Prize Fellow

About the role

Join our thriving Centre of Excellence in Water-Based Systems for Health Protection and Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering as a Prize Fellow in Water Sensing Platforms.

The Centre of Excellence in Water-Based Early-Warning Systems for Health Protection (CWBE) is a £13m interdisciplinary research centre, established in 2024 with funding from Research England’s Expanding Excellence in England (E3) scheme, together with contributions from the University of Bath and partners. 

We are working to transform public and environmental health management. We are establishing the first Urban Living Lab facility. This includes a new digital water sensing platform, training base, and idOur ambition is to provide a practical roadmap for a UK early-warning system. This will be co-produced with regional and national collaborators. It will serve as a sentinel and multigenerational testing site for research. novation. This platform will enable testing of public health and environmental interventions committed to growing community resilience to disease, pollution and climate change impacts. 

We are looking to recruit a Prize Fellow:

• To develop an internationally leading independent research programme in the broad area of water/wastewater sensing systems. 
• To teach aspects of sensing systems in both lectures and laboratory classes, maintaining the University’s high standards in teaching and learning, and its inclusive and supportive learning environment. 
• To contribute, with support, at an appropriate level to the administration, leadership, and management of the Department’s and Centre’s activities. 

About you

At Bath we offer an exceptional environment for research teaching and learning and we wish to support you in reaching your potential for internationally leading research, in the broad field of water-based epidemiology. Applications are invited for a Prize Fellow position in the Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering to join the multidisciplinary CWBE team, working on wastewater-based early warning systems for public health protection.

The successful candidate will develop an independent research programme aligned with the CWBE mission while expanding the Centre's existing capabilities in water/wastewater sensing platforms. Experience with water or wastewater sensing systems such as chemosensor/biosensor development, sensor deployment, deployable analyte pre-concentration systems, autonomous sampling systems, or IoT is required. The applicant is expected to have expertise in one or two of the areas above and be able to work across the other areas. [BM1] As part of the CWBE team you will work alongside Engineers, Chemists, Biologists and Social Scientists and as such teamwork is essential. You will also be embedded within the Centre for Bioengineering & Biomedical Technologies (CBio), including experts on sensors, autonomous systems and IoT. Both CWBE and CBio are highly supportive and inclusive environments, with vibrant research activity.

You should hold a PhD and be able to demonstrate the potential to develop an internationally leading research programme, to acquire significant funding from UK and international sources, and to produce high-quality publications.

Further information

This role is a full-time fixed term position (36.5 hours per week for 24 months). Subject to satisfactory progress at the end of the fixed term, the position will transfer to a Lectureship in the Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering and CWBE. 

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Dr Benjamin Metcalfe, Head of Department (bwm23@bath.ac.uk) or Professor Pedro Estrela, Co-Director of CWBE (p.estrela@bath.ac.uk). 

Interviews are provisionally scheduled to take place on 20 November 2026.

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