PhD student in Design: Enabling re-use in Swedish households

Do you want to contribute to making household's consumption more sustainable and enable people to reuse the unused products they keep in their garages and storages? At the division of Design & Human factors we seek a PhD candidate to join our research team "Circularity and Sustainable Product Use" to explore product divestment, a problematic and under-researched part of people's consumption.

Information about the division and the project
The position is tied to the project "Mining Garage Gold - exploring and expanding the potentials for increased reuse in Swedish households". The project is based on the idea that there are unused resources in the form of useful, but unused, products in people's homes, garages and storages, at the same time as many useful products are currently discarded or recycled. Increasing reuse by recirculating products between households is a key factor to achieve sustainable consumption patterns and optimise the use of produced objects. In the project, households' unused resources will be inventoried and the process of recirculating products to new households will be charted. With the knowledge of why resources are stored or reused, how households experience recirculation today, and ideas about what is missing to increase reuse, stakeholders will be invited to co-create solutions that enable more recirculation - solutions in the form of products, infrastructure, services, business opportunities, information, processes or rules.

Division Design & Human Factors at Chalmers develops knowledge about the relationship between humans and artefacts. We also develop methods and tools that can be used to study the relationship between human–artefact, as well as for designing and evaluating safe, sustainable and satisfying products, services and workplaces. We have developed our expertise since mid1970s, and we continuously use it to educate future engineers with a user-centred perspective and to conduct high-quality research in close collaboration with industrial and public partners resulting in innovations with real-world impact. One of our research themes at the division is Circularity and Sustainable Product Use, where we explore how to enable people to live in sustainable ways by designing appropriate products and services.

Major responsibilities
Your main responsibility in the position is to carry out design-oriented research and communicate the results, both in scientific publications and to industry and public. The research will involve planning, conducting and analysing different kinds of studies with different forms of stakeholders, both households and commercial actors. The position requires you to contact and interact with many stakeholders - so social skills and tenacity are valuable qualities.

You will also be expected to:
- Be an active and contributing member of the research group
- Attend division and project meetings and conferences
- Take PhD courses as part of the Doctoral Programme "Human-Technology-Design"
- Teach (20% of total work time) at bachelor and/or master level and supervise thesis students.

Qualifications
To qualify as a PhD student, you must have a Master's degree in design, industrial design, product development or equivalent, or a Bachelor degree in design combined with a Master in a topic relevant for the position (e.g. psychology, industrial ecology). You should have experience of working with design methodology and in particular user studies. A genuine interest in sustainability and circular economy and consumption is meritorious. You must have obtained a master's degree (or equivalent) in the relevant field or expect to complete such degree by the time the employment starts.

You are expected to conduct empirical research as primary activity, foremost by applying a qualitative research approach in close interaction with households and other stakeholders. Research results are expected to be disseminated through interactions with professionals as well as through publications in highly ranked journals within the subject area which require good writing and communication skills. Other merits include working experience from industry, collaboration, and management of relationships with stakeholders and project management.

The position requires very good verbal communication skills in Swedish and sound verbal and written communication skills in English. 

Contract terms
Full-time temporary employment. The position is limited to a maximum of 5 years.

We offer
Chalmers offers a cultivating and inspiring working environment in the coastal city of Gothenburg. 
Read more about working at Chalmers and our benefits for employees.

Chalmers aims to actively improve our gender balance. We work broadly with equality projects, for example the GENIE Initiative on gender equality for excellence. Equality and diversity are substantial foundations in all activities at Chalmers.


Application deadline: 15 April 2022. 

Read more and apply here: https://www.chalmers.se/sv/om-chalmers/Arbeta-pa-Chalmers/lediga-tjanster/Sidor/default.aspx?rmpage=job&rmjob=10320&rmlang=SE


*** Chalmers declines to consider all offers of further announcement publishing or other types of support for the recruiting process in connection with this position. *** 
   



Chalmers University of Technology conducts research and education in engineering sciences, architecture, technology-related mathematical sciences, natural and nautical sciences, working in close collaboration with industry and society. The strategy for scientific excellence focuses on our six Areas of Advance; Energy, Health Engineering, Information and Communication Technology, Materials Science, Production and Transport. The aim is to make an active contribution to a sustainable future using the basic sciences as a foundation and innovation and entrepreneurship as the central driving forces. Chalmers has around 11,000 students and 3,000 employees. New knowledge and improved technology have characterised Chalmers since its foundation in 1829, completely in accordance with the will of William Chalmers and his motto: Avancez!