PhD position in Decision-making digital twins for climate neutral neighbourhoods and cities

17 Jan 2024
Job Information

Organisation/Company

NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Department

Department of Architecture and Technology

Research Field

Architecture
Environmental science

Researcher Profile

First Stage Researcher (R1)

Country

Norway

Application Deadline

13 Feb 2024 - 23:59 (Europe/Oslo)

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Full-time

Hours Per Week

37,5

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by an EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description
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.

About the job

We have one vacancy for one PhD candidate at the Department of Architecture and Technology (IAT), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). The PhD position is part of the EU Driving Urban Transition Partnership Project MakingPEDs “Decision-Making digital twins for climate neutral PEDs".

For a position as a PhD Candidate, the goal is a completed doctoral education up to an obtained doctoral degree. The use of simulation tools in the urban context and connected to 2D or 3D web-based visualization applications are valuable tools for decision-makers and citizen’s engagement. If we talk about improving the sustainability of the building stock in neighbourhoods and districts, innovative technical, social and economic models need to be considered under a global LCA/Climate change perspective having in mind interactions with mobility, circularity and co-creation processes with public authorities and citizens.

The candidates will be part of the Energy and Environment Group at the Department of Architecture and Technology, NTNU. The Energy and Environment group strives to solve sustainability issues of the built environment and to prepare it for climate neutrality. Based on science and research we advance design solutions that integrate energy and environmental performance with high architectural and spatial quality. By developing and adopting methods for evaluating indoor and outdoor environmental quality, environmental impact, energy and resource use, we are seeking a performative approach to architecture.  We aim at enabling the design of buildings and neighbourhoods with a positive impact on humans and their environment throughout their life cycle. 

The Energy and Environment Group lead centres/projects like the Research centre on zero emission neighbourhoods in smart cities  (ZEN), syn.ikia – Sustainable plus energy neighbourhoods , and the Green Deal ARV project on Climate positive circular communities , and use real demonstration projects and our laboratory facilities (like the ZEB laboratory ) extensively in our research.

The group currently comprises 10 senior staff members (professors and associate professors), and around 20 research fellows (research assistants, PhD candidates, and post-doctoral researchers).

You will report to the Head of Department when it comes to personal and general professional aspects. You will report to the project manager/supervisor when it comes to scientific and project-related aspects.

Duties of the position

The aim of the PhD position is to contribute to the Making PEDs project, not only to research and planning of Climate Neutral PEDs, but also to facilitate the transition into practice, providing Digital Twins to support decision-making and participatory urban transformation processes. To be able to do this, the candidate will contribute to 3D city model in CityGML for positive energy districts (PEDs), enriched with building specific information. The specific objectives to be addressed are:

• Examine the state-of-the-art about EU-wide GIS-data, tools and databases for processing, editing, merging, enrichment, etc.
• Development of a uniform data structure in 3D city models (CityGML-Standard) and respective databases.
• Structured data retrieval from the demo partners/ municipalities based on developed data definitions
• Creation of 3D city models (CityGML) for the different ULLs/PEDs (existing and newly built neighbourhoods)
• Participate in project meetings and reporting of activities (including project reports).
• Participate in dissemination and communication activities, including development of scientific publications and workshops.

Required selection criteria

• You must have a professionally relevant background in Engineering or Architecture, with a particular focus on building science.
• Your education must correspond to a five-year Norwegian degree program, where 120 credits are obtained at master's level.
• You must have a strong academic background from your previous studies and an average grade from the master's degree program, or equivalent education, which is equal to B or better compared with NTNU's grading scale. If you have a weaker grade background, you may be assessed if you can document, e.g., by (co-)authoring a research paper, that you are particularly suitable for a PhD education.
• Master’s students can apply, but the master’s degree must be obtained and documented by the starting date of employment at NTNU.
• You must meet the requirements for admission to the faculty’s doctoral program.
• You must have previous experience with modelling/simulation preferably in the context of building science and building energy systems.
• You must be open to work in the context of a large research project, with international collaborations and interactions with many universities and industrial partners.
• You must be able to take the initiative and manage, with minimum daily supervision, project meetings and project reporting activities.
• Proven analytical and computational capabilities, in courses and or/thesis deliverables.
• Proven written and oral English communication skills.

The appointment is to be made in accordance with Regulations on terms of employment for positions such as postdoctoral fellow, Phd candidate, research assistant and specialist candidate  and Regulations concerning the degrees of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) and Philosodophiae Doctor (PhD) in artistic research national guidelines for appointment as PhD, post doctor and research assistant 

Preferred selection criteria

• Completed courses in energy use in buildings, integrated energy design, building performance simulation, life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC).  
• Proven experience in modelling and simulation of building envelope systems and/or building energy/environmental system in the context of building performance simulation.
• Conversant with multi-domain simulation (thermal, IAQ, but also potentially LCA), e.g. based on the Grasshopper-environment; any further skills such as co-simulation, programming, and other machine learning/statistical methods linkable to simulation will be highly valuable.
• Proven experience in collaborative research projects, preferably of an international nature, is of advantage.
• Proven experience or education in project development and project management.
• Proven experience in teaching and guidance of students in the context of environmental sustainability and building performance simulation (for 4-year position with teaching duties).
• For your own professional development in the context of Norwegian research institutes, good Norwegian language skills are also important.

