EngD position on Developing an Interactive Reverse Logistics Map for Circular Construction (CIRCOLOGIC)

The construction sector is under increasing pressure to reduce CO2 emissions, limit material consumption, and accelerate the transition towards circular and modular construction methods. While significant progress has been made in optimising logistics for new construction, far less attention has been paid to the reverse side of the value chain: what happens to materials when ‘donor’ buildings are renovated, transformed, or deconstructed - and how these materials can be reused in other ‘target’ projects.

Many building components still have substantial technical and environmental value, but are downcycled or discarded. The main barriers are not only technical, but also logistical, economic, and organisational: uncertainty about availability, quality, timing, transport, storage, costs, and liability makes reuse difficult to integrate into design and planning decisions. At the same time, digital developments such as BIM, product passports, digital twins, and data-driven logistics provide new opportunities to bridge these gaps - if they are connected in a meaningful way.

This EngD project addresses this challenge by developing an interactive reverse logistics map for circular construction. It links three different deliverables together to support different construction actors with relevant reuse- and replacement-oriented decisions: (i) an interactive geographical map, (ii) a calculation/optimization module, and (iii) a scenario engine.

Main activities
Your work will consist of the following interconnected activities:

1. Use case and requirements definition

Together with Dura Vermeer, the University of Twente (UT), and TNO, you will define pilot cases and key decision questions. This includes identifying critical KPIs (e.g. CO2, cost, circularity), uncertainty factors, and stakeholder information needs.

2. Data integration and system architecture

You will design a data model that combines logistics, emissions, material characteristics, and reuse concepts. This includes aligning different data sources such as planning data, material inventories, product passports, and logistics parameters.

3. Interactive map and scenario engine design

You will develop a GIS-like interactive map and scenario engine that allows users to compare demolition, deconstruction, reuse, refurbishment, modular construction, and new-build scenarios. The visual component will play a key role in making trade-offs transparent and accessible.

4. Pilot implementation in practice

The tool will be tested and validated in one or more real (de)construction projects. You will work with the contractor Dura Vermeer to better understand the context and potential use cases.

5. Evaluation and scaling strategy

You will evaluate the impact of the tool on emission reduction, reuse potential, logistics efficiency, and planning reliability. Based on the results, you will outline a roadmap for broader application and scaling.

Collaboration and embedding
This EngD position bridges two larger research projects - ECOLOGIC (on optimizing construction logistics) and PACER (on circular and emission-free renovation - and a Joint Innovation Center (JIC) in which UT and TNO work together (on accelerating housing production).

PhD position on Circular Construction Management & Engineering Futures

As a PhD candidate, you will investigate how construction professionals adapt their everyday practices in a rapidly transforming built environment. The sector is undergoing fundamental change across the entire building lifecycle, from design and construction to demolition and reuse. This project rethinks the built environment as an “urban mine,” where materials needed for the energy transition, such as installations and cables, are no longer treated as waste, but recovered and recirculated to enable more circular futures.

Your research will focus on how these shifts play out in real-world practice. Instead of staying at the level of policy visions or technical potential, you will examine what designers, contractors, and demolition actors really do when confronted with reuse, digital tools, and sustainability targets. You will conduct in-depth case studies of the key practices that are currently being reshaped.

Using a combination of ethnographic observations, interviews, and document analyses, you will uncover how digital tools and emerging approaches are being used to transform construction processes. A central part of your work will be to analyse how practices evolve over time, paying attention to the interactions between tools, organisational structures, regulations, and collaboration across different actors.

You will identify, analyse, and resolve tensions that arise in this transformation - for example, between circularity ambitions and economic or practical constraints. Understanding these tensions is key to enabling meaningful change. Based on your findings, you will develop digital solutions and actionable recommendations to support the large-scale adoption of material reuse and more sustainable practices throughout the building lifecycle.

Your work will contribute directly to shaping future jobs, skills, and training pathways in the construction sector, ensuring that the workforce is equipped to deliver on the ambitions of a circular and digital built environment.

FUTURED project
This PhD position is part of the NWO-funded FUTURED project (Fostering Upskilled Talent for Urban Resilience, Energy Transition, and Digitalisation in the Built Environment). FUTURED unites seven research institutions and 20 societal partners to address the challenge of labour shortage in a changing built environment. The Netherlands faces an urgent need for qualified professionals to make its built environment more sustainable and digitally advanced. The pace of the energy and digital transitions is faster than the labour market can adjust, creating shortages and hindering attraction and retention. Current initiatives are scattered, and cooperation between education providers and employers remains insufficient. The FUTURED project integrates four work packages to equip construction actors with the scenarios, evidence and tools needed to boost the workforce in the built environment.

