We are looking for PhD and postdoctoral researchers

The Research Centre on Zero Emission Neighbourhoods in Smart Cities

PhD and postdoctoral positions in Research Centre on Zero Emission Neighbourhoods in Smart Cities - Norges teknisk naturvitenskapelige universitet

Information about the centre

The Research Centre on Zero Energy Neighbourhoods in Smart Cities (ZEN Centre) is a Centre for Environment-friendly Energy Research (FME) funded by the Research Council of Norway and the consortium partners. The main objective of the ZEN Centre is to develop knowledge, competitive products and solutions that will lead to realization of sustainable neighbourhoods that have zero emissions of greenhouse gases related to their production, operation and transformation. The FME status enables long-term research in close collaboration with trade and industry, as well as other research partners. The composition of the consortium is vital in order to enable the transition to a low carbon society by developing sustainable neighbourhoods with zero greenhouse gas emissions. The research is carried out in six work packages (WPs): WP1 Analytical framework for design and planning of zero emission neighbourhoods, WP2 Policy measures, innovation and business models, WP3 Responsive and energy efficient buildings, WP4 Energy flexible neighbourhoods, WP5 Local energy system optimization within a larger system, and WP6 Pilot projects and living labs. The centre is a follow-up of the Research Centre on Zero Emission Buildings, www.zeb.no.

The Research Centre is organized as a joint NTNU/SINTEF unit, hosted by the Faculty of Architecture and Design, Norwegian University of Science and Technology – NTNU. The Centre encompasses the value chain of market and public players needed in order to realize zero emission neighbourhoods, including municipalities, governmental organizations, Norwegian construction business and energy companies. This is the first announcement for PhD and postdoctoral positions in the centre. The positions are located in various departments at NTNU ensuring the cross-disciplinary research needed in order to reach the aim of the centre.

We are looking for PhD and postdoctoral researchers related to:

1. LCA methods for zero emission neighbourhood concepts (PhD Fellowship)

2. Transition pathways towards zero emission neighbourhoods (PhD Fellowship)

3. Dialog based public procurement as a driver of creating effective public-private collaboration and business models for ZEN development (PhD Fellowship)

4. IEQ flexibility, control strategies and resulting energy efficiency (PhD Fellowship)

5. Interaction between Zero Emission Neighbourhoods and District Heating system (Postdoctoral Fellowship)

6. Investment planning models for local energy systems (PhD Fellowship)

7. ZEN Living Labs (PhD or Postdoctoral Fellowship)

Mark the application clearly with what position and what type of position you are applying for PhD/ Post. Doc.

1. LCA methods for zero emission neighborhood concepts (PhD Fellowship)

Objective: The objective of this PhD is to develop and apply Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods to support the evaluation of zero emission neighborhood design concepts with respect to greenhouse gas emissions and potential environmental impacts. The research shall offer principles for consistent use of LCA in ZEN pilots, with an appropriate structure of inventory datasets and modeling framework, for the evaluation of selected zero emission concepts with measures at different levels (temporal, spatial, organizational) in ZEN systems. It shall also reveal criticalities and sensitivities for greenhouse gas emission reductions and environmental performance of a few promising ZEN concepts, and contribute to offer a basis for other LCA studies later during the ZEN Centre period.

Research questions: Research questions and research design will be related to the study of:

Opportunities, limitations and applicability of LCA methods for ZEN concepts Appropriate structure and format of inventory datasets and LCA modeling framework Principles for consistent use of LCA to secure robust modeling conclusions Critical factors, variables, assumptions and sensitivities for LCA performance of ZEN design concept Zero emission contribution of individual measures or groups of measures in promising ZEB design concepts

Requirements: It is required that the applicant holds a master level degree in engineering, architecture, industrial ecology or similar, with a specialization directly relevant to environmental systems analysis and modelling. Preference will be given to applicants who already has research or project experience in LCA modelling. Good oral and written skills in English as well as Norwegian is highly preferred, since the teaching assistance work will be in a course that is taught in Norwegian.

