In our research team we develop
decision support methodology for companies, municipalities and other
organizations that want to work strategically with sustainable
development and to contribute to the society's transition to
sustainability in a way that strengthens the organization. Our research
and our education attract partners and students from all over the
world and we are major contributors to BTH's vision to be a "globally
attractive knowledge community within applied IT and innovation for
sustainable growth." All of our research is done through collaborative
projects with partners in industry and society.
We think it is especially important
to bring in a strategic sustainability thinking in the early stages of
the innovation process, where the greatest opportunities are to
influence the products and services impact on the ecological and social
systems throughout their life cycle. It is important that even in
these early stages model, simulate and take into account technical,
business and socio-ecological implications of many different solutions
so that the best options from a strategic perspective of sustainability
can be identified and further developed in later phases of the
innovation process.
About the Position
Already in the earliest phases of the
product innovation process, the decisions are made that are decisive
for a products behavior, impact and how it will be used throughout its
entire life.
Decision support for sustainability
challengers situations are not well established in practice and this
research work focus on how a model driven decison support approach can
improve decision making in product development teams.
The position means that in close
co-creation and collaboration with researchers and industry partners
understand and develop support for decision making in early phases of
product development. From ongoing and recently completed research work
methods have been identified and developed and it is now time to take
the next step.
The objective of the research work is
to, using a ”use case” defined together with GKN Aerospace Engine
Systems in Trollhättan conduct research to:
i) Increase maturity and applicability of methods and criteria developed together with GKN
ii) Develop a modeling based decision
support system applicable in early phases of conceptual work. The
decision based support system can be applied within development teams
to
a. Enable sustainability related challenges to drive the search for design solutions and restraints
b. Assess sustainability and value implications throughout the value chain
iii) Demonstrate and validate how to integrate the methods into an engineering environment.
As a PhD student you will learn and
practice to use scientific work methods and publish results in
scientific forums, as well as developing applicable tools.
In a PhD position it usually include
to support education and training in our courses and Programmes. In
those cases the position is divided in 80% research and 20% department
work. Examples of tasks include:
- Support the development and implementation of the program Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability and new sustainability-oriented energy programs
- Efforts in various other courses in the area of sustainability and product service systems
- Support the work at the interface between research and education in the energy, sustainability and product service system areas
- Administrative work with marketing, recruitment, selection, program management, etc
There might be possibilities to be placed in industry.
Required qualifications
- Academic education at master of science level in the field of sustainability and/or engineering
- High level communication skills and experience to make written and oral presentations in the engineering-and sustainability areas or related areas.
- Ability to work effectively both independently and in groups.
- Teaching ability and interest.
- Fluent in English (spoken and written).
- Basic Swedish language skills or the ambition to learn Swedish within a two-year period.
Preferred qualifications
- Industrial experience
- Academic education or proven practical experience in industry of product development and sustainability assessments
- Ability to apply methods and tools for strategic sustainable development
- Several years of prior work experience in related areas or situations
- Proven ability to manage and run projects.
- Ability to fluent in Swedish (spoken and written).
Extent:
100%
Duration:
To a licentiate degree. This means
maximum of 2.5 years if the position is divided in 80% research and 20%
department work, or maximum of 2 years if the position is 100%
research. If possible, the position is prolonged to a PhD degree with
the same research focus.
Start:
As soon as possible
For more information
For more information about the
employment, you are welcome to contact research project leader for this
area, Sophie Hallstedt, tel. 0455-385511, e-mail:
Sophie.Hallstedt@bth.se.
Union representative is Mikael Åsman (SACO), tfn 0457-385720.
Application Deadline : 15 March 2013
