Antecedents and Emergence of Green and Sustainable Chemical Innovation

The Department of Chemistry (College of Science and Engineering) and the School of Business (College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities) at the University of Leicester are pleased to offer one joint fully-funded three-year studentship on the topic of “Antecedents and Emergence of Green and Sustainable Chemical Innovation.” The prospective research student will be jointly supervised by Professor Andy Abbott (Green Chemistry) and Dr Dimitris Papadopoulos (Science and Technology Studies).

The PhD project aims to examine key innovations that inform green chemical research and promote the agenda of sustainability within chemistry in the UK. Specifically, it will investigate the main principles that govern green and sustainable chemical innovation and the barriers to implementation and adoption of sustainable processes within chemical research.

The research student is expected to conduct extended multi-sited fieldwork on two new green and sustainable chemical projects in the Department of Chemistry, University of Leicester: extracting gold from ores and recycling of Li-ion batteries. The student will collect various empirical materials that document the emergence of innovation in these projects, their economics and the role that different actors--such as industry stakeholders, civil society organisations, engineers, policy makers, regulators--play in the making and development of green and sustainable innovation.

We are particularly interested to hear from applicants who have experience and/or interest in green chemistry and in science and technology studies. The student will be expected to complete training in green chemistry, social science research and sustainability studies.