Other information: This is a position with work place at NTNU’s Industrial Ecology Programme, Department of Energy and Process Engineering. The duration is 3 years, with possibility for 1 extra year for teaching assistance work in industrial ecology and environmental systems analysis. For more information, contact Professor Helge Brattebø http://www.ntnu.edu/employees/helge.brattebo

2. Transition pathways towards zero emission neighbourhoods (PhD Fellowship)

Objective: The objective of this PhD will be to develop techno-economic optimization tools for long-term analysis of investments in Zero Emisison Neigbourhoods, including investments in infrastructure, generation, storage as well as ZEN technologies. The model framework will be multiscale in time and space and stochastic. It includes both strategic and operational time scales. The main purpose is to model the investments, capacity expansions and technology choice, but an important driver for these decisions are short term operations and variations in load and generation. When it comes to geographical focus, the ZEN will be modelled in some detail, while links to the regional energy system and the national system in less detail.

Research questions:

How will new market design and business models affect ZEN development and the welfare distribution between actors? What will be optimal investment strategies for ZEN? What are consequences measured with indicators like, emissions, costs, energy consumption and generation?

Requirements: It is required that the applicant holds a master level degree in operations research. Preferably, applicants can document specific knowledge within one or more of the following topics: energy markets, micro economics and contract theory. Good oral and written skills in both English and Norwegian, are highly preferred, since collaboration with Norwegian partners is important. Finally, previous experience with working in a project team and collaborating with firms and/or public organizations will count positively.

Other information: This is a position with work place at the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management (IØT). The duration is 3 years. For more information, contact Prof. Asgeir Tomasgard http://www.ntnu.edu/employees/tomasgar.

3. Dialog based public procurement as a driver of creating effective public-private collaboration and business models for ZEN development (PhD Fellowship)

Objective: The objective of this PhD project will be to develop conceptual models of effective public private collaboration for creating ZENs, with a special emphasis on dialogue based public procurement. The research will be linked to the pilot projects and living labs in the FME ZEN.

Research questions:

What are the key-drivers of success and failure when it comes to public private collaboration in a zero-emission context? What are possible governance systems (including business models) for flexible aggregation and redistribution of energy? Given the insights obtained in terms of critical success factors and governance systems, how can dialogue based public procurement act as a driver of effective collaboration and ZEN development?

Requirements: It is required that the applicant holds a master level degree in Industrial Economics and Technology Management or equivalent. Preferably, applicants can document specific knowledge within one or more of the following topics: sustainability, public-private collaboration, public procurement and business models. Furthermore, good oral and written skills in both English and Norwegian are highly preferred, since collaboration with Norwegian partners is important. Finally, previous experience with working in a project team and collaborating with firms and/or public organizations will count positively.

Other information: This is a position with work place at the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management (IØT). The duration is 3 years. For more information, contact Professor Luitzen de Boer http://www.ntnu.edu/employees/deboer

4. IEQ flexibility, control strategies and resulting energy efficiency (PhD Fellow)

Objective: To investigate solutions for heating, ventilation and cooling of buildings that has lower energy use than existing systems. The solutions should tolerate variations in thermal and/or electric energy supply, have low embodied energy in itself and secure good indoor environment quality at reasonable costs.

Research questions:

Is it possible to utilize the adaptive models of thermal comfort to reduce cooling demands in cold climates, i.e. reducing the ventilation flow rates for cooling? What should possibly the criteria be? How should a system solution for heating, ventilation and cooling be designed that can handle varying access of energy (thermal and/or electric)? Including demand controlled ventilation, heat recovery, thermal and/or electric storage, and energy supply solutions. How to use the ventilation system for space heating without sacrificing thermal comfort? How to utilize predictive or other advanced control systems for ventilation and heating to reduce cooling and heating demands?

