Seeking partners for an MSCA Doctoral Network on Circular Economy, Waste Valorisation and Environmental Geochemistry

I am seeking academic and non-academic partners to develop a competitive proposal for the MSCA Doctoral Networks call.

The network will focus on innovative solutions for the circular economy through the sustainable management and valorisation of waste materials, integrating environmental geochemistry, waste engineering, biogeochemistry, geomaterials, resource recovery, environmental remediation and digital approaches for environmental assessment. The vision is to train a new generation of interdisciplinary researchers capable of addressing major environmental challenges related to waste, critical raw materials, contaminated land, landfill sustainability and climate resilience.

I am particularly interested in collaborating with:

• Universities able to supervise PhD candidates and contribute to advanced doctoral training.

• Research institutes and technology centres with complementary expertise in environmental sciences, geochemistry, materials science, microbiology, modelling, AI or digital environmental technologies.

• Companies, utilities, environmental consultancies, engineering firms and waste management organisations interested in hosting doctoral secondments, co-supervising research and facilitating technology transfer.

Potential research topics may include:
• Circular use of mineral and industrial wastes.
• Waste-to-resource technologies and critical raw material recovery.
• Sustainable landfill engineering and biobarrier systems.
• Environmental geochemistry of soils, wastes and groundwater.
• Bio-mediated and nature-based remediation technologies.
• Digitalisation, AI and data-driven approaches for environmental management.

I am especially interested in partners committed to excellent doctoral training, international collaboration and long-term research cooperation, with the possibility of developing a Joint Doctorate if appropriate.