The University of Santiago de Compostela offers a PhD position in its Environmental Engineering and Bioprocesses Research Group for the Enerwater project, focusing on energy optimization and life cycle assessment in wastewater treatment. The position offers a salary of €1,173/month for one year, extendable up to three years, and requires candidates to have a relevant master's degree and strong English skills. Applicants must submit a motivation letter and CV by January 20th and will be evaluated through a multistage selection process.

1. PhD position at the Environmental Engineering and Bioprocesses
Research Group (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain)
Position Characteristics
Contract for one year (extendable up to 3 years) within the Environmental Engineering and
Bioprocesses Research Group (Biogrup1
) to join the ENERWATER project team.
Salary = 1,173 €/month and 14 pays/year, i.e. 16,422 €/year.
Working hours = full-time (i.e. 37.5 hours/week)
Start date = March the 1st
2015
The ENERWATER project
Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTPs) is one of the most expensive public industries in terms of
energy requirements accounting for more than 1% of consumption of electricity in Europe. EU
Water Framework Directive (WFD) 91/271/CEE made obligatory waste water treatment for cities
and towns. Although most of the objectives of the WFD in relation to water protection have been
achieved, most of these aging plants show unsustainable energy consumption and must be
optimized to the maximum and renovated accordingly. However, in Europe there is no legislation,
norms or standards to be followed, and as consequence, a gigantic opportunity for reducing the
public electric expense remains unregulated. The main objective of ENERWATER is to develop,
validate and disseminate an innovative standard methodology for continuously assessing, labelling
and improving the overall energy performance of WWTPs. For that purpose a collaboration
framework in the waste water treatment sector including research groups, SMEs, utilities, city
councils, authorities and industry will be set up. ENERWATER will devote important efforts to
ensure that the method is widely adopted. Subsequent objectives are to impulse dialogue towards
the creation of a specific European legislation following the example of recently approved EU
directives, to achieve EU energy reductions objectives for 2020, ensuring effluent water quality,
environmental protection and compliance with the WFD. These actions should bring European
Water Industry a competitive advantage in new products development and a faster access to
markets by facilitating evidence of reduction therefore fostering adoption on new technologies.
ENERWATER is an ambitious project with the Horizon 20202
that involves 10 partners (universities
and companies) from 4 European countries (Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom),
coordinated by the Biogrup.
Description of the position
The ENERWATER project belongs to the research line “Product and process sustainability: Life
Cycle Assessment and carbon footprint”3
and therefore the hired person is expected to carry out
his/her PhD thesis in the field of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and urban wastewaters, in particular
related to issues such as the definition of best practices in the application of LCA to this particular
sector and the development and application of greenhouse gases emissions models, in order to be
used for the incorporation of the environmental vector into the design and control of wastewater
treatment plants.
1
http://www.usc.es/biogrup
2
http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/what-horizon-2020
3
http://www.usc.es/biogrup/?q=en/programme0301

2. Research area
Energy optimization and LCA of urban wastewater treatment.
Requirements
• Candidates must have a master degree on chemical engineering, environmental
engineering, environmental sciences or similar, and an adequate knowledge on
wastewater treatment.
• Specific knowledge on LCA and related environmental management tools as well as
modelling and control of wastewater treatment systems will be valuable.
• Candidates must show a clear interest in developing a research career with the aim of
achieving the doctoral degree.
• High level of English is required.
• Willingness to travel to attend project meetings or conferences, as well as to perform
research stays in other institutions elsewhere is also required.
Selection process
Candidatures must be sent to almudena.hospido@usc.es (stating “Enerwater job offer” in the
subject) before January the 20th
at 2.00pm
Candidatures should include the following documents:
• Motivation letter (max. 1 page), where the contact details as well as the reasons why the
candidate should be selected are described.
• Curriculum.
Selection process will comprise the following steps:
1. Candidatures evaluation, where the suitability of the candidate to the profile and
requirements of the application will be checked. Step 1 accounts for 30% of the final
evaluation and candidates achieving less than 20% will be disregarded.
2. Test: Candidates who pass the first stage will be invited to perform a screening test with the
aim of assessing the candidate's ability to develop a research career as well as reading and
writing skills in English. Step 2 accounts for 25% of the final evaluation and candidates
achieving less than 15% will be disregarded.
3. Interview: Candidates who pass the second stage will be invited to perform a personal
interview where, among other elements, his/her oral English skills will be evaluated. Step 3
accounts for 45% of the final evaluation, 25% for the personal interview and 20% for oral
English skills.
The selected candidate will be invited to sign the research contract and a waiting list with two
candidates will be defined. No selected candidates will be also informed.
If no suitable candidate is identified, the position will be considered deserted.