Requirements: It is required that the applicant holds a master level degree in engineering or similar, with a specialization directly relevant to HVAC in buildings. Good oral and written skills in English as well as Norwegian is highly preferred, since the teaching assistance work will be in a course that is taught in Norwegian.

Other information: This is a position with work place at NTNU’s Department of Energy and Process Engineering. The duration is 4 years, where 1 year is for teaching assistance work. For more information, contact Professor Hans Martin Mathisen http://www.ntnu.no/ansatte/hans.m.mathisen.

5. Interaction between Zero Emission Neighborhoods and District Heating systems (Postdoctoral Fellow)

Objective: The objective of this work is to develop interfaces for interaction between Zero Emission Neighbourhoods (ZEN) and district heating (DH) systems. This will include development of technical requirements (substation for the district heating connection and thermal storage) and price and business models for ZEN connected to district heating. Current DH systems in Norway are usually 2nd and 3rd generation, using the supply temperature water in the range of 80 to 120°C. ZENs will be characterized with low heat demand and utilization of the 4th generation DH system using low temperatures and utilizing renewable and waste heat between buildings. Due to ZEN’s own heat productions and different temperature requirements than the current DH systems, interface between ZEN and the DH system may be challenging both in operation and in defining price and business models. This work will assist consultants, property owners, district heating companies, and energy planners to design and manage the interaction between ZEN and the DH system.

The following issues will be treated in the postdoctoral research work: aggregated heat load of ZEN, substation configuration and requirements for single buildings enabling high utilization of renewable and waste heat, substation configuration for the entire ZEN to enable reliable interaction with the DH system, heat production optimization considering new price and business models.

Research questions:

Aggregated heat load from ZEN will be very different than most of the current DH costumers. Therefore, hourly load profiles on yearly level of the ZEN have to be defined. To enable high utilization of renewable and waste heat within ZEN, substations needs to be designed to enable low enough return temperatures. Therefore, technical requirements for the substations within ZEN buildings should be defined. Interface between the ZEN and the DH system considering both technical components and price and business models has to be defined to avoid high peaks and enable reliable heat supply. Techno-economic optimization should be performed to find the best solutions for ZEN heat supply. The optimization has to treat different price and business models.

Requirements: It is required that the applicant holds a PhD degree in engineering, with a specialization directly relevant to energy in buildings, district heating, or building energy system control. The relevant candidate should have good knowledge in building performance simulation, building energy system control, and strong mathematical background. Good oral and written skills in English as well as Norwegian is highly preferred, since collaboration with Norwegian partners is expected.

Other information: This is a position with work place at NTNU’s Department of Energy and Process Engineering. The duration is 2 years. For more information, contact Associate Professor Natasa Nord http://www.ntnu.edu/employees/natasa.nord

6. Investment planning models for local energy systems (PhD Fellowship)

Objective: The objective of this PhD will be to develop and apply methodologies and models for optimization of local energy supply systems (investments and operation), focusing on short- and long-term uncertainty. This involves surveying and comparing existing models and tools, identifying needs for further developments in the context of Zero Emission Neighbourhoods (ZEN), as well as implementing novel algorithms and models, and use these to analyse realistic case studies e.g. linked to ZEN pilots.

Research questions:

How should renewable power variability and flexibility in energy storage be represented in investment planning models for local energy systems? How to treat uncertainty on short-scale (solar forecasts etc) and long-scale (fuel prices etc)? What are the optimal mixes of different energy carriers for some representative ZEN case studies? How critical is the reliance of external grids (electricity and heat) in the design of local energy supply for ZEN?

Requirements: It is required that the applicant holds a master level degree in electrical power engineering, energy economics or similar. Preference will be given to applicants who how can document skills relevant to energy system analysis, modelling and optimization. Applicants who do not master a Scandinavian language must provide evidence of good English language skills, written and spoken.

