(senior) Program Manager Iron Power

Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is one of Europe's top technological universities, situated at the heart of a most innovative high-tech region Brainport. Thanks to a wealth of collaborations with industry and academic institutes, TU/e's research has real-world impact. TU/e has around 3,000 employees and 2,300 PhD students (half of which international, representing about 70 nationalities).
Our university is at the heart of society: TU/e focuses in education and research on complex, societal challenges such as Energy, Health and Smart Mobility using the latest technologies including Artificial Intelligence, Quantum computing and Photonics.

The Eindhoven Institute for Renewable Energy Systems (EIRES) is the cross-departmental institute on Energy within TU/e working on modular scalable systems for energy conversion and storage, and their integration into the larger energy system. This executive team focuses on the (inter)national positioning of the institute, program acquisition, and impact (public-private partnerships, thought leadership, startups and spinouts, student teams, et cetera). Visit the website for more information www.tue.nl/eires .

Iron Power Technology is a relatively new technology which has the potential to store, transport and import at very large scales for the heat-intensive industry. Think for instance of coal and biomass plants which will run on iron powder instead of coal or biomass powder. Iron Power is an iconic project which finds its origin for a large part at EIRES @ TU/e, while Metalot (www.metalot.nl ) is the organization linked to TU/e which has the goal to develop the ecosystem needed to embed this new technology in our future energy system.

The Research Support Office (RSO) is the central Research Support Office of TU/e and is consists of a small, close-knit team of professionals who support the scientific staff in applying for European and national grants for research. The RSO team further consists of research funding advisors, grant consultants, corporate lawyers, program managers and project managers.

As program manager EIRES you will be embedded in the RSO and from there be allocated to work for EIRES in close collaboration with Metalot. One of the goals is to participate in the development of a large proposal on Iron Power Technology for the National Growth Fund (expected deadline early 2024). It is expected that you will work for a year on Iron Power, with the outlook of subsequent integration in the broader TU/e RSO team if successful.

Key activities

Activities are typically focused on the development of thematic programs in energy research:

• Drawing up (parts of) scientific and industrially/societally relevant research programs on Iron Power systems, or the integration thereof in the larger energy system, together with TU/e researchers and societal parties.
• Initiate new projects with industrial or societal partners and TU/e researchers and supervise acquisition projects.
• Consortium formation in the field of Iron Power both within TU/e across multiple departments (e.g., setting up TU/e's proposition for the Growth Fund proposal) as well as with relevant TU/e departments and external partners.
• Acquiring large external assignments or realizing medium to long-term cooperation agreements (3-5 years) with (inter)national partners.
• Participate in the development of long-term research and innovation roadmaps together with TU/e researchers and industrial/societal parties.
• Manage the proposal development process of (typically) complex, multi-disciplinary projects in good cooperation with departmental support.
• Exploring new research ideas and supporting researchers in clearly articulating problems, approaches, solutions and impact in project proposals or business contracts.
• Participate in the development of policies regarding the collaboration within and outside TU/e regarding Iron Power and sustainable energy systems and their integration in the energy network.
• Identifying promising funding opportunities in relation to Iron Power and TU/e's strength, forming consortia across multiple departments within TU/e as well as public and private partners outside TU/e, and managing the proposal writing process.
• Be an active member in relevant (NL and EU) networks (Public Private Partnerships, Associations and Thematic working groups), both to influence them, as well as to have an early view on upcoming possibilities.