About this role
This is NTNU 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. Video: https://youtu.be/Xt-yHCN5QS0 About the position Are you motivated to take a step towards a doctorate and open up exciting career opportunities? As a PhD Candidate with us, you will work to achieve your doctorate, and at the same time gain valuable experience that qualifies you for a further career in higher education, and research in and outside academia. The PhD candidate will contribute to the development of novel modelling approaches to understand the environmental fate and impacts of plastic pollution in Norway. IndEcol is a pioneer in the development and application of industrial ecology methods, as well as the use of large data sets and scientific computing in industrial ecology. We focus on understanding resource use and environmental pollution associated with human activities, assessing the environmental aspects of different technologies and modeling society’s use of materials. IndEcol combines world-class competence in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Input-Output analysis (I/O), and Material Flow Analysis (MFA) with scientists’ contribution to IPCC and IPBES assessment reports, the International Resource Panel, active participation to the Life-Cycle Initiative hosted by UN Environment, and numerous publications featured in high-ranked journals. IndEcol hosts its own International MSc program and contributes to NTNU’s engineering education. The research team consisting of eight faculty members, the Industrial Ecology Digital Laboratory, and about 70 researchers, Post Docs. and PhD students. More information can be found at https://www.ntnu.edu/indecol . Your immediate leader is Dr. Martin Dorber. Prof. Francesca Verones, Assoc. Prof. Johan Berg Pettersen and Assoc. Prof. Tora Bonnevie are co-supervisors of the candidate. About the project Plastic pollution is escalating across all environments and is recognized as a major One Health challenge. However, impacts on freshwater and terrestrial biodiversity are still largely unassessed in a life cycle assessment (LCA) context. At the same time, micro- and nanoplastic exposure in humans is confirmed, but the health implications remain poorly understood and no metrics exist to represent these effects in LCA. This project addresses both gaps in parallel by developing the first integrated One Health modelling framework for plastics. We will build a multi-compartment fate model for terrestrial and freshwater systems, derive the first Characterization Factors for plastic impacts on biodiversity beyond the ocean, and translate biomedical evidence into responsible early-stage human health indicators compatible with LCA. The PhD`s work will focus on both environmental transport modelling and biodiversity impact assessment, in close collaboration with interdisciplinary project partners. The project is funded through NTNU and is an interdisciplinary project between the Industrial Ecology Programme at the Department of Energy and Process Engineering and the Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science. Duties of the position Complete the doctoral education until obtaining a doctorate Building and calibrating a multi-compartment environmental fate model to simulate transport, retention and accumulation of plastics Deriving exposure–response relationships and contributing to the development of characterization factors (CFs) for biodiversity impacts in Life Cycle Assessment Write academic publications of good quality and contribute to popular science dissemination Participate actively in Industrial Ecology Programme Participate in international activities such as conferences and/or research stays at foreign educational institutions Participate in building interdisciplinary collaboration between industrial ecology and the health field Be prepared for changes to your work duties after employment. Required selection criteria You must have a relevant Master's degree in industrial ecology, environmental science/engineering or equivalent. Your course of study must correspond to a five-year Norwegian course, where 120 credits have been obtained at master's level. Master students can apply, but the master's degree must be obtained and documented before starting the position You must have a strong academic background from your previous studies and have an average grade from your Master's degree study, or equivalent education, which is equal to B or better compared to NTNU's grading scale . If you do not have letter grades from previous studies, you must have an equally good academic foundation. If you have a weaker grade background, you may be considered 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 Programme Motivation to get proficient in Python and Brightway Interest in sustainability science and strong incentive to learn Industrial Ecology methods like LCA analysis Proven analytical and computational capabilities, in courses and or/thesis deliverables Proven written and oral English communication skills PLEASE NOTE: For detailed information about what the application must contain, see paragraph “About the application”. The appointment is to be made in accordance with NTNUs guidelines for recruitment positions for general criteria for the position. Preferred selection criteria Completed courses in life cycle assessment and life cycle impact assessment Experience in geographical information systems (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS or within Python, R) Documented competence in using the Python scientific computing stack (Numpy, Pandas, Jupyter Notebooks) or of another programming language