on industrial value chains and how they will change industry’s economic position, EU commission recently introduced the Industry 5.0 concept as a way of framing how European industry and emerging societal trends and needs will co-exist. Industry 5.0 recognizes the power of industry to achieve societal goals beyond jobs and growth to become a resilient provider of prosperity, by making production respect the boundaries of our planet and placing the wellbeing of the industry worker at the center of the production process. There is a consensus on the need to better integrate social and environmental European priorities into technological innovation and to shift the focus from individual technologies to a systemic approach.
Duties of the position
- apply qualitative methodologies with multiple case studies and literature review to support the identification of relevant factors and elements impacting the integrated product and value chain design, and then development of new frameworks and approaches
- apply quantitative methodologies, like simulation and analytical modelling to study the interaction of the identified factors and elements and to analyze the domain of solutions for creating managerial insights and guidelines for practitioners
- collaboration with Norwegian companies which will be identified during the first phase of the research.
- you will take part in the mandatory PhD research education program
- conduct independent research and publish the result in recognised scientific journals and present them in international conferences View details & Apply
7. PhD position: Reliability and resilience of green hydrogen production systems
Deadline : 31st October 2022
A PhD position is available at the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering within the field of material integrity for hydrogen energy application. Hydrogen is considered as a clean alternative to fossil fuels in heat and electricity production. However, there are numerous knowledge and technical gaps that need to be filled before it can be used in industrial and commercial applications. The position will be affiliated to the HYDROGENi project under the environmental-friendly energy research (FEM). The project is dedicated to build a sustainable hydrogen economy to meet the 2030 and 2050 goals of the Norwegian hydrogen road map. The research will be focused on developing and exploring new testing and characterization technologies for the investigation of material integrity within hydrogen environment. Fundamental kinetics and thermodynamics knowledge affected by hydrogen will be studied.
Duties of the position
- identify risk and reliability issues in green hydrogen production systems, as well as the uncertainties in the production proces
- study the state-of-art of green hydrogen production and investigate how the existing knowledge in offshore and process industries can be utilized in the new applications
- develop indicators and algorithms for analysing and evaluating reliability and resilience of green hydrogen production systems
- conduct case studies in collaboration with other researchers in the FME
- participate in project meetings with supervisors and colleagues
- disseminate research results through diverse channels
8. PhD position: Materials integrity for hydrogen energy applications
Deadline : 1st November 2022
A PhD position is available at the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering within the field of materials integrity for hydrogen energy applications. Hydrogen is considered as a clean alternative to fossil fuels in heat and electricity production. However, there are numerous knowledge and technical gaps that need to be filled before the shift from fossil to hydrogen fuels happens. This PhD position will be linked to the HYDROGENi project funded under the scheme “Centres for Environmental-friendly Energy Research (FEM)” of the Research Council of Norway. The project is dedicated to build a sustainable hydrogen economy to meet the 2030 and 2050 goals of the Norwegian hydrogen road map.
The research you will do will be focused on developing and exploring new testing and characterization technologies for the investigation of materials integrity within hydrogen environment. Fundamental kinetic and thermodynamic knowledge of hydrogen-assisted materials degradation will be studied.
For a position as a PhD Candidate, the goal is a completed doctoral education up to an obtained doctoral degree.
Duties of the position
- developing experimental approaches for probing microstructure evolution associated with the effect of hydrogen on the mechanical properties of selected metallic materials using microscopic techniques (such as SEM, FIB)
- establishing a fundamental kinetic and thermodynamic understanding of materials degradation in hydrogen environment
- materials characterization by advanced experimental techniques (such as SEM, TEM, etc.)
- participate in project meetings with supervisors and colleagues
- write journal papers
- present scientific work at conferences
9. PhD position: Sustainability in food and agricultural systems
Deadline : 1st November 2022
The two PhD candidates will be involved in core aspects of the project, including conducting ethnographic fieldwork at several sites along the systems of provision of pork and milk. The approach entails visiting facilities such as so-called ‘backyard farms’, mid-sized farms, and more industrialised production facilities, as well as packaging, processing, and retailing facilities, with a particular focus on supermarkets. Data collection methods include participant observation and interviews with farmers, meat and milk packagers, supermarket clerks and other relevant actors. The two PhD candidates are expected to stay in China over an extended period (9-12 months from 2024) and will benefit from collaborating on some aspects of the data generation process.
