Civil and Environmental Engineering

This project will seek to improve the understanding of the evolving nature of wildfire risk in Scotland [1]. This topic will be studied in the particular context of understanding and improving wildfire resilience in natural capital sites (e.g. woodland creation, peatland restoration).

Through a mixed methods approach, this study will explore historic and predicted future wildfire trends in Scotland, alongside mapping and evaluating the key views and concerns of keys stakeholders including land managers, government bodies and the general public. This will seek to provide improved understanding of the overall risk profile at a national and regional level, as well as the evolving nature of wildfire resilience of landscapes throughout different stages of the restoration process and in response to different interventions (e.g. grazing, creation of firebreaks, rewetting etc.).

The project will include systematic review of existing UK-focused wildfire trend studies, along with a review of existing approaches to wildfire management in natural capital sites particularly in the UK. This will be followed by stakeholder view mapping to understand existing attitudes to wildfire risk across stakeholder groups and to produce a roadmap to provide a ranked indication of key priority areas for improved data collection, use and modelling tools to support wildfire risk assessment practices and allow evidence-based risk mitigation interventions to be implemented. This will be informed by existing data and additional survey data collection from both UoE and Ardtornish sites [2] and will draw on the land management expertise of these project partners, and the input of other key stakeholders to help shape the project focus.

[1] Wildfire risks to UK landscapes. UK Parliament POSTnote 717. (April 2024) https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/POST-PN-0717/POST-PN-0717.pdf

[2] Forest & Peatland Programme, The University of Edinburgh. [Online] https://sustainability.ed.ac.uk/operations/forest-peatland

The PhD student will be join a larger, existing cohort of PhD projects supported by the University’s Forests and Peatland Programme that aims to advance our understanding of the impacts, and monitoring and reporting

techniques, around woodland creation and peatland restoration initiatives, which are designed and managed to meet multiple objectives, across different sites in Scotland.

Support will also be provided by the multi-disciplinary research supervision team, and the student will also join a cohort of PhD students and Post-Doctoral Researchers at the internationally recognised Edinburgh Fire Research Centre. Relevant training will be provided however experience and/or willingness to combine a mix of computational modelling and lab/fieldwork is required

Essential:

A minimum 2.1 degree in Environmental Engineering, Geosciences, Environmental Science, Ecology or Other Relevant Subject. A Master’s degree in in Environmental Engineering, Geosciences, Environmental Science, Ecology or Other Relevant Subject.

The project is available to UK/International citizens. The candidate must meet the English qualification requirements as described at: Further information on English language requirements for EU/Overseas applicants.

· Experience and passion for collecting field data.

· Experience and enthusiasm for quantitative data analysis.

· Enthusiasm working with stakeholders and understanding different needs and perspectives

Desirable:

· A UK driving licence for field work.

· Experience in GIS and remote sensing techniques.

· A working knowledge of R/Python.

· Experience in interdisciplinary approaches, social science techniques.

UKRI level stipend for 4 years, home or overseas fees, £5k research costs (over the duration of the project).

Further information and other funding options.

Bridges in the UK are facing increasing challenges due to aging infrastructure and changing environmental and climate conditions. Rising temperatures, increased rainfall, flooding, and more frequent extreme weather events are expected to accelerate deterioration processes and place additional pressure on bridge asset management systems. At the same time, large volumes of inspection and condition data are routinely collected but are not fully exploited for long-term prediction and decision support.

This PhD project focuses on the development of data-driven digital twin approaches to improve the prediction of climate-driven deterioration in UK bridges. The research will explore how historical bridge inspection records, condition ratings, maintenance data, and environmental or climate exposure information can be integrated to support more reliable condition forecasting. The work will investigate data-driven and hybrid modelling approaches that combine engineering understanding with machine learning techniques, while also considering uncertainty and data limitations.

The project will be jointly supervised by Dr Yavuz Yardim (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Demetris Cotsovos  (Heriot-Watt University), leading to a joint PhD degree from the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University. The candidate will benefit from access to expertise and facilities across both institutions and will work on research questions that are directly relevant to real-world bridge engineering and infrastructure management practice. 

There may also be opportunities to engage with industry partners and real infrastructure datasets.

The exact research direction will be refined with the successful candidate, depending on their background and interests.

Candidate Profile: We seek a highly motivated individual with: 

- A 2:1 undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in civil engineering, structural engineering, data science, computer science, or a closely related discipline.- Strong programming and data analysis skills (e.g. Python).- Demonstrated experience in machine learning or data-driven modelling.- An interest in bridges, infrastructure systems, and climate-related deterioration.- The ability to work independently and as part of a multidisciplinary research team. 

Applications are welcomed from self-funded students, or students who are applying for scholarships from the University of Edinburgh or elsewhere

Further information and other funding options.

Tuition fees + stipend are available for applicants who qualify as Home applicants.

Tuition fees + stipend are available for applicants who qualify as Home applicants (International students can  apply, but the funding only covers the Home fee rate)

Funding Details:

Duration: 42 months (3.5 years)

Start date: Flexible, but no later than July 2027

Stipend: Enhanced above UKRI standard rate

Research & Training Grant: £5,000 (UoE) or £3,500 (HWU)

Between 1853 and 2020, approximately 25 billion tonnes of coal were extracted from sites across the UK, leaving behind extensive subsurface voids as the majority of these mines have since ceased operation. Today, the UK hosts around 23,000 abandoned coal mines, all of which require ongoing management by the Mining Remediation Authority due to the cessation of dewatering activities. These vast underground void spaces represent a significant yet underexplored opportunity for large-scale thermal energy storage. Owing to the historical concentration of fossil-fuel industries during the Industrial Revolution, nearly 90% of the UK’s largest urban areas are situated above former mining zones, leading to a unique geographic overlap between locations of high heat demand and potential heat storage capacity. These same urban areas are also major sources of waste heat, suggesting strong potential for thermal energy storage. This PhD project proposes that abandoned coal mines can be fully repurposed as long-term thermal energy storage reservoirs, and aims to rigorously evaluate their technical feasibility. 