Other information: This is a position with work place at NTNU’s Department of Electric Power Engineering. The duration of the PhD is 3 years, with additional 3 months for teaching assistance work. For more information, contact Professor Magnus Korpås http://www.ntnu.edu/employees/magnus.korpas

7. ZEN Living Labs (PhD or Postdoctoral Fellowship)

Objective: The topic of this PhD or PostDoc project will be urban sustainability experiments in the context of Norwegian zero emission neighborhoods. This includes the preparation and kick-off of at least one ZEN Living Lab. The project will contain a strong action research component, i.e. it will take the stakeholders’ own goals as a starting point, but it will in addition focus on critical reflection of these goals and knowledge transfer within and beyond ZEN. If the project is conceived as PhD project the latter should be strengthened.

Research questions:

What are urban sustainability experiments and what can they achieve? What are key factors for success in urban sustainability experiments? Which urban sustainability experiments are suitable in the context of ZENs, its pilots’ and partners’ overall goals? Which urban sustainability experiments should be implemented in ZEN? How can experiences from the preparation and kick-off of urban sustainability experiments be transferred to other contexts?

Requirements: It is required that the applicant holds a master level degree in sociology, social science or similar. Good oral and written skills in English as well as Norwegian is highly preferred since the applicant is expected to work closely in the ZEN demonstration projects. The prospective candidate should have practical experience with conducting urban sustainability experiments (in the widest sense). Experience from work within or with Norwegian municipals is desirable.

Other information: This is a position with work place at NTNU’s Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture. The duration is 2 years for the postdoctoral position and 3 years for the PhD position. For more information, contact Professor Thomas Berker http://www.ntnu.edu/employees/thomas.berker or Inger Andresen http://www.ntnu.edu/employees/inger.andresen.

General Qualifications

The applicants for the PhD positions must have a relevant Master’s degree (or equivalent). The applicants for postdoctoral positions must have a PhD at the time of application. Relevant education and experience in the chosen topic is mandatory.

Applicants must submit i) certificates, ii) CV, iii) a list of their publications, and iv) a project description (3 pages incl. references) indicating how they suggest to do the research work and how this is relevant to their own background and the above research objectives and questions.

Candidates from universities outside Norway are kindly requested to send a Diploma Supplement or a similar document, which describes in detail the study and grade system and the rights for further studies associated with the obtained degree: http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/ds_en.htm.

The positions require spoken and written fluency in the English language, or as stated for each individual position. Applicants from non-English-speaking countries outside Europe must document English skills by an approved test. The positions are situated in Trondheim and applicants are expected to live there for the duration of the projects.

Mark the application clearly with what position and what type of position you are applying for (PhD/Post Doc). For questions about the ZEN Centre or the positions contact the respective supervisors by email or phone or Centre Director Professor Arild Gustavsen ( http://www.ntnu.edu/employees/arild.gustavsen).

Terms of Employment

The position as PhD candidate is registered as code 1017 and normally remunerated at wage level 50 at NOK 432 300 per year before tax. There will be a 2% contribution to the Norwegian Pension Fund from the gross salary. As a member of the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund you are offered:

A good pension for life A favorable housing loan interest Good insurance schemes

The appointments will be made in accordance with current regulations with supplementary rules in force giving guidelines for scholarship appointments in universities and university colleges.

The appointment requires enrolment in the PhD programme. See also information on the pages: http://www.ntnu.edu/studies/phd and https://www.ntnu.no/web/phaar/arkitektur-phaar

The position adheres to the Norwegian Government’s policy of balanced ethnicity, age and gender.

According to the new Freedom of Information Act, information concerning the applicant may be made public even if the applicant has requested not to be included in the list of applicants

Applications with Curriculum Vitae, certified copies of transcript and reference letters should be submitted electronically through this page.

Mark the application with correct reference number[AB]- 13-16

The application deadline is January 21, 2017.

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