PhD Funding

Energy Futures Lab/Grantham Institute

Taylor Donation support for PhD studentships at Imperial 

Round Two - now open for new applications

Round Two of Taylor Donation PhD scholarships is now open for candidates’ applications. The deadline for prospective students to register and approach their selected supervisors is Friday 16 February 2024. For more details about the process, please refer to the “Information for PhD candidates” section below. The selected candidates and supervisors will be asked to complete the final application form and submit all relevant documents by Friday 5 April 2024.

Overview

We are delighted to announce that we are able to provide support for up to 8 PhD studentships at Imperial College London, made possible by the generous funds received through the Taylor Donation. These studentships have been specifically designated to facilitate research in the field of energy policy, encompassing various areas such as environmental aspects and the adaptation of both existing and emerging energy technologies for practical applications. 

The selected students will be part of a shared cohort of both the Energy Futures Lab and the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment. They will engage in the associated PhD training and activities of both institutes, as well as cohort specific training. 

The primary goal of the PhD research projects sponsored through the Taylor Donation is to enhance our understanding of energy-related challenges and develop innovative solutions with a positive impact on energy supply, demand reduction, and climate change. Through the utilization of these funds, we aim to promote cutting-edge investigations that address critical issues in the energy sector and contribute to the transition towards a sustainable future. 

There are two rounds of applications. The first round closed in October 2023, with four studentships successfully awarded in the following areas: 

Research project 

Lead department 

Participatory macro scale bottom-up enriched models to support the uptake of electrification and zero carbon fuels (ZCF) for industrial decarbonisation 

Centre for Environmental Policy 

Battery-free edge AI for nowcasting solar PV power output 

Department of Computing 

Net-zero market designs for long-duration energy storage 

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering 

Data-driven modelling of farm-to-farm wake interactions: a new tool to inform offshore wind policy 

Department of Aeronautics 

Round two 

Assessment criteria 

Applications will be assessed on the project outline and associated student. Assessment criteria will include: 

Project 

  • the research project capacity for positive impact on energy supply, demand reduction and climate change 
  • integration of a multidisciplinarity in the research study 
  • energy transition potential 
  • connection to energy research policy 
  • adventure, exploring and addressing novel and challenging applications and issues 

 Student 

  • academic ability 
  • research potential 
  • communication and engagement experience 
  • socio-economic, diversity and inclusion considerations. 

Additionally, we will be seeking supervisory teams that consist of Imperial academic staff from different disciplines and at different career levels. 

Funding 

The funding will include 3.5 years of funding, which will cover: 

  • home tuition fees at UKRI indicative rate (£4,712 per annum for 2023/24) 
  • a maintenance stipend, paid in equal monthly instalments directly to your bank account (£20,622 per annum for 2023/24) 
  • in addition to any funds available from the supervisor’s resources, a total of up to £3,000 is available during the duration of the project to contribute towards research expenses associated with your project, including conference costs, consumables and travel for research purposes. 

The studentships will not include overheads, and any application must include the host department’s permission to waive overheads. In the case of applications associated with overseas applicants, any costs over and above home support (e.g. visa costs, travel, fees etc) will need to be agreed in advance and covered by the home department. 

Timeline 

19 December: Deadline for academics to register interest in supervising a project.  

15 January: Call opens for student applications. Candidates should identify up to two main advisors from the list of supervisors and research challenges in the programme at the base of this page. To register, candidates are asked to complete this questionnaire and then to approach main advisors with a CV (1 page) and Cover Letter (1 page) that explains their interest in the selected research theme, copying in granthameducation@imperial.ac.uk and efl.researchdevelopment@imperial.ac.uk  

16 February: Deadline for student registration.  

19 February-1 March: Supervisors arrange interviews with the candidates to select one to put forward.  

4 March: Supervisors and students identify co-supervisors for students’ projects and work together on a PhD proposal (400 words). 

5 April: Deadline for candidate and supervisor to submit final application to granthameducation@imperial.ac.uk and efl.researchdevelopment@imperial.ac.uk. Final application pack will include: Project Proposal (400 words), CV (1 page), Cover Letter (1 page), two anonymised letters of recommendation, and completed questionnaires (links will be published after 4 March). These will be assessed by the panel. 

3 May: Decision on the successful projects is communicated to candidates and supervisors. 

1 July-1 October 2024: PhD studentships commence. 

Please note that Taylor PhD students need to be co-supervised by at least two Imperial academics. The academic willing to be the main supervisor can only supervise one Taylor PhD student. Supervisors may co-supervise no more than two Taylor PhD students. 

