We are seeking enthusiastic PhD students to join Northumbria University. We have a fully-funded PhD Project on "Examining the impacts of human factors on carbon emissions in sustainable buildings". The project will be supervised by Dr Cheng Siew Goh and Professor Richard Laing.

Project: Examining the impacts of human factors on carbon emissions in sustainable buildings

The project will examine the key human factors affecting the performance of sustainable buildings and assess how human factors impact the whole-life carbon emissions of sustainable buildings. This will help investigate in a broader sense the implications of different human factors (needs, expectations and interests) to the design and performance of sustainable buildings.

Carbon emissions are widely recognised as one of the popular measures to determine the performance of a sustainable building. This well-known environmental performance measure is however seldom linked to the social dimension in terms of human interventions. To examine the performance of sustainable buildings, there is a need to ‘reconcile’ the social dimension - human factors and the environmental dimension - carbon emission, with a provision of feedback to engage stakeholders for more proactive engagement in delivering sustainable development targets.

The study is expected to contribute to the future development of sustainable buildings by taking into account human factors in the planning and design of sustainable built environment. The study will also promote multi-disciplinary research at the intersection of sustainability studies, building technology, psychology, and behavioural science.

Academic Enquiries

This project is supervised by Dr Cheng Siew Goh. For informal queries, please contact cheng.s.goh@northumbria.ac.uk. For all other enquiries relating to eligibility or application process please contact Admissions at pgr.admissions@northumbria.ac.uk. 

Funding Notes:

Home and International students (inc. EU) are welcome to apply. The studentship is available to Home and International (including EU) students and includes a full stipend at UKRI rates (for 2023/24 full-time study this is £18,622 per year) and full tuition fees. Studentships are also available for applicants who wish to study on a part-time basis over 5 years (0.6 FTE, stipend £11,173 per year and full tuition fees) in combination with work or personal responsibilities.

Please also see further advice on additional costs that may apply to international students.

APPLY HERE:

https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/research/postgraduate-research-degrees/how-to-apply/  

In your application, please include a research proposal of approximately 1,000 words and the advert reference (RDF24/EE/ABE/GOH).

Deadline for applications: 26 January 2024

Start date of course: 1 October 2024