PhD Studentship: Recycling high-impact Polypropylenes for the Automotive Sector

This 3.5-year PhD project is fully funded and home students are eligible to apply. The successful candidate will receive an annual tax-free stipend set at the UKRI rate (£21,805 for 2026/27) and tuition fees will be paid. We expect the stipend to increase each year. The start date is October 2026.

We recommend that you apply early as the advert may be removed before the deadline.

We seek an enthusiastic PhD candidate to help enable the circular economy for plastics within the automotive industry. Working with industry co-sponsor Artifex (https://www.artifexinteriorsystems.com) and based in the Sustainable Materials Innovation Hub (https://smihub.ac.uk) at the University of Manchester, the project will deepen our understanding of the link between recycled feedstock and performance, developing the analytical tools and processing conditions help to retain material properties during recycling. Accessing modern analytical capabilities (rheology, GPC, tensile testing, microscopy) and processing tools (extrusion, injection moulding, fibre spinning), the project strives to improve the quality of recycled polypropylene grades suitable for automotive applications, becoming the guide standard for performance in meeting impact specifications for more demanding automotive applications. For the most promising routes, quantification of environmental impacts through life cycle assessment and identifying process hot-spots for future development.

With close collaboration with our industry partner Artifex, you will have the opportunity to learn from, and transfer knowledge to, a leading interiors manufacturer, with the potential to scale up solutions and see your research make a demonstrable impact on real world challenges, manufacturing methods, and products.

Applicants should have, or expect to achieve, at least a 2.1 honours degree or a master’s in a relevant science or engineering related discipline, including polymer chemistry, polymer physics, materials science, materials engineering, manufacturing or mechanical engineering.

To apply, please contact the main supervisor; Prof Michael Shaver - michael.shaver@manchester.ac.uk. Please include details of your current level of study, academic background and any relevant experience and include a paragraph about your motivation to study this PhD project.

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