Research Associate in Prospective Material Flow Analysis for new sustainable materials and chemicals

About the role

This is an exciting opportunity for a skilled and motivated researcher, with an interest in working at the interface of industrial ecology, chemistry and chemical engineering. 

This project aims to understand how the innovative chemical manufacturing technologies being developed within the SCHEMA HUB could scale up to affect UK emissions and environmental impacts, and under what conditions they will lead to the most significant reductions in impacts. This will provide important insight to help to set targets for science/technology development (e.g. what level of energy consumption needs to be reached, to be on track to achieve desired emissions reduction at the larger national scale?), and inform national understanding of whether current developments are likely to be enough to reach decarbonisation goals, or whether broader changes in polymer use and Circular Economy measures are necessary.

The project will involve:

• UK-scale Material Flow Analysis for chemical and polymer production & consumption;
• Modelling of new chemistry/processes/routes being studied within SCHEMA and how they affect the MFA system in uncertain future scenarios; and
• Working closely with a parallel SCHEMA project at Bath on Prospective Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), explore the effect of new processes on future environmental impacts.

This position is offered full-time, fixed-term for 24 months from April 2025. Part-time working and/or some degree of flexible working may be possible and if interested in applying on this basis you should make this clear on your application form.

About you

Our ideal candidate will have:

• A PhD in a relevant subject area
• Expertise in Material Flow Analysis & Life Cycle Assessment, or experience in relevant quantitative modelling / data analysis projects and a proven ability to learn and apply new modelling approaches
• Good organisational & presentation skills
• The ability to work well in an interdisciplinary environment

Knowledge of chemistry, chemical engineering and polymers would be very useful but could also be substituted by a strong ability for interdisciplinary collaboration with researchers in chemistry and chemical engineering, and a willingness to learn.

In our group, we work with Python, version control, and similar tools for developing and sharing research code & models. If you like working in this way, that's great, but also many are new to this and we'll support you to learn as appropriate.

A lower grade offer may be made (Grade 6) with comparable reduction in responsibilities and amendment in job title to Research Assistant, if a suitable applicant cannot be found to fill the Grade 7 position. Applicants will need to be within 6 months of their course completion date and will be promoted to Research Associate once their PhD has been awarded. 

Further information

Please ensure you submit your application via our website. Please note that during initial shortlisting, the panel can only see your application form and your answers to the shortlisting questions; they cannot see your attachments (e.g. your CV).

For informal questions about the role, please contact Dr Rick Lupton (rcl38@bath.ac.uk).

As a researcher in SCHEMA you will benefit from interactions with a large number of colleagues in chemistry, engineering, material science, computation, and systems analysis at the Universities of Bath, Cambridge, Cardiff, Liverpool, Oxford and York as well as exposure to a network of >20 industrial partners. 

As a member of Research Staff at the University of Bath, you will be encouraged to take a minimum of 10 days professional development pro-rata per year.

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