Research Associate in Services From Flexible Global Supply Chains

Job number

**ENG03652**
- Faculties

**Faculty of Engineering**
- Departments

**Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering**
- Salary or Salary range

**£49,017 - £57,472 per annum**
- Location/campus

**South Kensington Campus - Hybrid**
- Contract type work pattern

**Full time - Fixed term**
- Posting End Date

**12 Oct 2025**

**About the role**:
How could GSCs enable LDS? While globalisation and offshoring have delivered substantial gains in productivity and welfare, recent disruptions have exposed vulnerabilities in the structure of GSCs. This has created a pressing need to understand how GSCs can be reconfigured to enhance resilience and support decarbonisation. The postholder will contribute to the development of a novel firm-level dataset covering international and domestic production linkages—both internal to firms and involving external suppliers—by combining administrative, confidential, and privately sourced data. This will support empirical analysis of the relationship between industrial electricity consumption, emissions, supply chain design, economic adjustment and electricity grids.

The immediate Leverhulme team currently includes Professor Mark O'Malley (Leverhulme Professor), Dr Elina Spyrou (Leverhulme Lecturer), Professor Janusz Bialek (a part-time Principal Research Fellow), two post-doctoral Research Associates, four pre-doctoral Research Assistants, and four PhD students. The larger project team in the UK consists of about 40 staff and students at Imperial as part of the Global Centres in Electric Power Innovation for a Carbon-free Society (EPICS). EPICS globally currently has a team of around 60 people. The team has a diverse range of skills and this post will be focussed on GSC flexibility for the provision of LDS in a collaboration between Electrical Engineering and Economics. Imperial’s Economics and Public Policy department has leading expertise in energy and trade economics, including Dr Mirabelle Muûls, Professor Richard Green, Professor Ralf Martin and Dr Esther Böler.

The research direction of EPICS is aligned to the Global Power System Transformation (G-PST) initiative and its Research Agenda.

**What you would be doing**:

- Plan research and direct the work of small research teams.
- Assist in the supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate research students and Research Assistants.
- Write reports for submission to research sponsors, presenting research findings to colleagues at conferences.
- Publish in high-quality refereed journals and participate in attracting additional research funding.
- Conduct and plan your own scientific work with mínimal supervision.
- Be based at Imperial, collaborate closely with colleagues at Imperial and in the G-PST consortium.
- Visit collaborators in the G-PST consortium, attending relevant workshops and conferences, developing and pursuing collaborations within Imperial and with the wider community.
- Maintain a highly organised and accurate record of experimental work and promote the reputation of the team, the Department and the University.

**What we are looking for**:

- Be already holding (awarded) — at the start date of the position — a doctoral degree in Economics, Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Data Science or a closely related discipline. It is preferable, but not required, that applicants have expertise and an interest in

(1) flexibility in global supply chains and data centres that can complement variable renewables,

(2) Power system economics and electricity market design.
- Independence in thought and actions combined with practical experience within a research environment and / or publications in relevant and refereed journals.
- Knowledge of some combination of computer languages including but not limited to Python, R, PyOMO, Julia.

**What we can offer you**:

- The opportunity to continue your career at a world-leading institution and be part of our mission to continue science for humanity.
- Grow your career: Gain access to Imperial’s sector-leading dedicated career support for researchers as well as opportunities for promotion and progression.
- Sector-leading salary and remuneration package (including 39 days off a year and generous pension schemes).
- Up to a 24-month fixed-term contract in the first instance and the opportunity to spend time working internationally within the EPICS and G-PST ecosystem.

**Further information**:
Further information about the post is available in the job description.

The role is full-time and fixed-term for up to 24-months in the first instance.

Applications need to be made online via our website and should include the following components:

- Cover letter that states why you are interested in the post and suitable for it.
- Curriculum Vitae.
- Description of previous research experience (1-2 pages).
- Description of future research plans (1-2 pages).
- Names and contact details of at least two academic referees who could write about your suitability for this p