15 PhD positions in Zinc Energy Storage Technology

About this position

Applications are invited for 15 PhD positions (“Doctoral Candidates”, DCs) to be funded by the Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network “ZEST – European Doctoral Network on Zinc Energy Storage Technology” within the Horizon Europe programme of the European Commission.

Climate change represents one of the greatest current challenges. Heatwaves have resulted in nearly 145,000 excess deaths across Europe over the last 40 years. We are also witnessing rising sea levels, displacements of people, and increasing threats to food and water security.

In addition to the cost in human lives, climate-related extreme weather events, including floods, heatwaves, storms, and droughts, are estimated to cause annual economic losses of approximately €54 billion in the European Union and €132 billion worldwide. To combat these problems, the world is racing to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy. However, the intermittent nature of solar and wind energy sources requires the development of efficient, reliable, and sustainable energy storage technologies to ensure a stable and resilient energy supply.

Although lithium-ion batteries currently dominate the energy storage market, concerns regarding the availability of critical raw materials, rising costs, supply chain vulnerabilities, and environmental impacts have driven the search for alternative battery chemistries. In this context, zinc-based energy storage technologies have emerged as promising complementary solutions owing to the natural resource abundance, low cost, and safety.

The ZEST European Doctoral Network on Zinc Energy Storage Technology has a clear mission: ZEST is a network focused on novel materials, designs and processes that can merge high performance and sustainability. It will explore advanced, aqueous zinc-ion batteries, zinc-air batteries, zinc-ion systems with non-conventional electrolytes such as deep-eutectic solvents and water-in-salt, and it will look at new ways to improve the recyclability and circularity of zinc batteries. These innovations will break new ground in energy density, scalability, and recyclability.

This ZEST network will assemble a team of 15 Doctoral Candidates (DCs), with each DC contributing to the overall aim of advancing zinc energy-storage technology through an individual research project with connections to other DC research projects in ZEST.

The Zinc Energy Storage Technology (ZEST) Doctoral Network includes major academic centres across Europe, including KU Leuven, Universität Bremen, University College London, Sapienza Università di Roma, Politecnico di Milano and Research Institutes of Sweden as well as key industry, such as EverZinc, IMEC, Grillo Zinc Powder, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Prosemino, Dronematrix and ACCUREC Recycling.