Information for PhD candidates 

  • You should identify up to two main supervisors that you are interested in working with on your PhD project – the list of potential supervisors can be seen at the base of this page.   
  • You will need to complete this questionnaire and then provide a CV (1 page) and Cover Letter (1 page) to the supervisor(s) as well as the Grantham Institute (granthameducation@imperial.ac.uk) and Energy Futures Lab (efl.researchdevelopment@imperial.ac.uk). The title of the email needs to be “Taylor PhD programme application”. Use the following formats for your attachments: "Surname [space] Initial_CV" and "Surname [space] Initial_Cover Letter" (for example Smith J_CV and Smith J_Cover Letter)   
  • You should include your grades in your CV. We also recommend explaining in your Cover Letter your interest in the chosen research topic and specifying what skills you are planning to gain  
  • Before applying, we ask that you check that you would meet the entry requirements to undertake a PhD at Imperial College London.   
  • All students who will be submitting a project proposal with their supervisor will need to complete a new questionnaire  with their details (link available in March). This will provide students with a Unique Identifier, which will be needed for the main application form. The main application form link will be sent via email to the proposed project supervisor.   
  • Further information regarding entry requirements, and what the panel may look for in prospective students can be viewed in this document: Taylor Donation . 
  • We welcome home and international candidates to apply, noting funding restrictions (see overview).   

For any queries, please contact granthameducation@imperial.ac.uk or efl.researchdevelopment@imperial.ac.uk 

Supervisors in this programme

Centre for Environmental Policy

Name Area of expertise Project 
Professor Joeri Rogelj Climate change mitigation Climate litigation and energy firms: focus on greenwashing and compensation cases. This project will look at the new financial risks to the energy sector, including compensatory damages, fines, legal expenses, reputational damage, and regulatory changes, that come with climate change litigation. 

Department of Aeronautics

Name Area of Expertise Project
Dr Sebastian Eastham Atmospheric science Hydrogen fuel has been proposed as a potential sustainable solution for aviation. However, the energy and infrastructure required to support this - including hydrogen production, distribution, leakage, and at-altitude combustion - would incur their own significant environmental impacts, and it is not yet clear to what degree hydrogen can be sustainably produced and deployed in the context of aviation. This project would seek to develop plausible pathways for a hydrogen economy sufficient to support global aviation in 2050.
Professor Laura Mainini Sustainable Aviation Next generation aircraft require the development and integration of a deal of innovative technologies to meet the ambitious sustainability goals set for aviation. In this scenario, the rapid identification of incipient multimodal faults constitutes a significant opportunity to accelerate the actualization of sustainability ambitions. The project focuses on (i) study of power systems/architectures for low emissions with specific attention to their fault modes; (ii) development and assessment of advanced computational methods for diagnostics and prognostics, and their impact on the time-to-adoption/integration of new power solutions.
Dr Thulasi Mylvagnam Agent based modelling Design of new aircraft and aircraft systems requires an understanding of the broader operating environment, including the energy infrastructure, ground infrastructure, political pressures and passenger perception. These multiple factors will have a significant impact on the aircraft design process, while also being subject to considerable uncertainties. This proposed project area will take an agent based modelling approach to inform the aircraft design process. It will take a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the role these external factors have on the design of aircraft and aircraft systems.
Professor Sylvain Laizet Wind Energy Floating offshore wind development: risks and opportunities. The UK has set ambitious climate change and carbon reduction targets to achieve Net Zero by 2050 and offshore wind is seen as critical in helping to deliver those targets and enable the switch from fossil fuels across domestic, industrial and transportation energy use. To meet the targets, deployment of offshore wind farms will have to go beyond current locations in relatively shallow waters, with the potential  of accessing waters with more consistent, powerful and predictable wind resources.  This project will focus on the notable differences in terms of possible locations, foundation design, construction activities, receptors and sectors that may be affected as a result.

Department of Chemical Engineering

Name Ara of Expertise Project
Dr Pini Ronny Carbon Capture Cost and resource-effective regional deployment of direct air capture. This interdisciplinary project aims at developing a comprehensive model-based decision support framework that integrates environmental, energy, economic, policy and innovation considerations for the accelerated deployment of direct air capture at scale, particularly its utilisation within industrial clusters. Insights from the model can lead to new research initiatives on materials, processes, or integrated systems that can enhance the efficiency and cost- effectiveness of DAC technologies.

