PhD Position on Process Systems Engineering for Flexible CO2 Utilisation under Renewable Energy Variability

Are you excited about applying mathematical modelling, optimization and control to accelerate the energy transition? In this PhD project, you will develop advanced Process Systems Engineering methodologies for the design and operation of flexible CO2 utilisation processes powered by intermittent renewable energy. You will work at the interface of chemical engineering, optimization, sustainability assessment and industrial implementation.

The transition towards a sustainable chemical industry requires new process concepts that can efficiently convert captured CO2 into valuable products while operating under fluctuating renewable energy supply. Such systems must be able to cope with variations in electricity availability and price while maintaining economic viability and environmental performance.

In this PhD project, you will develop advanced Process Systems Engineering (PSE) methodologies to support decision-making in the design and operation of electrified CO2 utilisation processes. Central to the research is the development of superstructure-based models that represent alternative process configurations and conversion pathways. These models will be integrated across multiple scales, ranging from reactor-level phenomena to complete process systems.

You will formulate optimization and control frameworks for flexible and dynamic operation, enabling processes to respond effectively to changing renewable energy availability. The developed methods will be translated into practical decision-support tools that help quantify techno-economic, environmental and sustainability trade-offs. The project combines mathematical modelling, process simulation, optimization, dynamic systems analysis and sustainability assessment.

You will become part of the Process Systems Engineering group within the Sustainable Process Technology cluster of the University of Twente. The group offers a collaborative, international and supportive research environment with strong expertise in modelling, optimization, control and digitalization of chemical processes. Through close interaction with industrial partners, you will ensure that the developed methodologies address real-world challenges and contribute directly to the future of sustainable process industries.

Postdoc Position on development of protonic ceramic cell technology for PtX and fuel cell applications

Protonic ceramic cells (PCC) have transformative potential as an electrochemical platform, capable of operating both as efficient fuel cells for power generation and as electrolysis cells for the sustainable production of fuels and chemicals using green electricity. Their intermediate operating temperatures of 400–600°C combined with similar class-leading efficiencies of higher temperature solid oxide cells (SOC) enable them to ease material and balance-of-plant constraints. In electrolysis mode, and in contrast to SOCs, steam and H2 are separated into different compartments in PCCs, which means various hydrogenation reactions can be performed in the H2 compartment within the cell. For instance, electrochemical conversion of N2 to NH3 and CO2 to CO and/or CH4 using only steam as an additional feedstock have already been demonstrated using PCCs.

In this postdoctoral position, you will contribute to the development, characterisation and testing of protonic ceramic cell technology across both Power-to-X and power generation applications. A significant part of your time will be dedicated to the development of novel pressurised protonic ceramic cell concepts for Power-to-X, targeting selective electrochemical conversion of CO2 to chemicals such as methanol and olefins, as well as N2 to ammonia. As part of this, you will contribute to the pressurised tubular cell test setup currently being developed in the group. Operating PCCs at elevated pressures is a promising route to improve selectivity towards higher-value products and to enable more efficient downstream integration, but it introduces new challenges across cell fabrication, sealing, transport phenomena and electrocatalysis that you will help address. Alongside this, you will also work on fuel-flexible protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs), capable of operating on a range of hydrogen-containing fuels.

Beyond these focal topics, as an experienced experimentalist you will actively contribute to other projects in the group on high-temperature electrochemistry, spanning both protonic ceramic and solid oxide electrochemical cells, and share in group responsibilities including the mentoring of PhD, Master and Bachelor students. The position offers the opportunity to collaborate with academic and industrial partners across the group’s various projects.

Postdoctoral fellow opening: Ambulatory Biomechanics, Sensor Fusion, and Machine Learning for Wearable Robotics

As part of an ambitious collaborative research project between the Sint Maartens Kliniek and the University of Twente’s Wearable Robotics Lab, we are seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher to advance estimation and sensor fusion methods for next-generation wearable robotics. The project focuses on the development of the E-Walk concept: a wearable assistive device that combines novel sensing technologies, biomechanical modeling, and machine learning to estimate human joint moments and external disturbances, and to derive robust, activity-agnostic control strategies for stable exoskeleton-assisted walking in people with impaired gait.

You will work closely together with a PhD candidate, a technician, and another postdoctoral fellow that will be recruited for the E-walk project, in close collaboration with external partners involved in the project. If you are excited about interdisciplinary research at the interface of robotics, biomechanics, control, and artificial intelligence, and motivated to contribute to impactful exoskeleton technologies, we encourage you to apply.

