Applications are sought for a PhD studentship within the Centre for Sustainable Manufacturing and Recycling Technologies (SMART), http://www.lboro.ac.uk/smart, in the Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, one of the largest Engineering Schools devoted to this subject area in the UK.

Following the award of a substantial grant, the Centre for SMART is building its research activities in sustainable food manufacturing and requires a number of PhD students to work on its ‘Grand Challenge’ projects of Eco-Production of Food, Sustainable Food Supply Chains and Distributed Manufacturing of Food.

Project Description: Food manufacturing is the most important industrial sector in the world and energy security is one of the largest concerns for the manufacturing industry. Therefore it is critical to be able to manage energy for the future food manufacturing sector (e.g. to feed 9 billion people in 2050 with half as much energy from fossil fuels). The issue is compounded by the trend towards the consumption of ‘easy’ processed foods delivered by complex and dispersed international supply chains. The solution is to better understand the use of energy within the food industry to enable the generation of new management techniques and novel process technologies. This PhD project will build upon an existing energy modelling framework and apply this to various processes within the food manufacturing industry in order to identify opportunities for improving resilience. Specifically the ability to react to surges and shortages in energy supply by managing production in real time will enable food manufacturers to become more able to maintain required productivity. There is the potential for this project to develop new processing technologies if the correct opportunities are identified.

Although based within the Centre for SMART at Loughborough, this position will work within an EPSRC National Research Centre in Food Manufacturing, in collaboration with the Universities of Nottingham and Birmingham as well as a large food manufacturing companies and retailers including AB Sugar, Cargill, Mars, McCain Foods, PepsiCo, Premier Foods, Nestle, Unilever, Marks and Spencer and J Sainsbury. It is expected that the successful student will spend some time working within these other organisations during their study.

Applicants must be expecting, or have already obtained a first degree (1^st class or high 2:1 honours or equivalent) in manufacturing engineering, food science, mechanical engineering or any other relevant field. Good communication skills are essential as well as an interest in environmental impact assessment and sustainable development.

The studentship will start in July or October 2015, is for three years, and is valued at £13,863 p.a. plus tuition fees at the UK/EU rate. Non UK applicants must meet the minimum English language requirements, details of which are available on the Loughborough University website.

Please apply through the following web page: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/mechman/pg-research/howtoapply/ .  Applicants seeking additional information are invited to contact Dr Elliot Woolley (e-mail e.b.woolley<στο>lboro.ac.uk) to discuss this project in more detail.

Deadline for applications: 30^th April 2015, Interviews are planned to take place in May. Please quote the reference EBW310315 on all correspondence and especially on the application form.