PhD Studentship: Diagnosing Degradation in Electric Vehicle Battery Packs for Second-Life Energy Storage

Funding amount: 4 year Scholarship - Minimum tax-free stipend at the current Faraday Institution rate is £20,780 for 2025/2026, matching the standard UKRI rate. Funding is available to home students only. For eligibility, check here

The project:

Second-life battery energy storage offers a major long-term opportunity for the UK, supporting renewable electricity integration and reducing pressure on critical mineral supply. In 2030, end-of-first-life electric vehicle batteries will exceed 110GWh worldwide, annually. If deployed effectively, these systems could meet a 60% share of global storage demand (183GWh demand is predicted for 2030) at low cost and with low carbon impact. Realising this opportunity requires reliable methods to assess a battery pack’s degraded state without dismantling it, because second-life markets cannot support cell-level diagnostics or full historical visibility of operating conditions. 

The PhD will develop battery diagnostic tools that draw on physics-based degradation modelling. Targeted work areas include:

• Reconstructing thermal and electrical loading conditions from imperfect EV BMS data, which is typically limited to low sampling rates and sparse temperature measurements.
• Develop methods to integrate thermal/electrical loading conditions with existing modelling frameworks (such as PyBaMM).
• Identify coupling between first-life operating conditions and plausible degradation pathways.
• Combining modelling and experiments to identify degradation mechanisms that are present in a pack and how they influence safety and performance.
• Defining state-of-health diagnostic methods to identify problematic degradation pathways.

The successful applicant will become a member of the 2026 Faraday Institution PhD cohort, receiving a stipend of £20,780 per year for four years. They will benefit from a generous travel budget and a comprehensive Faraday Institution training programme, valued at £20,000 (see example training programme here). They will also become affiliated with Faraday’s Multi-scale Modelling project, be offered opportunities to build transferable and industry-ready skills, and gain access to the wider battery community. 

Co-supervision and close collaboration with a leading UK company in the second-life battery industry will ensure that proposed diagnostic approaches are suitable for consistent at scale deployment.

How to apply:

Please make an online application for this project via the above 'Apply' button. Please select <programme title> on the Programme Choice page. You will be prompted to enter details of the studentship in the Funding and Research Details sections of the form. 

Candidate requirements: Applicants must hold/achieve a minimum of a merit at master’s degree level (or international equivalent) in a science, mathematics or engineering discipline. Applicants without a master's qualification may be considered on an exceptional basis. Please note, acceptance will also depend on evidence of readiness to pursue a research degree.

If English is not your first language, you need to meet this profile level:

Profile E

Further information about English language requirements and profile levels.

Please submit your CV and a cover letter to Alastair Hales (a.hales@bristol.ac.uk).

Applications will be reviewed and interviews are expected to take place around 30/5/2026.

Funding: The successful applicant will become a member of the 2026 Faraday Institution PhD cohort, receiving a stipend of £20,780 per year for four years. They will benefit from a generous travel budget and a comprehensive Faraday Institution training programme, valued at £20,000 (see example training programme here). They will also become affiliated with Faraday’s Multi-scale Modelling project, be offered opportunities to build transferable and industry-ready skills, and gain access to the wider battery community.

Contacts: For questions about the research topic, please contact Alastair Hales (a.hales@bristol.ac.uk)

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