Department of Chemistry

Name Area of expertise Project
Professor Martin Heeney Organic Solar Cell The efficiency of thin-film organic solar cells has progressed to nearly 20%, but there are still significant challenges before their widespread utilisation. One relates to the complexity of the organic materials used, which can require more then 15-steps to prepare, hindering their large-scale implementation. This project will develop synthetically complex materials which can be prepared in just 2 or 3 steps, with a focus on their sustainable synthesis.
Dr Nuria Tapia Ruiz Materials synthesis Interface studies of na-based electrolytes and hard-carbon anodes for sodium-ion batteries. The main goal of this project will be to study the chemical, physical and mechanical behaviour of the interfaces formed between selected hard carbon anodes and different electrolyte solutions (i.e., salts, solvents and additives) in sodium-ion batteries under different electrochemical regime conditions (e.g., low and fast current rates, low and high temperatures) to optimise the electrochemical performance of sodium-ion batteries under different functioning conditions
Dr Agi Brandt-Talbot Low carbon materials Carbon fibres are applied in a range of applications, including to reduce weight and fuel consumption and increase vehicle range (especially for electric cars). However, conventional carbon fibres are manufactured from petrochemicals through an energy-intensive carbonization process and are also expensive, limiting their adoption. This PhD project will develop a novel class of sustainable, low-cost carbon fibres from lignin (an abundant renewable precursor derived from wood) using less energy for the conversion, which will facilitate low-carbon transportation worldwide. 

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Name Area of expertise Project
Dr Rupert Myers Industrial ecology This PhD project will focus on improving the capability of Bayesian material flow analysis methodology to include multi-regional systems and energy stocks and flows (by incorporating energy balances). The improved methodology and code will be applied to analyse the supply/demand balance of energy materials in UK and its major trading partners. We plan to focus on the current ‘energy crisis’ and understand the landscape of energy material supply scenarios available to the UK and how these marry up to its demand.
Dr Aly-Joy Ulusoy Water distribution networks The project would investigate the development of optimisation methods to support the participation of water supply networks in low-carbon power grids. The project aims to define short and long-term optimal scheduling strategies based on industry input for shifting the energy consumption of water supply networks to match fluctuations in the supply of renewables.
Professor Graham Hughes Flows in the built environment Energy management in the interior built environment (encompasses a range of measures to assist decarbonisation efforts, e.g. retrofit options, cooperative control, collective systems, etc)

Department of Computing

Name Area of expertise Project
Professor Hamed Haddadi Machine learning Energy-aware confidential computing. The majority of modern cryptography algorithms and privacy-enhancing technologies introduce a significant energy usage overhead. In this studentship we will investigate efficient algorithms for on-device AI. 

Department of Earth Sciences and Engineering

Name Area of expertise Project 
Professor Matthew Jackson Geothermal Water stored underground at high temperature (ultra-high-temperature underground thermal energy storage, UHT-UTES) could be used in turbines for electricity generation, offering the potential to store large quantities of electricity (PWh in UK auifers) in a geobattery.  The aim of this project is to undertake numerical modelling of UHT-UTES in one or more key UK reservoirs to underpin the world’s first trial UHT-UTES deployment. The project will address research questions which include (i) what is the reservoir response to UHT-UTES; (ii) what are the potential environmental risks, such as seismicity and/or co-production of oil and gas; (iii) what is the round-trip storage efficiency, (iv) what is the discharge capacity, and (v) how should deployments be optimally engineered to safely maximize storage and discharge capacity?  
     

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Name Area of expertise Project 
Professor Goran Strbac Whole-energy system modelling Quantifying and improving environmental and cost benefits from the interaction between the electricity grid and battery energy storage systems. Batteries are a key component and policy enabler for the transition to Net-Zero. However, the issues around their integration with the electricity grid are yet to be addressed. For example, understanding the likely or desirable charging and pricing profiles of private and commercial EV owners, as well as those for grid applications, and the benefits and impacts these will have on local energy grids. Another important aspect is the impact of these charge profiles on battery performance and lifetime, both of which affect their lifecycle environmental and cost footprints. To address these issues, a coherent, whole-system approach is needed to link generation, distribution, EV and grid storage capacity, power and growth, ancillary services, DSR, and battery and user behaviour.
     

Department of Life Sciences

Name Area of expertise Project 
Professor Alfred Rutherford Photosynthesis Biomass is still considered a viable feedstock for carbon mitigation due to its perceived carbon neutrality, low-cost and availability. The project will focus on two applications, sustainable aviation fuels and carbon mitigation of coal plant emissions from the Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China. The study will pivot on three paradigms, carbon mitigation potential, energy balance and scalability, with the application of novel approaches such as dynamic LCA and planetary boundaries.  

