Hosting Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026

o   Host Institution/Research Group: School of Environmental and Life Sciences_,_ University of Hull, United Kingdom

o   Principal Investigator: Professor Will Mayes

o   Research Areas of Interest - We specialise in improving our understanding and managing environmental risks associated with wastes from a range of industrial and municipal sources.  We work across scales ranging from laboratory bench-scale assessments of pollution remediation, up to national / international GIS-based assessments of risk and resource recovery potential. Areas of recent focus include:  

• Reuse, value recovery and remediation of mineral processing wastes (e.g. steel slags, bauxite processing residue)  

• Monitoring and management of pollution from abandoned non-coal mines 

• Catchment-scale approaches to assessing PFAS source, transport and fate, integrating hydrological monitoring with chemical analyses 

• Understanding climate-based risks associated with legacy wastes through national scale GIS assessments and site investigations 

• Developing nature-based approaches for managing legacy wastes and enhancing brownfield sites

o   What we offer:

Facilities and resources: 

• We have a range of laboratory analytical equipment including: Laser Ablation ICP-MS; Liquid Chromatography-tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS); XRD; XRF, FTIR, to support our field and laboratory work. 

• We are equipped with a range of equipment for field monitoring of water quality and hydrology. 

• We have novel bench scale rotating bed reactors for trialling treatment solutions.

Collaborative networks: 

• Within the university, we have colleagues specialising in different aspects of pollution management and waste valorisation who can offer input to potential projects including Dr Anna Bird (geochemist), Dr Sue Hull (ecologist). Dr Ben Kolosz (carbon capture and LCA), Dr Samantha Richardson (analytical chemist), Dr Alex Riley (GIS specialist), Dr Martin Taylor (chemical engineer). 

• We have active external collaborations with a range of academic partners in the UK and overseas, as well as with regulators (e.g. Environment Agency) and industry (e.g. leading engineering consultancies; global mining houses).  These offer opportunities for academic network building, and with our industrial and regulatory partners, provide samples and data so that our research addresses real world sites and issues.

Data: 

• We have led national efforts to asses the impacts of non-coal (i.e. metal and ironstone) mines on the water environment, as well national risk assessment efforts for coastal waste sites under a changing climate. As such we have collated a range of national scale geodatabases on sites, waste deposits, discharge water quality, and nearby receptors.  These provide a range of opportunities for large scale assessments of environmental risk, assessment of land-based pollutant contribution to the coastal zone; valorisation potential of industrial byproducts, and providing a basis for laboratory investigations focusing on remedial solutions.

o   Candidate’s expected influence:

We have opportunities across the research areas of interest above that will provide collaboration opportunities and practical experience in a range of a) field data collection, b) high quality laboratory analysis, and c) spatial analysis and big data management.  We will mentor the candidate to take a leading role in developing high impact outputs for conferences and papers for leading international journals, alongside broader dissemination to our non-academic network with the aim of positively influencing policy and practice. 

o   How to Express Interest:

§  Interested candidates are encouraged to contact (your work email address)

§  A CV and a cover letter outlining their research interests, relevant experience, and initial ideas for a potential MSCA PF project (max. 1 page).

§  EU Call deadline: 9th September 2026

§  Proposal deadline for contacting the team: 20 April 2026 (Late enquiries may be considered from exceptional candidates with particularly strong or relevant profiles).

§  Please note that the University of Hull actively encourages expressions of interest for the MSCA European Postdoctoral Fellowships only.