The opening
The project combines wearable sensing, ambulatory biomechanics, inverse dynamics, and machine learning to enable the next generation of intelligent exoskeletons for mobility support and rehabilitation. The main goal for this position it to integrate novel instrumented insoles with exoskeleton sensors, and to estimate human joint moments and external disturbances in real-world settings.

Your tasks will be

• Develop and validate novel estimation methods for human joint moments and external disturbances using wearable sensors and novel instrumented insoles.
• Design,implement, and evaluate sensor fusion and ambulatory biomechanics algorithms to estimate kinematics and dynamics outside laboratory settings.
• Develop data-driven models for gait understanding and prediction, including gait features, terrain, and nominal joint moments.
• Integrate and validate the developed methods within experimental exoskeleton systems, using data from both controlled and real-world environments.

Your secondary tasks will include:

• Collaboration with interdisciplinary researchers in neurorehabilitation, biomechanics, robotics, and machine learning.
• Dissemination of research outcomes through scientific publications, open-source tools, and international conferences.
• Help in the education we provide and supervising master and bachelor students that are working on projects related to E-walk.

ABOUT THE LAB
The Wearable Robotics Lab at the University of Twente is a multi-disciplinary team. They use exoskeletons, exosuits and bionic prostheses, combining biomechanical modelling, advanced sensing and intelligent control. This work aims to improve mobility rehabilitation and quality of life of people who need support.

Our lab is part of the Biomechatronics group of the department of Biomechanical Engineering. You will join a vibrant and interdisciplinary ecosystem that is embedded in the Robotics Center and the Techmed Centre that collaborate closely with industry and clinical partners.

EngD Position on Reference Architecture for Interoperable and Federated Digital Building Permitting

The construction sector is undergoing rapid digital transformation, with increasing adoption of data-driven methods to improve the efficiency, transparency, and sustainability of building design and permitting processes. Despite this progress, regulatory compliance and permitting workflows remain highly fragmented across municipalities and stakeholders, often relying on manual coordination and heterogeneous digital systems. This limits scalability, slows down approval processes, and constrains the adoption of industrialised and sustainable construction approaches.

Within the OIVA (Open Innovation for Verified Automation) project at the University of Twente, we offer an EngD position focused on the design of architectural and interoperability concepts for next-generation digital building permitting ecosystems. The envisioned context is a distributed and federated digital permitting system, where compliance checks are not executed centrally but performed by multiple specialised and independent solution providers.

This EngD project focuses on how architectural principles, interoperability frameworks, and semantic approaches can support consistent and reliable information exchange across a multi-actor ecosystem. Rather than defining how compliance checks are implemented, the work emphasizes how information should be structured, shared, and interpreted to enable diverse compliance mechanisms across independent providers.

Key attention areas include the design of reference architectures for distributed digital ecosystems, supporting modularity, scalability, and extensibility over time. This includes exploring how structured data requirements for permitting workflows can be consistently defined with an ontology and aligned with existing standards and regulatory frameworks, as well as how different actors in the ecosystem can reliably exchange and interpret information. Additional focus is placed on cross-organisational interaction and workflow coordination within the permitting process, including how submissions are routed, how results from multiple service providers are aggregated, and how consolidated outputs can support decision-making by authorities.

The EngD trainee will work on designing and evaluating architectural concepts and frameworks that support interoperable, secure, and scalable digital permitting ecosystems. The work will be carried out in close collaboration with the Municipality of Eindhoven and industrial partners, and will draw on expertise in enterprise architecture, information systems design, interoperability, and digital governance. The outcome will contribute to reusable architectural building blocks that can support the development of distributed digital permitting ecosystems in national and European contexts.

Assistant Professor for the Psychology of Conflict, Risk, and Safety Section

We are seeking an Assistant Professor to strengthen the Psychology of Conflict, Risk and Safety section at the University of Twente. The position focuses on understanding how people perceive, experience, and respond to threats to psychological, physical, societal, and environmental safety. These include a wide range of contemporary challenges such as crisis situations, (cyber)crime, risk communication, restorative justice, and sustainability-related issues including climate change and societal transitions. The successful candidate will contribute to an interdisciplinary and impact-oriented research agenda aimed at addressing safety and resilience challenges, using evidence-based, and where relevant technology-supported, approaches that strengthen resilience and promote safer and more sustainable societies. The role combines research and teaching within our Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes in Psychology, as well as the Master’s programme in Risk Management, with a strong emphasis on connecting scientific insight to societal relevance and real-world impact.