Materials science and technology are our passion. With our cutting-edge research, Empa's around 1,100 employees make essential contributions to the well-being of society for a future worth living. Empa is a research institution of the ETH Domain.

The Urban Energy Systems Laboratory develops methods and tools to model, design and assess energy systems at various scales with a focus on energy hubs, multi-energy grids, and the integration of renewable energy and storage systems.

Your tasks

In the framework of MSCA Doctoral Network (DN) Consumer Energy Demand Flexibility in Electricity Use (CoDEF) project, we are looking for a motivated and experienced PhD candidate to perform consumer flexibility aware planning of multi-energy districts. A particular focus lies on the modelling and optimization of multi-energy consumer flexibility to estimate its contribution on system sizing, demand reduction and security of supply. Challenges encompass - among others -, multi-energy system design and integration. Historical data in the Empa's NEST demonstrator and its multi-energy backbone will be utilized to design multi-energy districts. The candidate shall translate his/her research ideas to tackle these challenges, in close collaboration with our interdisciplinary team and external scientific and industry partners. The candidate will support our master students, publish in scientific journals, and participate in conferences.

Your profile

You are a highly motivated and dedicated candidate with an MSc degree in Energy, Mechanical, Chemical-, Environmental or Electrical engineering (or related field such as energy economics). You should have a profound and interdisciplinary knowledge on ongoing energy transition topics particularly multi-energy systems, energy conversion and storage technologies. Moreover, you have strong programming, modelling and data analysis skills in Python and/or R. Experience with the formulation and implementation of mathematical optimization problems can give you a competitive edge. The candidate should have excellent written and oral communication skills in English. Finally, you have not lived for more than 12 months out of previous 36 months in Switzerland.

Our offer

We are offering a multifaceted and challenging position in a modern research environ-ment with excellent infrastructure. The ideal starting date is September 2024 with a planned duration of 4 years. The PhD candidate will be enrolled at KU Leuven (Prof. Erik Delarue). A secondment of 6 months at KU Leuven and 3 months at Urban Sympheny AG is planned during the third year of the PhD.

We live a culture of inclusion and respect. We welcome all people who are interested in innovative, sustainable and meaningful activities - that's what counts.

We look forward to receiving your complete online application including a letter of motivation, CV, certificates, diplomas and contact details of two reference persons. Please submit these exclusively via our job portal. Applications by e-mail and by post will not be considered.