HR-assistent

Als HR-assistent ben jij een belangrijke steun voor het HR-team en een vertrouwd aanspreekpunt voor medewerkers en leidinggevenden. Je houdt je onder andere bezig met het verwerken van indiensttredingen en personeelswijzigingen in het HR-systeem. Je ondersteunt bij werving en selectie en ondersteunt de HR adviseur waar je nauw mee samenwerkt. Daarnaast beantwoord je vragen van medewerkers en leidinggevenden over regelingen en procedures.

Je zorgt ervoor dat personeelsdossiers actueel en compleet zijn. Daarnaast signaleer je verbeterpunten in processen en denk je mee over mogelijke oplossingen.

Samen met je HR-collega’s werk je aan verschillende projecten. Met jouw gestructureerde en servicegerichte aanpak lever je een waardevolle bijdrage aan een goed functionerende HR-afdeling.

PhD position: Hybrid particle-continuum modelling of backward erosion piping in heterogenous soil layers

In dike safety assessment, it is important to understand how failure processes at different scales contribute to flood risk. In the case of BEP, this includes erosion at the pipe tip, continued erosion along the growing pipe, and the transport of sediment under changing hydraulic conditions. These processes are driven by local and regional groundwater flow, which is strongly affected by variations in the shallow subsurface. Existing models often rely on (semi-)empirical rules, such as the Sellmeijer criterion, to predict pipe growth and the critical hydraulic head. However, because the underlying BEP mechanisms are still not fully understood, the main parameters controlling pipe development remain uncertain. As a result, predictions of when failure will occur can vary significantly.

Within Work Package 3, Upscaling BEP models across scales, you will address the following scientific challenge: incorporating BEP mechanisms into continuum-based models in which the interaction between pipe growth at the micro-scale and groundwater flow at the local and regional scale is explicitly represented. You will use an existing concurrent multi-scale modelling framework that combines the finite element method (FEM) and the discrete element method (DEM).

You will work closely with two other PhD candidates who will study how 3D subsurface variability influences BEP behaviour, using both simplified and advanced BEP models within a unified probabilistic framework. This approach makes it possible to combine models with different levels of detail and computational cost, and to use them efficiently for quantifying the risk of dike failure caused by backward erosion piping.

PhD position: High resolution micro-scale modelling of Backward Erosion Piping

A key threat to dike stability is Backward Erosion Piping (BEP), a complex process in which seepage flow through the dike foundation progressively concentrates into internal erosion channels (“pipes”) caused by sand particle erosion, particularly during high-water events. In the worst-case scenario, such pipes can develop into breaches. Current assessment methods use overly simplified models that don’t account for the intricate physics beneath the surface. Digital Dikes addresses this critical challenge by developing advanced numerical models that capture the 3D nature of BEP and the variability of soil and water conditions. The program will train 14 young researchers to develop, apply and validate novel modelling methodologies to assess dike safety, in collaboration with industry, government, and international partners.

Project details:
Internal erosion mechanisms remain poorly understood, particularly at the microscale, which limits the development of reliable models for real-life dikes. Two distinct processes govern Backward Erosion Piping: primary erosion (Darcy-driven erosion at the pipe tip) and secondary erosion (tangential erosion along the pipe walls), which are responsible for the upstream propagation and for the widening of the erosion channel, respectively.

This PhD project will employ advanced particle–fluid simulation tools to model microscale piping erosion, with a particular focus on primary erosion mechanisms. The foreseen numerical simulations methods are the Discrete Element Method (DEM) for the granular soil and the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) for the seepage flow at the pore scale. This coupled framework can resolve complex pore-scale fluid flow and effectively captures particle motion driven by erosion. The study will target:

• Primary erosion at the upstream-propagating pipe tip;
• Three-dimensional pipe networks, where secondary streams converge into the primary pipe, forming meandering pathways as the pipe advances;
• The influence of small-scale heterogeneities (e.g., local density variations) on the development of meandering patterns.

The overarching objective is to establish connections between soil characteristics (particle size distribution, initial density, and pressure), local heterogeneity, and, in turn, the 3D advancement of the pipe tip. By comparing different soil conditions, the study will assess how primary erosion is affected by the formation of 3D branches in relation to soil properties.

This project necessitates high-performance computing (HPC) methods and infrastructures to enable, for the first time, a three-dimensional particle-scale numerical investigation of BEP primary erosion.