Open PhD and post-doc positions in geothermal at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Trinity College Dublin (source: Official website)
Carlo Cariaga
19 Feb 2025
Trinity College Dublin in Ireland is advertising a PhD position and a post-doc Research Fellow position for a research project on geothermal district heating.
The Department of Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering of Trinity College Dublin in Ireland is advertising one PhD position and one post-doctoral Research Fellow position as part of the URBAN-GeoHeat project. Applications for both positions will be accepted only until 7 March 2025
For those who are interested, please follow the link to the corresponding opening:
- PhD Studentship – Geothermal Energy (36 months, full time, commencing by April 2025)
- Post-Doctoral Researcher in assessing the potential of geothermal energy recovery through restructures in Ireland (Full time)
The URBAN-GeoHeat project aims to assess the feasibility of geothermal energy as a source of district heating for residential developments in Dublin.
The project will carry out intensive monitoring of a residential development incorporating shallow (<25m) foundation piles. A small-scale prototype involving geothermal loops will also be installed within a number of these foundation piles which will be connected to a prototype geothermal heating system. The goal of this prototype is not to test implementation of district heating at scale but to test and demonstrate a working prototype in real world conditions to investigate feasibility for construction and operation of such a systems. It will also serve as a flagship demonstration of how district heating linked to geostructures can be incorporated into design in new developments in Dublin going forward.
The collected data will be used to assess temporal variations in performance against changing climatic and energy demand profiles and to develop numerical models of each system in terms of heat transfer and groundwater flow. These calibrated models will be then used to evaluate potential optimised system configurations to gain more heat from the same footprint. Overall, the results of this study should help to stimulate the somewhat nascent concept of district heating as a realistic future approach to more sustainable energy management in urban areas of Ireland.
Trinity is Ireland’s leading university and is ranked 87th in the world (QS World University Rankings 2025). Founded in 1592, the University is steeped in history with a reputation for excellence in education, research, and innovation, which has been inspiring generations of thinkers for over 400 years.
Source: Email Correspondence