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Name Area of expertise Project 
Dr Frederic Cegla Ultrasonics Net-zero targets have led industrial players such as rare-earth mining companies and EV battery producers to ramp up production at an unprecedented rate. This in turn leads to environmental issues such as deforestation, erosion, and soil contamination. Many net-zero enabling technologies such as electrolysers and batteries rely on electrochemical reactions. When reaction rates are increased beyond certain limiting conditions degradation results. This research project will investigate the use of ultrasonic technology to enhance ion transport near electrode surfaces. The outcomes of this research will thus help to maximise the performance and minimise the degradation in a wide range of electrochemical net zero systems that are being produced to meet our climate change obligations. 
Dr Jacqueline Edge Energy storage Quantifying the benefits and impacts of using end-of-life EV batteries in second life applications. This PhD will examine the environmental and economic costs and benefits of three scenarios for electric vehicle batteries:  1) extending their first life; 2) using them at end-of-life in a second-life application; and 3) immediate recycling at end-of-life. The student will develop a techno-economic and life cycle assessment model for assessing all of the steps and processes required for each scenario, so as to identify and quantify the trade-offs between them.
Dr Marc Masen Bio and Green Tribology Biomimetic water-based lubricants to replace silicones and perfluoropolyether fluids. This project aims to investigate polysaccharide gel lubrication mechanisms observed in nature with the objective of replacing harmful synthetic lubricants that are highly environmental persistent and biologically absorbent.
Dr Antonis Sergis Thermal energy storage (sensible and latent heat storage schemes) Improving the thermal efficiency of buildings by the development and use of advanced building materials. In the UK, ~20% of our total carbon emissions come from heating and cooling our buildings. This project aims to explore novel methods to improve the thermal properties of common building materials, such as concrete, that could lead to significant energy savings in heating and cooling spaces (e.g., using heat storage materials embedded in concrete etc.). The project will focus on the thermal performance of the proposed solutions using experimental and numerical methods. The project will also analyse the mechanical and durability properties of the new materials and techniques, and their suitability as building materials, in collaboration with Dr. Chao Wu, Senior Lecturer in Composites and Structures, from the Civil Engineering Department. The project will benefit from the access to the state-of-the-art facilities and expertise available at both departments and will contribute to the development of low-carbon and sustainable construction materials fir for a renewable future.

Dr Bo Lan Non-destructive evaluation This project will be on development of in-process, non-destructive monitoring techniques for battery manufacturing processes. Such monitoring would enable closed-loop control of battery manufacturing and could allow significant reduction of waste and energy consumption, improvement of throughput and quality assurance, and considerable economic savings.  

Department of Physics

Name Area of expertise Project 
Professor Jenny Nelson Materials for solar energy conversion Topic 1: Distributed renewable energy systems such as solar mini-grids have the potential to accelerate sustainable development whilst avoiding fossil fuel dependency. We use energy system modelling, geospatial modelling and case studies to design and evaluate renewable energy systems and evaluate the impacts of integrated systems on economic potential, health, security, food and water supply. We will also integrate improved projections of energy demand into the design tool. Topic 2: Integration of solar photovoltaics with infrastructure, transport, buildings, agriculture and other energy vectors is increasingly important in decarbonising the energy system. Agriculture integrated photovoltaics (agriPV) has potential to benefit food production, food security and energy security while maximising use of land and water. Designing agriPV systems involves optimising PV module design, crop choice and growing conditions, and integration of the system with local resources, energy demand and economy, thus presenting an interdisciplinary challenge. In this project we combine different tools to evaluate the potential of agriPV in both developing and developed-world contexts.

Imperial College Business School

Name Area of expertise Project 
Dr Simone Cenci Sustainability behaviour This project will investigate the impact of domestic and international energy policies on corporate climate actions and goals. In particular, it will focus on the analysis of empirical evidence on corporate emission reduction plans, their credibility and implementation, as well as any greenwashing activity.

School of Public Health

Name Area of expertise Project 
Dr Anthony Laverty Public Health The shift to electric vehicles in the UK will mean that the Government loses out on significant amounts of motoring taxation revenue (these currently raise £40billion per year). Decisions on how to deal with this could include changing taxation so that electric vehicles pay more than currently, or pay-per-mile pricing. This project will investigate the potential policy options and model their impacts on outcomes including road traffic injuries, physical activity, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. 

Useful links