PhD Studentship in Sustainable Water Supply, Use and Treatment

The School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography at Bangor University invites applications for a research position leading to a PhD, part funded under the ERDF INTERREG Ireland-Wales programme 2014-2020. The School is collaborating with Trinity College Dublin’s Department of Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering and Trinity Business School in this research. The project is entitled ‘Distributing our Water Resources: Utilising Integrated, Smart & low-Carbon Energy’ (Dŵr Uisce).

The aim of the Dŵr Uisce project is to improve the long-term sustainability of water supply, treatment and end-use in Ireland and Wales through:
1. The development of three new innovative technology platforms including micro-hydropower, drain water heat recovery and smart network controls;
2. Undertaking local and regional scale economic and environmental impact assessments;
3. Developing policy and best practice guidelines to facilitate the implementation of integrated low-carbon and smart energy solutions for the water sector.


The multi-disciplinary research team at Bangor University are responsible for the delivery of low-carbon and resource-efficient deployment of energy recovery technologies, energy auditing and benchmarking of water supply and use, and assessing climate change impacts on our water resources. Applications are invited for a fully-funded PhD studentship in assessing the efficiency and sustainability of water supply, use and wastewater treatment. We invite applications from a broad range of interests relevant to the project.

For instance, depending on the strengths of the successful candidats, they could be tasked to undertake a combination of the following:
• Work closely with water companies and large-scale consumers in Wales and Ireland to develop technical best practice guidelines to improve the efficiency of water supply and use.
• Review current energy auditing and benchmarking initiatives to determine best practice suitable for the water sector.
• Explore the economic and environmental potential of energy recovery in the water cycle from a circular economy perspective, using life cycle assessment and other quantitative tools.
• Develop an eco-design toolkit for the water sector to promote circular economy in design and delivery of water infrastructure including energy recovery technologies.
• Provide a roadmap to achieve maximum efficiency in the water-energy nexus.
• Deliver policy and guidance for benchmarking the energy efficiency of water networks.

Candidates with a good honours degrees in Environmental Sciences, Water Engineering or a related discipline will be considered. Candidates are asked to send a cover letter, CV and the names of two referees, at least one of whom should be an academic, to the address below.