PhD Candidate in Substance Flow Analysis (SFA) for regional nutrient management

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NTNU is a broad-based university with a technical-scientific profile and a focus in professional education. The university is located in three cities with headquarters in Trondheim.

At NTNU, 9,000 employees and 43,000 students work to create knowledge for a better world.

You will find more information about working at NTNU and the application process here.

About the job

For a position as a PhD Candidate, the goal is a completed doctoral education up to an obtained doctoral degree.

The PhD candidate will be involved in the Horizon Europe project GreenHood, which addresses the global challenge of unbalanced nutrient flows in regional ecosystems. The main objective of GreenHood is to pave the way for societies to operate within safe ecological boundaries while meeting socioeconomic needs. GreenHood uses demonstrators in Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, and Norway. The demonstrators focus on re-balancing nutrient flows and reducing N/P emissions through five key strategies: a) Participatory Approach: Engaging diverse stakeholders through capacity building, governance labs, and cross-regional exchange activities to ensure inclusive decision-making. b) Estimation of Maximum Allowable Nutrient Inputs: Utilizing optimized budgeting methodologies, including novel modeling tools and socio- economic data, to assess the impacts of new balancing practices. c) Demonstration of Effective Nutrient Management Strategies: Leveraging insights from previous R&D experiences to develop and demonstrate solutions for nutrient excess prevention, reduction, and recycling in key sectors such as agriculture, wastewater treatment, aquaculture, and forestry. d) Establishment of Regional Nutrient Circular Economy Schemes: Creating schemes to close nutrient flow gaps between sectors like livestock-agriculture and aquaculture-agriculture, evaluating the agronomic performance and market uptake of bio-based fertilizers and by-products. e) Innovative Governance Measures: Showcasing governance measures to incentivize the adoption of nutrient-balancing solutions, collaborating with regional administrators and supporting existing policies. 

The PhD candidate will be involved in the Norwegian demonstrator, which focuses on the Trondheim fjord basin. In this basin, excessive nutrient discharge from salmon farming and animal husbandry pose a significant risk of eutrophication, particularly impacting the coastal region. The anticipated tripling of salmon farming by 2050 increases the pressure to recover and valorize fish sludge and slaughter waste. This demonstrator will explore the development of new value chains for utilizing these surplus nutrients for areas with a deficit. The development of a spatially resolved nutrient monitoring system will be coupled with the co-testing of new technologies to enhance nutrient recovery from digested waste (anaerobic digestion, drying, plasma treatment, struvite recovery, and calcium phosphate recovery) from fish sludge and animal manure to produce bio-based fertilizers, which are subsequently tested in agriculture applications. The PhD candidate will be working closely with industry partners and agricultural research institutions to test the new value chains and, in cooperation with a post-doc / researcher, to evaluate the potential for upscaling these technologies by using multi-layer substance flow analysis (ML-SFA) at different spatial and temporal scales. 

Your immediate leader is Professor Daniel B. Müller.

Duties of the position

• Close cooperation with the research and industrial partners in the project
• Develop plant-level ML-SFA models for different value chains for producing bio-based fertilizers
• Work with the agricultural research institutions to test the nutrient use efficiency of the various bio-based fertilizers
• Evaluate the new value chains in cooperation with all partners
• Support the post-doc / researcher in the development of a regional nutrient monitoring system
• Through consultation of key stakeholders (including farmers, industry partners, government authorities, etc.), develop scenarios for regional nutrient management. Explore the potentials and limitations of the various new value chains in a regional context.
• In consultation with the stakeholders, identify key barriers for implementing alternative pathways for a circular bioeconomy.
• Collaborate with colleagues at NTNU IndEcol to further develop the concepts, models, and applications of SFA models.
• Co-supervise master’s students on their projects and theses related to GreenHood.

Required selection criteria

• You must have a professionally relevant background in natural sciences, engineering or similar
• Your education must correspond to a five-year Norwegian degree program, where 120 credits are obtained at master's level
• You must have a strong academic background from your previous studies and an average grade from the master's degree program, or equivalent education, which is equal to B or better compared with NTNU's grading scale. If you do not have letter grades from previous studies, you must have an equally good academic basis. If you have a weaker grade background, you may be assessed if you can document that you are particularly suitable for a PhD education.
• You must meet the requirements for admission to the faculty's doctoral program 
• You must have documented work experience in industrial ecology and/or nutrient management
• You must have documented work experience in the use of Python.

The appointment is to be made in accordance with Regulations on terms of employment for positions such as postdoctoral fellow, PhD candidate, research assistant and specialist candidate and Regulations concerning the degrees of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) and Philosodophiae Doctor (PhD) in artistic research national guidelines for appointment as PhD, post doctor and research assistant 

Preferred selection criteria

• Good communication skills
• Strong computer programming skills (preferably with Python)
• Strong written and oral English language skills
• Familiarity with Norwegian or another Scandinavian language

Personal characteristics

• Confidence in working independently
• Ability and willingness to work in inter- and transdisciplinary teams
• Creativity
• Critical thinking

Emphasis will be placed on personal and interpersonal qualities.

