Website Imperial College London
Job summary
As the shift towards a circular economy (CE) gains momentum, Imperial College London is seeking a Research Associate to pioneer the development of holistic circularity assessments of biobased resources.
The European CE Action Plan recognizes the pivotal role of the biobased sector in transitioning from linear models. However, this transformation is challenged by a lack of standardized CE definitions and assessment methodologies. You will be offered an opportunity to address these gaps, championing research that seamlessly integrates circularity and sustainability principles, and setting the stage for standardizing the holistic circularity assessment of biobased sector processes. This will require the robust development of benchmarking tools and a combination of assessments including sustainability (e.g. life cycle assessment), circularity (resource and material flows analysis), and value creation analysis.
This is a fixed term post for 2 years, with an anticipated start date in January 2024.
Duties and responsibilities
You will be required to undertake project management and supervision of multi-disciplinary teams. You will also submit publications to refereed journals, present at international conferences, and will attract external research funding.
A select list of duties is outlined below, please refer to the job description for full details:
- Understand and synthesise the latest literature and regulations to develop robust methodologies for standardising the holistic circularity assessment of biobased resources,
- Select and calculate appropriate circularity indicator sets,
- Conduct the required sustainability analysis to support circularity assessments (environmental, economic, and social),
- Develop and deploy relevant benchmarking tools (process models) to facilitate value creation analysis,
- Utilise participatory approaches to facilitate assessment indicator selection,
- Processing results from advanced data analysis techniques including uncertainty and sensitivity analysis,
- Develop practical decision support tools that are useful for organisations to improve biobased process and material circularity.
Essential requirements
Please refer to the job description for the full list of essential requirements. A brief list is included below:
- Hold a PhD in sustainability and circular economy assessment of biobased systems, or equivalent research, industrial or commercial experience,
- Practical experience within a research environment, publications in relevant and refereed journals, and presentations at international conferences,
- Practical experience in a broad range of assessments including LCA, carbon footprint analysis, and circularity analysis of biobased systems,
- Knowledge of sustainability and circularity assessment standardisation documentation,
- Excellent verbal communication skills and the ability to deal with a wide range of people,
- Willingness to work as part of a team and to be open-minded and cooperative.
Further information
As Imperial College staff, in addition to a competitive salary and package of attractive terms and conditions of service, we offer many more benefits to enjoy. This includes career development tailored to your ambitions, an attractive pension scheme, and generous family leave packages. We have a flexible, supportive work environment and encourage you to achieve and maintain a healthy work-life balance!
For queries regarding the post or the recruitment process please contact Briony Webb on [email protected]
Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as a Research Assistant within the salary range £40,694- £43,888 per annum.
We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all backgrounds and disabilities. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable adjustments to participate in the interview process and to perform crucial job functions, as well as other support including staff networks. Please contact us to request accommodation.
The College is a proud signatory to the San-Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which means that in hiring and promotion decisions, we evaluate applicants on the quality of their work, not the journal impact factor where it is published. For more information, see https://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-evaluation/
The College believes that the use of animals in research is vital to improve human and animal health and welfare. Animals may only be used in research programmes where their use is shown to be necessary for developing new treatments and making medical advances. Imperial is committed to ensuring that, in cases where this research is deemed essential, all animals in the College’s care are treated with full respect, and that all staff involved with this work show due consideration at every level.
We are committed to equality of opportunity, to eliminating discrimination and to creating an inclusive working environment for all. We therefore encourage candidates to apply irrespective of age, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or parental status, race, religion and belief, gender identity, sex, or sexual orientation. We are an Athena SWAN Silver Award winner, a Disability Confident Leader and a Stonewall Diversity Champion.
Documents
About Imperial College London
Imperial College London is the UK’s only university focussed entirely on science, engineering, medicine and business and we are consistently rated in the top 10 universities in the world.
You will find our main London campus in South Kensington, with our hospital campuses located nearby in West and North London. We also have Silwood Park in Berkshire and state-of-the-art facilities in development at our major new campus in White City.
We work in a multidisciplinary and diverse community for education, research, translation and commercialisation, harnessing science and innovation to tackle the big global challenges our complex world faces.
It’s our mission to achieve enduring excellence in all that we do for the benefit of society – and we are looking for the most talented people to help us get there.
Additional information
Please note that job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, and the post-holder may be required to undertake other duties, which are broadly in line with the above key responsibilities.
Imperial College is committed to equality of opportunity and to eliminating discrimination. All employees are expected to follow the Imperial Values & Behaviours framework. Our values are:
- Respect
- Collaboration
- Excellence
- Integrity
- Innovation
In addition to the above, employees are required to observe and comply with all College policies and regulations.
We are committed to equality of opportunity, to eliminating discrimination and to creating an inclusive working environment for all. We therefore encourage candidates to apply irrespective of age, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion and belief, gender reassignment, sex, or sexual orientation. We are an Athena SWAN Silver Award winner, a Disability Confident Leader and a Stonewall Diversity Champion.
For technical issues when applying online please email [email protected].
To apply for this job please visit www.imperial.ac.uk.