Main duties and responsibilities
The successful applicant must
- Conduct empirical data collection through qualitative methods such as interviews, participant observation and/or focus group interviews, or other methods relevant to the research design
- Analyse such data through theories and concepts from Science and Technology Studies (STS)
- Complete the obligatory coursework in the Ph.D.-program for Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture
- Produce a PhD thesis, preferably based on peer-reviewed articles published in renowned international journals
- Be an active participant in the MidWay project
- Present, communicate and disseminate work at relevant national and international venues
- Participate in the day-to-day activities at the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture, the Centre for Technology and Society, and the research group on Energy, climate and environment
- Complete the PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture within three years. The appointment period includes six months for compulsory course work and 30 months for completion of the PhD project.
10. PhD position: Adaption of the Electric Power System for Large Scale Hydrogen production in Norway
Deadline : 1st November 2022
For a position as a PhD Candidate, the goal is a completed doctoral education up to an obtained doctoral degree. The PhD is part of “Sustainability and integrated assessment” in the FME HYDROGENi and will also collaborate closely with related PhD’s and researchers in other parts of the centre, and in particular within “Green H2 production”. Hydrogen demand and energy system scenarios will align with findings from e.g. “Hydrogen Pathways 2050”. The PhD builds upon more than 20 years of experience in the field of renewable hydrogen systems at the Dept. of Electric Power Engineering (IEL), NTNU.
Duties of the position
Recent decarbonization scenarios show an extensive use of hydrogen in industry, transport and energy systems towards 2050, which will lead to an increased pressure on the electrical power system, because hydrogen production is an energy-intensive process. This PhD will address the energy system challenges that are expected as more hydrogen production is put online in the Nordic power system towards 2050. Of particular importance are the needs for new renewable power generation and grids to support different scenarios for distributed and centralized hydrogen plants. Moreover, the PhD candidate will assess the ability of electrolysis plants to provide flexibility to the power system, and thereby adding value to the hydrogen production and utilization chain.
The results of the PhD are expected to be of high importance for energy companies and hydrogen producers, to increase the understanding of how hydrogen production can be integrated in the power system in a technically sound and economic feasible manner. View details & Apply
11. PhD position: Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Deadline : 10th October 2022
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering has a vacancy for a PhD candidate in the Project and Quality Management Research Group (PKL), with special focus on risk modelling and prediction of safety issues in projects. The PKL Research Group is involved in research related to various aspects of project and performance management, including use of artificial intelligence (AI) in project contexts. NTNU is participating in the Sustainable value creation by digital predictions of safety performance in the construction industry (DiSCo) project, funded by the Norwegian Research Council.
The main aim of DiSCo is to develop knowledge about and methods for application of artificial intelligence in early phases of construction projects to predict future safety performance in the production phase and thus provide improved decision-making support to reduce number of accidents.
We have a vacancy for a PhD candidate related to risk modelling. You are expected to identify appropriate techniques and tools, including artificial intelligence techniques, to generate proof of concepts for early warning dashboards. Activities include to determine the most appropriate artificial intelligence techniques to mine and learn from data based on an in-depth, cross domains, literature review and a series of practical experiments.
Further, you are expected to implement the most appropriate way to combine modelling and simulation techniques with data mining and machine learning techniques. This will be realized by means of a series of experiments in collaboration with industrial partners.
