Professor Tony Roskilly leads a large Energy Systems Group in the Department of Engineering which includes academic, post-doctoral research staff, administration and technical personnel. A number of researchers from Anthropology, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Biological Sciences and Durham University Business School also support the Group’s collaborative research activities directly. The group has a successful track record of attracting funding, primarily from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Innovate UK, EU and industry. Professor Roskilly is the Academic Lead for the Teesside Industrial Cluster and is working closely with Teesside University on a ground-breaking project to accelerate decarbonisation and the use of hydrogen through supporting industrial research and development and capacity building in the Tees Valley. Researchers from both universities will harness their complementary strengths in the ambitious four-year p! roject, < strong>Growing Teesside’s Hydrogen Economy and Catalysing a Just Transition to Net Zero. The £11m project is led by Teesside University and funded from the Research England Development (RED) Fund, part of UK Research and Innovation, as well as funding from Teesside University, Durham University, and industrial partners. This new joint project will bring together a large cohort of industrial and policy research fellows who will work together with industrial partners to identify challenges and develop innovative solutions to overcome them. Examples of challenges include fuel switching to hydrogen for high-grade heating, the use of hydrogen in flexible and resilient power systems, and hydrogen fuelled heavy-duty transportation.
This is an exciting opportunity for 2 candidates with research interests, experience and expertise in energy research, especially related to hydrogen technology innovation, to join an expanding, unified Engineering Department which is recognised as being one of the very best in the UK, with a reputation for excellence in teaching, research and employability of our students. The candidate would be expected to work alongside colleagues within the Future Energy Systems Challenge as well as the Durham Energy Institute . The Department has recently refurbished the Thermal Energy laboratories and research offices, and the successful candidate would have the opportunity to steer its development and implementation. The successful candidate will also have access t o world class research facilities outside the Department including research laboratories at Kent House, Belmont, Durham.
In the REF2021 research excellence exercise, 95% of our outputs were graded 3*/4*, and all our impact case studies were ranked 3*/4*. Research activity within the Engineering Department is concentrated around three Research Challenges , namely Sustainable Infrastructure, Future Energy Systems and Advanced Materials, Electronics and Communications. Day-to-day research is organised under eight research nodes , with the most relevant to this post being Thermal Energy. We are particularly proud of the collaborative interdisciplinary nature of our research, which also includes strong industrial partnerships.
We are a scholarly community that is open, supportive, collegiate, representative and diverse: our commitment to this is expressed through work of the Department’s EDI and Wellbeing Committee, and our Athena Swan Bronze Award. The Department is currently preparing its submission for the Athena Swan Silver Award.
Responsible to: Professor Tony Roskilly
Start date: Ideally 1st November 2023
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