###Interdisciplinary innovation and engagement across the engineering interface to address critical challenges
Project ID: 2228bd1220 (You will need this ID for your application)
Research Theme: Engineering
UCL Lead department: Chemical Engineering
Lead Supervisor: Marc-Olivier Coppens
Project Summary:
Resolving global challenges is critical to sustainable development, whether it concerns the environment, food security, justice, education, healthcare, energy, water, poverty, or national security. These challenges are complex, interconnected, and dynamic. Solutions must address risk, uncertainty, and the interfaces between, science, technology, human society, and nature. Interdisciplinary approaches that bring together technical innovation and cultural understanding are key to finding effective solutions that will result in transformational change and a more equitable future.
This interdisciplinary PhD studentship offers the opportunity for students to propose interdisciplinary research projects that draw on an engineering discipline in concert with another discipline(s) (from Arts and Humanities, Bartlett (Built Environment), Brain Sciences, IoE, Laws, Life Sciences, Maths and Physical Sciences, Medical Sciences, Population Health Sciences or Social and Historical Sciences) to address complex challenge(s).
Candidates must bring demonstrable expertise from at least one discipline and a willingness and ability to build collaborative research across traditional disciplinary borders. Candidates will need to articulate the key challenge the research will address. Problem statements may refer to the UCL Grand Challenges and/or the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The application should also outline the key methods and tools that are proposed to address that challenge, as well as articulate what the potential and anticipated impact of the research will be. If supervisors have been identified, please provide details and a justification for the strength of the proposed supervisory team. Supervisors will be formally allocated in discussion with successful candidates to ensure a robust supervisory team is created to foster the interdisciplinary approach.
This studentship is designed to be part of our broader activities that seek to position UCL as a global pioneer in interdisciplinary research through innovative approaches to cross traditional siloes that deliver holistic solutions by incorporating both technologies and an understanding of society. This studentship offers a rare opportunity for research that can take a creative approach to achieving meaningful engagement across disciplines and between research and broader society.