Funded PhD Opportunities in Architecture and Civil Engineering

The School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy and the School of Civil Engineering is seeking expressions of interest from prospective PhD students to fill 6 funded PhD studentships in each of the Thematic Research Areas listed below.

Applications are invited from enthusiastic candidates for a 36 or 48-month, or part-time, fully funded (fees and stipend) Doctoral (PhD) Scholarship position as a part of the PROBONO project.

The PROBONO project:

PROBONO is a 47-partner, EU H2020 Green Deal Innovation Action project under the topic LC-GD-4-1-2020: Building and renovating in an energy and resource efficient way. The project will focus on 2 large-scale Living Labs in urban areas of Madrid and Dun Laoghaire (Dublin), and 4 smaller Living Labs in Porto, Brussels, Aarhus and Prague. The 6 urban areas will make the transition to Green Building Neighbourhoods (GBN) that support a network of positive-energy and zero-carbon buildings. The project will explore both technical and social aspects of this transition, with a focus on building infrastructure, digital/smart technologies (including Digital Twins), citizen participation and co-design.

Fully-funded positions as part of structured PhD programme are invited under the following thematic/topic areas:

• PhD on Urban Decarbonisation including transportation, sustainable electricity generation and smart networking of municipal buildings
  Lead Supervisor: Assistant Professor Páraic Carroll
• PhD on commercial building decarbonisation, focused on achieving energy positive buildings in practice, and involving digital twin modelling
  Lead Supervisor: Assistant Professor Oliver Kinnane
• PhD on collaborative citizen engagement and behaviour change in the transition to Green Building Neighbourhoods (GBN)
  Lead Supervisor: Assistant Professor Philip Crowe
• PhD on values, benefits and impacts associated with Green Buildings and Neighbourhoods (GBNs)
  Lead Supervisor: Assistant Professor Philip Crowe
• PhD on planning, design and implementation of residential building retrofit, involving energy and indoor environment monitoring
  Lead Supervisor: Assistant Professor Oliver Kinnane
• PhD on building retrofit efficacy evaluation involving pre- and post- retrofit monitoring and lifecycle carbon analysis
  Lead Supervisor: Assistant Professor Oliver Kinnane

Please refer to https://www.ucd.ie/graduatestudies/studywithus/feesfundingscholarships/currentscholarshipopportunities/ for further information on each area.

Closing date: 28^th January 2022, 5pm

The FabTrads project:

• Historical and traditional facade testing, and material analysis. Material Science and Building Conservation
  Lead Supervisor: Assistant Professor Oliver Kinnane

Closing date: 28^th February 2022, 5pm

Eligibility Criteria

Candidates must, at a minimum, satisfy the entry requirements for the PhD degree at UCD which includes the UCD Minimum Language Requirements. We particularly encourage applications from candidates that possess these additional qualifications:

• A Master’s degree in a relevant discipline
• Demonstrable motivation to conduct policy-relevant research
• Relevant research and/or other research experience
• Strong organisational, writing, presentation and other communication skills
• The ability to work independently, as well as in a team, under pressure, respect deadlines, and produce quality work
• Excellent interpersonal skills and an enthusiasm for working in a research team

Scholarship Terms

The PhD Scholarships include tuition fees and a tax-free stipend of €18,500 p.a. for four years subject to satisfactory performance. Scholars will be based at the UCD Campus.

Application Procedure

Please email the relevant supervisor (paraic.carroll@ucd.ie; oliver.kinnane@ucd.ie; philip.crowe@ucd.ie

• Cover letter
• Curriculum Vitae
• Contact details of two references

Note: UCD reserves the right not to fill any position. The University may also decide to change the topic area(s) of the research.