Applicants are invited to apply for a post-doctoral Research Associate position as part of the project “System Services in 100% Renewable Grids.” The project is funded by the Leverhulme Professorship held by and aims to investigate services needed in 100% renewable electricity grids. One of the services needed is long duration storage (LDS) that is being investigated by the team. One specific solution to LDS is demand side flexibility of Global Supply Chains (GSCs) due to the energy volumes and the time constants involved (weeks/months and above) in contrast to classic demand flexibility of individual elements within the GSC that have much shorter time constants. This interdisciplinary work (Engineering and Economists within Imperial) is being carried out with partners at Texas A&M and Georgia Tech as part of an established .
How could GSCs enable LDS? While globalisation and offshoring have delivered substantial gains in productivity and welfare, recent disruptions have exposed vulnerabilities in the structure of GSCs. This has created a pressing need to understand how GSCs can be reconfigured to enhance resilience and support decarbonisation. The postholder will contribute to the development of a novel firm-level dataset covering international and domestic production linkages—both internal to firms and involving external suppliers—by combining administrative, confidential, and privately sourced data. This will support empirical analysis of the relationship between industrial electricity consumption, emissions, supply chain design, economic adjustment and electricity grids.
The immediate Leverhulme team currently includes (Leverhulme Professor), (Leverhulme Lecturer), (a part-time Principal Research Fellow), two post-doctoral Research Associates, four pre-doctoral Research Assistants, and four PhD students. The larger project team in the UK consists of about 40 staff and students at Imperial as part of the. EPICS globally currently has a team of around 60 people. The team has a diverse range of skills and this post will be focussed on GSC flexibility for the provision of LDS in a collaboration between Electrical Engineering and Economics. Imperial’s Economics and Public Policy department has leading expertise in energy and trade economics, including,, and .
The research direction of EPICS is aligned to the initiative and its .
• Plan research and direct the work of small research teams.
• Assist in the supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate research students and Research Assistants.
• Identify and develop suitable techniques to address research questions, managing data, applying data quality procedures.
• Write reports for submission to research sponsors, presenting research findings to colleagues at conferences.
• Publish in high-quality refereed journals and participate in attracting additional research funding.
• Conduct and plan your own scientific work with minimal supervision.
• Be based at Imperial, collaborate closely with colleagues at Imperial and in the G-PST consortium.
• Visit collaborators in the G-PST consortium, attending relevant workshops and conferences, developing and pursuing collaborations within Imperial and with the wider community.
• Maintain a highly organised and accurate record of experimental work and promote the reputation of the team, the Department and the University.
• Be already holding (awarded) — at the start date of the position — a doctoral degree in Economics, Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Data Science or a closely related discipline. It is preferable, but not required, that applicants have expertise and an interest in
(1) flexibility in global supply chains and data centres that can complement variable renewables,
(2) Power system economics and electricity market design.
• Independence in thought and actions combined with practical experience within a research environment and / or publications in relevant and refereed journals.
• Knowledge of some combination of computer languages including but not limited to Python, R, PyOMO, Julia.
• The opportunity to continue your career at a world-leading institution and be part of our mission to continue science for humanity.
• Grow your career: Gain access to Imperial’s sector-leading dedicated career support for researchers as well as opportunities for promotion and progression.
• Sector-leading salary and remuneration package (including 39 days off a year and generous pension schemes).
• Up to a 24-month fixed-term contract in the first instance and the opportunity to spend time working internationally within the EPICS and G-PST ecosystem.