You are expected to be an active and integrated part of the academic environment at the department and to participate in cooperation with partners in the DiSCo project that funds the PhD position. View details & Apply
12. PhD position: Electrochemistry
Deadline :7th October 2022
We have two vacancies for PhD fellows at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the field of Electrochemistry. PhD fellows are expected to complete the degree of PhD within three or four (including teaching duties) years. Electrochemistry is a truly interdisciplinary field drawing on chemistry, physics, materials science, electronics, and nanotechnology alike. Electrochemistry therefore offers unique possibilities for interesting scientific work and an exciting career. Electrochemistry is essential in our current endeavours toward the green transition and the establishing of a sustainable society, as it is critical to some pivotal technologies such as hydrogen technology (water electrolysis and fuel cells), batteries, and the manufacture of materials that go into a diverse set of technologies related to energy storage and renewables. The demand for staff with expertise in Electrochemistry is therefore soaring.
The available PhD positions are affiliated with the MiNimize project, funded by the Research Council of Norway and Norwegian Industry. The positions deal with advanced coatings and layers for hydrogen production by alkaline water electrolysis, in close collaboration with one of the World’s leading companies in the field. The objective of the project is to provide novel technological solutions that enable cutting-edge performance and economy of resources, in close collaboration with the industry participant. The position may include secondments/stays at research and production facilities in the participating company (Norway). View details & Apply
13. PhD position: Recycling of polymer composites and circularity
Deadline : 7th October 2022
At the Dept. of Manufacturing and Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Gjøvik, there is a PhD position available in recycling of polymer composites and circularity.
We are looking for an exceptional candidate who has experience with university research. The candidate will support our group’s strategy on the increasingly growing demand on sustainable polymers and composites, bio-based composites, advanced composites, multifunctional (i.e. self-diagnosing) composites and other innovative composites for engineering applications. The successful candidate will be expected to contribute to current research activities at NTNU and our cooperation partners, both inside NTNU, in Norway and internationally. The candidate will also be involved in teaching activities and tutoring of students at bachelor and postgraduate level. Applicants with the ability to work across disciplines are especially encouraged to apply. View details & Apply
14. PhD position: Aging and degradation of polymer composites
Deadline : 7th October 2022
For a position as a PhD Candidate, the goal is a completed doctoral education up to an obtained doctoral degree. At the Dept. of Manufacturing and Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Gjøvik, there is a PhD position available in aging and degradation of polymer composites.
We are looking for an exceptional candidate who has experience with university research. The candidate will support our group’s strategy on the increasingly growing demand on sustainable polymers and composites, bio-based composites, advanced composites, multifunctional (i.e. self-diagnosing) composites and other innovative composites for engineering applications. The successful candidate will be expected to contribute to current research activities at NTNU and our cooperation partners, both inside NTNU, in Norway and internationally. The candidate will also be involved in teaching activities and tutoring of students at bachelor and postgraduate level. Applicants with the ability to work across disciplines are especially encouraged to apply. View details & Apply
15. PhD position: Autonomous navigation and control of marine surface vessels
Deadline : 7th October 2022
The Department of Ocean Operations and Civil Engineering (IHB) at NTNU has a vacancy for a PhD candidate within the topic autonomous navigation and control of marine surface vessels. The vision of the autonomous self-sailing ship has gained a lot of attention and may be considered to be one of the hottest topics within the maritime technology domain. It is a major challenge involving handling and coordinating on-board systems, performing safe and robust navigation and motion control, providing redundant energy and propulsion, as well as handling on-board equipment such as winches, cranes, cargo, and underwater drones with a minimum of human interaction. Solving these issues in a practical and pragmatic way that caters for industrialization has an enormous potential. This unique research opportunity focuses on navigation and motion control to enable a ship to go from quay-to-quay on its own in a safe, robust, and energy efficient way.
Duties of the position
The candidate will develop novel methods and models for autonomous navigation and control of marine surface vessels and test these experimentally considering common constraints typically applied in industrial systems. A key part of this is to be engaged in building up laboratory facilities in order to carry out experimental work related to his/hers research, as well as relevant systems for managing prototype and development software. The main goal of the PhD project is to develop new knowledge and methods that will be a cornerstone for complex autonomous functionality and validate these experimentally.
Also, the candidate will be expected to:
- Present findings at project meetings and national and international workshops and conferences
- Write scientific papers
- Participate actively in the maritime control community at NTNU