Green Energy
The Green Energy initiative at Queen Mary University of London supports and link up academics through a range of initiatives aimed at accelerating the transition to a zero-carbon world.
Bringing together the collective expertise of the University to tackle the grand technical and intellectual challenges that must be overcome to achieve a global transition to a zero-carbon future, this initiative is to be launched in early 2022 with more than 45 academic members of staff across four schools within the Faculty, whose research is focussed on driving the energy transition away from fossil fuels. Working with universities, research institutions, industry, funding agencies, UK and foreign government departments, benefactors, and other organisations, our mission is to support research in energy transitions. We will establish a central role in supporting energy research across the University, fostering new connections between exciting energy research areas.
As part of the launch of the Green Energy initiative, we are excited to announce the support of 38 PhD studentships, to start in October 2022. The students will benefit from a cutting edge cohort-based training, comprising of formal lectures and practical training in the sciences and the broader social sciences/humanities, within a university, external provider and industrial setting. Application deadline is 30th January 2022, and applicants should follow the application procedures outlined in each School.
We have 9 EPSRC/Principle studentships open to all UK and international students shown below, and a large number of Chinese Scholarship Council, CONACtyT and Colfuturo studentships supported by the Faculty, only available to eligible students from these country-specific schemes. These can be accessed below by expanding the subheadings below.
EPSRC / Principle Scholarships
We invite applications to the following projects across the 4 Schools involved in this initiative. The studentships are open to UK and international applicants, although we note that we have a limited number of international scholarships available. Please apply directly via the Schools using the links provided. Please contact the supervisor directly if you have any questions.
- Improving Energy Conversion Efficiency of Wind Turbines using Digital Twins and Advanced Control [apply via EECS]
- Cyanobacterial biofilms for photoelectrochemistry [apply via SBBS]
- Dynamics of drops with adsorbed bio-surfactants [apply via SEMS]
- Scalable and high-yield manufacturing high-efficiency single-crystal perovskite solar cells [apply via SEMS]
- Prediction of battery cooling processes in electric vehicles by Physics-Informed Neural Networks [apply via SEMS]
- Reducing methane emissions to meet the Global Methane Pledge [apply via SEMS]
- Small and abundant molecules as building blocks for added-value chemicals and materials: from fundamental principles to catalyst design [apply via SPCS; supervisor: Devis Di Tommaso]
- Data-driven design of metal-organic frameworks for CO2 capture and photocatalytic conversion [apply via SPCS]
- UV coatings for printed photovoltaics [apply via SPCS]
ERC Scholarships
We invite applications to the following funded European Research Council project. We note that this is open to UK Nationals only. Please apply directly via the Schools using the links provided. Please contact the supervisor directly if you have any questions. Please note this project has a later application deadline (28th February 2022).
CSC Projects
Below are is the list of projects supported by the Faculty for CSC funding. Application deadling is January 30th. If you have any questions, please contact the supervisors directly. For those projects below without a project description, please contact the supervisor for further information.
- High-Gain and High Performance Beam-Steerable Antennas Made from Sustainable Materials. [apply via EECS; supervisor: James Kelly]
- Co-Design of the Hydrogen-Based Electric Propulsion and Corresponding Energy Management System for Self-Aware Marine Applications [apply via EECS; supervisor: Kamyar Mehran]
- Bypassing expensive calculations: Predicting the properties of photosynthetic proteins with an AI assistant [apply via SBBS; supervisor: Chris Duffy]
- Multiphysics Reduced Order Models for Fast Nuclear Reactor Core Analysis [apply via SEMS]
- Non-causal Optimal Control of Offshore Renewable Energy Platforms [apply via SEMS]
- Design of vanadium based cathode materials for aqueous zinc ion batteries [apply via SEMS]
- Pb-free ferroelectrics for high power energy storage in dielectric capacitors [apply via SEMS]
- A miniature low-cost assistive robotic system for disabled and elderly [apply via SEMS]
- Selective photocatalytic CO2 reduction using ferroelectric-catalyst hybrids [apply via SEMS]
- Computational modelling of underground hydrogen storage by deep learning techniques [apply via SEMS]
- Printed thermoelectric generators [apply via SEMS]
- SustainElectrode: 3D sustainable composite electrodes for next-generation energy storage devices [apply via SEMS]
- Engineering the sustainable composite structures for offshore floating wind turbines [apply via SEMS]
- Stability analysis and enhancement of emerging non-fullerene organic solar cells [apply via SEMS]
- Stochastic modelling of frequency fluctuations in power grids of the future [apply via SMS]
- Developing muon spin rotation to study open-channel metal-organic frameworks for applications in batteries [apply via SPCS]
- Exciton dynamics in conventional and organic semiconducting solar cells [apply via SPCS]
- Computational studies of phase-change materials for green heat transport and storage [apply via SPCS]
- Experimental studies of phase-change materials for green heat transport and storage [apply via SPCS]
- CO2 conversion to chemicals & materials: from fundamental principles to catalyst design [apply via SPCS; supervisor: Devis Di Tommaso]
- Nanotechnology for electrocatalytic conversion [apply via SPCS; supervisor: Matteo Palma]
- p-d block cooperation: towards noble base metals [apply via SPCS; supervisor: Oriol Planas Fabrega]
CONACtyT and Colfuturo Projects
Below are is the list of projects supported by the Faculty for CONACtyT and Colfuturo funding. Application deadling is January 31st. If you have any questions, please contact the supervisors directly.
- Distributed Control System for Offshore Renewable Energy Farm [apply via SEMS; supervisor: Guang Li]
- Electrocatalytic hydrogen production from mild media [apply via SEMS; supervisor: Guanjie He]
- Ecotoxicological Impact of Perovskite Photovoltaics [apply via SEMS; supervisor: Zhe Li]
- From 2D to 3D Organic Frameworks for Thermoelectric Applications [apply via SPCS; supervisor: Christian Bech Nielsen]
- Understanding ultralong phosphorescence in organic materials [apply via SPCS; supervisor: Rachel Crespo-Otero]
- Quantum solar for high performance solar cells [apply via SPCS; supervisor: Stoichko Dimitrov]
- Towards Low-Power Computing [apply via SPCS]
Other Scholarships
We are happy to accept enquiries from PhD students who wish to apply for or already have secured an alternative funding method. Projects will be arranged on a case-by-case basis with the supervisors. If there is a particular area you want to work in, and you know the supervisor, then please make contact to start the discussions about projects, timescales etc.
Schemes we are aware of that may fund PhDs are (noting that these schemes may no longer offer funding, or may be limited in what they can offer):
- British Council Mainly for overseas students
- Bolashak (Kazakhstan)
- Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom For students from commonwealth countries
- Dikti (Indonesia)
- The Croucher Foundation For Hong Kong students
- Fulbright Awards For US students
- Marshall Scholarships For US students
- PhD scholarship funding for faculty at Islamia College Peshawar (ICP)
- Centre for Doctoral Training in Plastic Electronics
- Pakistan Higher Education Commission For Pakistani students
In addition, we are willing to consider self-funded PhDs.