The specific objectives are to: (i) develop a robust conceptual and numerical model of heat storage processes in flooded mine environments using COMSOL Multiphysics; (ii) integrate the model with representative UK mine geometries and geological settings; and (iii) conduct scenario-based simulations to identify the controlling thermal–hydraulic processes and assess the practical feasibility of mine-based thermal energy storage systems. The project will be undertaken in full collaboration with TownRock Energy, who will support the research through co-supervision, hosting of the PhD student, and provision of relevant datasets, maps, and software tools. Informal queries from potential applicants can be directed to Dr Melis Sutman (melis.sutman@ed.ac.uk).

Essential Background: - 2.1 or above (or equivalent) in civil engineering, geotechnical engineering, engineering geology or any other closely related subjects. Desirable Background: - An MSc/MEng degree on shallow geothermal energy technologies or mine water geothermal energy - Familiarity with numerical modelling tools such as COMSOL Multiphysics or FEFLOW. - Understanding of heat and mass transfer processes in porous or fractured media.

Further information on English language requirements for EU/Overseas applicants.

Applications are welcomed from self-funded students, or students who are applying for scholarships from the University of Edinburgh or elsewhere as well as self-funded students.

Competition (EPSRC) funding may be available for an exceptional candidate. Link below for the further details.

Further information and other funding options.

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are positioned to transform future transportation, yet their safe deployment remains a critical unsolved challenge. Despite intensive research since 2017, today’s AVs still rely on human supervision, largely due to the difficulty of validating the safety of systems built on complex AI components for perception, prediction, and control. These models struggle with diverse and previously unseen scenarios and provide limited guarantees under out-of-distribution inputs or uncertain training data. The rise of End-to-End learning and Vision-Language-Action further complicates assurance, as traditional interpretable module interfaces are replaced by latent representations that hinder modular testing. Addressing this gap requires new knowledge and methodologies that deliver quantitative, real-time safety guarantees and accountability for AI-driven decisions. By integrating safety gatekeepers that evaluate driving risk and intervening proactively, this research advances a timely and urgent frontier: safeguarded AI for autonomous driving. 

The successful candidate will be supervised by Dr. Pavlos Tafidis and Dr. Cheng Wang from both partner institutions resulting in a joint PhD degree from Heriot-Watt University and the University of Edinburgh. This allows gaining access to cutting-edge facilities and expertise in robotics, AI and autonomous systems in a collaborative research environment across University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University. In addition, the candidate will work closely with industry partners who will provide datasets and a real autonomous driving platform. 

• Open to UK home status candidates only (EU applicants must have settled/pre-settled status or indefinite leave to remain and meet residency requirements.) a 2:1 undergraduate degree (or equivalent).

Candidate Profile: We seek a highly motivated individual with: 

• A strong background in intelligent transportation, smart mobility, robotics, machine learning or autonomous systems. 

• Excellent programming skills (Python, C++, or MATLAB). 

• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a multidisciplinary team. How to Apply: Please send the following to Dr Pavlos Tafidis (pavlos.tafidis@ed.ac.uk) or Dr Cheng Wang (cheng.wang@hw.ac.uk) no later than 16th January 2026 (5 PM UK time): 

• CV 

• Cover letter outlining your motivation and relevant experience

the University’s English language requirements.

Applications are welcomed from self-funded students, or students who are applying for scholarships from the University of Edinburgh or elsewhere

Competition (EPSRC) funding may be available for an exceptional candidate. Link below for the further details.

Further information and other funding options.

Funding Details: 

• Duration: 3.5 years (42 months) 

• Start Date: Flexible, but no later than May 2027 

• Stipend: 10% above UKRI standard rate 

• Research & Training Grant: £3,500 total 

The Discrete Element Method (DEM) enables detailed modelling of granular materials, including industrial bulk solids, by modelling interactions between discrete particles. Limits in available computational power initially restricted this approach to discs, and then spheres and multi-sphere clumps. More recently, non-spherical particle descriptors have been introduced such as cylinders, spherocylinders, superquadrics, potential particles, and polyhedral particles. In all these cases, contact detection and overlap calculation incur significant computational cost compared to sphere-to-sphere contacts.

While it is always possible to locally approximate the contacting particles as spheres of appropriate curvature, the accuracy of such an approximation is unknown, and potentially low. Increasing geometric accuracy without a corresponding accuracy improvement in modelling the mechanical behaviour at the contact therefore leads to unnecessary computational cost.

This PhD project will develop new, adaptive contact physics models that will allow a seamless transition between low and high accuracy/cost modelling, while maintaining an optimal balance between geometric and mechanical detail. These models will be verified using continuum mechanics (finite-element) simulations, and validated through their implementation in a discrete element code.

Minimum entry qualification - an Honours degree at 2:1 or above (or International equivalent) in a relevant science or engineering discipline, possibly supported by an MSc Degree. Applicants must demonstrate an appropriate background in numerical analysis, programming, mechanics of materials and/or computational mathematics.

Further information on English language requirements for EU/Overseas applicants.

Applications are welcomed from self-funded students, or students who are applying for scholarships from the University of Edinburgh or elsewhere as well as self-funded students.

Competition (EPSRC) funding may be available for an exceptional candidate. Link below for the further details.

Further information and other funding options.