We offer

• exciting and stimulating tasks in a strong international academic environment
• an open and inclusive work environment with dedicated colleagues
• favourable terms in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
• employee benefits

Salary and conditions

As a PhD candidate (code 1017) you are normally paid from gross NOK 532 200 per annum before tax, depending on qualifications and seniority. From the salary, 2% is deducted as a contribution to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund.

The period of employment is 3 years.

Appointment to a PhD position requires that you are admitted to the PhD programme in Engineering within three months of employment, and that you participate in an organized PhD programme during the employment period.

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The engagement is to be made in accordance with the regulations in force concerning State Employees and Civil Servants, and the acts relating to Control of the Export of Strategic Goods, Services and Technology. Candidates who by assessment of the application and attachment are seen to conflict with the criteria in the latter law will be prohibited from recruitment to NTNU. After the appointment you must assume that there may be changes in the area of work.

The position is subject to external funding (EU).

It is a prerequisite you can be present at and accessible to the institution daily.

About the application

The application and supporting documentation to be used as the basis for the assessment must be in English.

Publications and other scientific work must be attached to the application. Please note that your application will be considered based solely on information submitted by the application deadline. You must therefore ensure that your application clearly demonstrates how your skills and experience fulfil the criteria specified above.

The application must include: 

• CV and certificates
• transcripts and diplomas for bachelor's and master's degrees. If you have not completed the master's degree, you must submit a confirmation that the master's thesis has been submitted.
• A copy of the master's thesis. If you recently have submitted your master's thesis, you can attach a draft of the thesis. Documentation of a completed master's degree must be presented before taking up the position.
• Project proposal
• Name and contact information of three reference persons
• If you have publications or other relevant research work

If all, or parts, of your education has been taken abroad, we also ask you to attach documentation of the scope and quality of your entire education, both bachelor's and master's education, in addition to other higher education. Description of the documentation required can be found here. If you already have a statement from Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills, please attach this as well.

We will take joint work into account. If it is difficult to identify your efforts in the joint work, you must enclose a short description of your participation.

In the evaluation of which candidate is best qualified, emphasis will be placed on education, experience and personal and interpersonal qualities. Motivation, ambitions, and potential will also count in the assessment of the candidates. 

NTNU is committed to following evaluation criteria for research quality according to The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment – DORA.

General information

Working at NTNU

NTNU believes that inclusion and diversity is our strength. We want to recruit people with different competencies, educational backgrounds, life experiences and perspectives to contribute to solving our social responsibilities within education and research. We will facilitate for our employees’ needs.

NTNU is working actively to increase the number of women employed in scientific positions and has a number of resources to promote equality.

EPT has established EPT Women in Science. The group is focused on supporting female PhD Candidates, Postdoctoral Fellows, Research Assistants and permanent academic employees within the Department. This support aims to help develop the careers of female PhD Candidates, Postdocs and Research Assistants, and is also made visible to our student body to encourage them to consider an academic path. As part of the EPT Women in Science initiative we are building an international network, inviting prominent female academics within and beyond the field of Engineering to speak at our events.

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The city of Trondheim is a modern European city with a rich cultural scene. Trondheim is the innovation capital of Norway with a population of 200,000. The Norwegian welfare state, including healthcare, schools, kindergartens and overall equality, is probably the best of its kind in the world. Professional subsidized day-care for children is easily available. Furthermore, Trondheim offers great opportunities for education (including international schools) and possibilities to enjoy nature, culture and family life and has low crime rates and clean air quality.

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As an employee at NTNU, you must at all times adhere to the changes that the development in the subject entails and the organizational changes that are adopted.

A public list of applicants with name, age, job title and municipality of residence is prepared after the application deadline. If you want to reserve yourself from entry on the public applicant list, this must be justified. Assessment will be made in accordance with current legislation. You will be notified if the reservation is not accepted.

If you have any questions about the position, please contact Professor Daniel B. Müller, email daniel.mueller@ntnu.no. If you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact HR consultant Cathrine Kyung Ja Kravik, e-mail: cathrine.k.j.kravik@ntnu.no.

If you think this looks interesting and in line with your qualifications, please submit your application electronically via jobbnorge.no with your CV, diplomas and certificates attached. Applications submitted elsewhere will not be considered. Upon request, you must be able to obtain certified copies of your documentation.  

Application deadline: 30.09.2024.

Further Information

EU Research project

The position has reservation on financial support from EU.

DIVERSE INFO

Kilde: NAV stillingsannonser
https://arbeidsplassen.nav.no/stillinger/stilling/91fc9f90-6fbe-4371-876a-1135f0d5061b
IMPORTAPI
https://www.jobbnorge.no/ledige-stillinger/stilling/266347