Postdoctoral Research Associate

**Postdoctoral Research Associate** **(**Job Number**:25000276**)**

Department of Management and Marketing

Grade 7: - £38,249 - £45,413

Fixed Term - Full Time

**Contract Duration**: 24 months

**Contracted Hours per Week**: 35

**Closing Date**: 23-Mar-2025, 6:59:00 PM

**Disclosure and Barring Service Requirement**: Not Applicable.

Durham University is one of the world's top universities, with strengths across the Arts and Humanities, Sciences, Social Sciences and Business Studies. We are home to some of the most talented scholars and researchers from around the world who are tackling global issues and making a difference to people's lives.

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Less than 3 hours north of London, and an hour and a half south of Edinburgh, County Durham is a region steeped in history and natural beauty. Durham offers an excellent choice of city, suburban and rural residential locations. The University provides a range of benefits including pension and childcare benefits and the University’s Relocation Manager can assist with potential schooling requirements.

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**The Department**

Our vision is to lead business thought and practice to improve global wealth and well-being. Our associated mission is to create, share and use knowledge to deliver equitable and sustainable futures around the world. We pursue this mission by advancing world-changing knowledge and securing global impact through collaborative research across disciplines and around the world.

**The Role**

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) to support the research project “**Evaluation of Space Debris and Its Potential Usage for a Circular Space Economy**”. The project will focus on developing optimal circular-economy pathways for end-of-life satellites and space debris, considering the best-use configuration among various alternative potential uses. Specifically, you will work on optimal circular pathway design for Space debris and on business model development around circular economy of space debris This will include:

- Design of an appropriate service-led business model for commercialising and enabling for-profit services around the circular economy of space debris.

The successful applicant will work alongside the project PI, Prof. Atanu Chaudhuri, and Mr. Ralph Dinsley from project partner 3S Northumbria Limited, Prof. Lenos Trigeorgis and Dr. Zsofia Toth. During the first year, it will also involve close collaboration with another PDRA involved in phase 1 of the 4-year project focused on assessing the content and value of materials. The PDRA role is funded by Durham University Business School’s Smart & Scale initiative, an interdisciplinary impact-driven research programme in smart and scale-up activities focusing on innovation and business development of SMEs in the North-East of England.

**Responsibilities**:**
- To work with the Principal Investigator and the other colleagues involved in the research project and with the industrial partner in building appropriate models using switching option or real option analysis, identifying an appropriate dataset with realistic parameter estimation and analysing the dataset to assess the value and optimal pathways for space debris reuse.
- To conduct interviews with Space industry experts, broader stakeholders, and other researchers in the Durham University Responsible Space Innovation Centre in obtaining realistic parameter estimates to populate the theoretical switching models and develop a service-led business model for commercialising space debris reuse.
- To engage in and facilitate publishing high quality outputs, including papers for submission to peer reviewed journals and papers for presentation at conferences and workshops under the direction of the Principal Investigator and other research colleagues involved in the project.
- To deal with any problems that may affect the achievement of research objectives and deadlines by discussing with the Principal Investigator and other colleagues in the res