Personal characteristics

• Strong motivation and dedication to develop your skills as a researcher and contribute to large research projects.
• Motivated to solve environmental problems and advance sustainability.
• Ability to meet deadlines as part of large teams of researchers, in the role of both team member and task responsible.
• Will to take initiative and responsibility in collaborating with research activities beyond your own individual research tasks.
• Ability to work with external partners.
• You can inspire and motivate other researchers and students and create engagement.

Emphasis will be placed on personal and interpersonal qualities.

We offer

• exciting and stimulating tasks in a strong international academic environment
• an open and inclusive work environment  with dedicated colleagues
• favourable terms in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
• employee benefits

Salary and conditions

As a PhD candidate (code 1017) you are normally paid from gross NOK 532 200 per annum before tax, depending on qualifications and seniority. From the salary, 2% is deducted as a contribution to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund.

The employment period for the postdoctoral position is 3 years. The employment period for the PhD position is 3 years, potentially a 4th year, depending on candidate competence and funding (with 25 % teaching duties pliktarbeid ).

Appointment to a PhD position requires that you are admitted to the PhD programme in Architecture  within three months of employment, and that you participate in an organized PhD programme during the employment period.

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The engagement is to be made in accordance with the regulations in force concerning State Employees and Civil Servants , and the acts relating to Control of the Export of Strategic Goods, Services and Technology. Candidates who by assessment of the application and attachment are seen to conflict with the criteria in the latter law will be prohibited from recruitment to NTNU. After the appointment you must assume that there may be changes in the area of work.

The position is subject to external funding.

It is a prerequisite you can be present at and accessible to the institution daily.

About the application

The application and supporting documentation to be used as the basis for the assessment must be in English.

Publications and other scientific work must be attached to the application. Please note that your application will be considered based solely on information submitted by the application deadline. You must therefore ensure that your application clearly demonstrates how your skills and experience fulfil the criteria specified above.

The application must include: 

• A cover letter where the applicant describes the personal motivation to fill the position
• CV, certificates and diplomas
• List of publications
• Research plan or project proposal (max 3 pages incl. references), indicating your view of the main research challenges in the area of the position, the methodological approach and how this is relevant to their own background and the above research objectives. 
• Academic works - published or unpublished - that you would like to be considered in the assessment (up to 3 works)
• Name and email address of three referees

If all, or parts, of your education has been taken abroad, we also ask you to attach documentation of the scope and quality of your entire education, both bachelor's and master's education, in addition to other higher education. Description of the documentation required can be found here . If you already have a statement from NOKUT, please attach this as well.

We will take joint work into account. If it is difficult to identify your efforts in the joint work, you must enclose a short description of your participation.

In the evaluation of which candidate is best qualified, emphasis will be placed on education, experience and personal and interpersonal qualities. Motivation, ambitions, and potential will also count in the assessment of the candidates. 

NTNU is committed to following evaluation criteria for research quality according to The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment - DORA.

General information

Working at NTNU

NTNU believes that inclusion and diversity is our strength. We want to recruit people with different competencies, educational backgrounds, life experiences and perspectives to contribute to solving our social responsibilities within education and research. We will facilitate for our employees’ needs.

NTNU is working actively to increase the number of women employed in scientific positions and has a number of resources to promote equality.  

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The city of Trondheim is a modern European city with a rich cultural scene. Trondheim is the innovation capital of Norway with a population of 200,000. The Norwegian welfare state, including healthcare, schools, kindergartens and overall equality, is probably the best of its kind in the world. Professional subsidized day-care for children is easily available. Furthermore, Trondheim offers great opportunities for education (including international schools) and possibilities to enjoy nature, culture and family life and has low crime rates and clean air quality.

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As an employee at NTNU, you must at all times adhere to the changes that the development in the subject entails and the organizational changes that are adopted.

A public list of applicants with name, age, job title and municipality of residence is prepared after the application deadline. If you want to reserve yourself from entry on the public applicant list, this must be justified. Assessment will be made in accordance with current legislation . You will be notified if the reservation is not accepted.

If you have any questions about the position, please contact  Associate Professor Niki Gaitani , or Professor Arild Gustavsen . If you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Natalia Swahn .

If you think this looks interesting and in line with your qualifications, please submit your application electronically via jobbnorge.no with your CV, diplomas and certificates attached. Applications submitted elsewhere will not be considered. Upon request, you must be able to obtain certified copies of your documentation.  

Application deadline: 13.02.2024

 

NTNU - knowledge for a better world

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) creates knowledge for a better world and solutions that can change everyday life.

Department of Architecture and Technology

Our goal is to develop coherent and sustainable architecture of high quality. We work with form, theory and history, building materials and building structures, and energy-efficient and sustainable buildings. Our activities also include the preservation and development of traditional building craft skills. The Department of Architecture and Technology  is one of four departments in the Faculty of Architecture and Design .

Requirements

Research Field

Architecture

Education Level

Master Degree or equivalent

Research Field

Environmental science

Education Level

Master Degree or equivalent

Additional Information
Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Country

Norway

Geofield

Where to apply

Website

https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/256501/phd-position-in-decision-…

Contact

City

Trondheim

Website

http://www.ntnu.no

Street

Alfred Getz vei 3

Postal Code

N-7491

STATUS: EXPIRED