Energy Micropiles for Sustainable Retrofit

About the project

About the Project One full scholarship is available in the School of Civil Engineering in 2026/27. This scholarship is open to UK applicants and covers fees plus and maintenance. This fully funded PhD place provides an exciting opportunity to pursue postgraduate research in energy micropiles, a sustainable solution to provide thermal energy to buildings as well as structural support. Micropiles used for retrofit (such as underpinning, or basement construction) can be converted to sources of energy by inclusion of heat transfer pipes. This PhD project will investigate performance of these piles, and can be focused on any aspect of solution, including energy assessment, geotechnical or structural behaviour. The PhD is linked to an EPSRC funded research project in collaboration with the Universities of Surrey and Cambridge, and NTNU in Trondheim. The successful applicant will work in a team of researchers from these institutions and have access to data from field scales trials of energy micropiles in the UK and Norway. There will be opportunities for international travel associated with the project. The School of Civil Engineering invites applications from prospective postgraduate researchers who wish to commence study for a PhD in the academic year 2026/27. The successful applicant will work with world leading researchers in energy geotechnics and have access to state of the art field scale thermal testing and fibre optic monitoring equipment.

Research areas