| Location: | Birmingham |
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| Salary: | £36,130 to £45,413 Grade 7 |
| Hours: | Full Time |
| Contract Type: | Fixed-Term/Contract |
| Placed On: | 1st August 2025 |
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| Closes: | 1st September 2025 |
Background
The Global Centre for Clean Energy and Equitable Transportation Solutions (CLEETS) is recruiting a highly motivated researcher with a background in life cycle assessment applied to energy storage and/or battery supply chains, to join a successful team at the University of Birmingham.
In line with the principles of Net Zero Pollution, the primary aim of this role is to advance understanding of how a circular economy can be developed for the production and recycling of electric vehicle batteries, focusing on the growing waste streams from future battery production facilities. In this role, you will track the source and content of these wastes and quantitatively assess the wider environmental, social and technoeconomic impacts, using tools such as life cycle assessment and materials flow analysis. One key waste stream to analyse is that of production scrap, which can be recovered through a range of low impact recycling processes. Another waste stream comes from the chemicals used in battery production, which need to be recovered, purified and reused, following green chemistry principles. The analysis will include the specification of a hypothetical battery gigafactory, which recovers all of its waste streams and channels them back into new production processes, where possible. The case study region proposed for this is the West Midlands.
The position requires an individual with a high-level of analytical capability. Expertise in one or more of the following areas would be an advantage: