Do you want to contribute to the safety of high-pressure pipelines, and are you passionate about construction management, and (safety) systems engineering? Then, this post-doctoral research position may be very suited to you. Interested? Why don't you apply for this joint project on damage avoidance to high-pressure pipelines?

Just like any other country, Australia suffers from the threat that their pipelines get damaged, and cause major incidents. To avoid this, they've recently set up a large-scale collaborative research programme (Future Fuels CRC). We collaborate with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) as part of this programme, and investigate the solutions that prevent damage to their buried infrastructure.

Pipeline sectors have a zero tolerance policy against strikes and mobilize various engineering solutions to avoid them (e.g. thick pipe walls, safety sheets, pipeline detection, and real-time monitoring). We want to know how effective these solutions are in different contexts, since they are influenced by aspects like technological maturity, usability, costs, as well as the physical environment.

You contribute to this by developing a methodology that supports the assessment of these solutions.

You will:

• review existing strike avoidance solutions,
• visit and interview Australian industry members,
• develop a method/approach to systematically assess avoidance solutions
• contribute to analytic assessments of Australia's pipeline safety solutions.

We look for applicants with a Ph.D. degree and background in construction management or safety/civil/systems engineering. You should have experience with technology (adoption) research and preferably have knowledge about underground utilities. It is an asset if you also have basic skills in GIS and programming.

Should you wish to inquire about this position, please contact Léon olde Scholtenhuis at l.l.oldescholtenhuis@utwente.nl. The website at www.zoarg.com provides more details about our group.

Please send your application, with a curriculum vitae, and, if applicable, a list of publications by May 19, 2019. We invite selected candidates (based on CV and motivation letter) for a Skype interview.

You will start as soon as possible, get an 18-month contract, and become part of the ReDUCE research team. Your workplace will be Twente, and you collaborate with researchers from RMIT Melbourne. Additionally, you will spend three weeks while traveling to the headquarters of the Australian pipeline organizations.

In accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, a Postdoc salary is between € 3255,- and 4274,- gross per month, depending on your experience and qualifications.

In addition, the University of Twente offers attractive fringe benefits and excellent facilities for professional and personal development, a holiday allowance (8%) and an end-of-year bonus (8,3%).

The University of Twente. We stand for life sciences and technology. High tech and human touch. Education and research that matter. New technology which leads change, innovation and progress in society. The University of Twente is the only campus university of the Netherlands; divided over five faculties we provide more than fifty educational programmes. We have a strong focus on personal development and talented researchers are given scope for carrying out groundbreaking research.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status. Because of our diversity values we do particularly support women to apply.

The Faculty of Engineering Technology (ET) is one of the five faculties of the University of Twente. ET combines Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Industrial Design Engineering. Our faculty has approximately 1800 bachelor and master students, 400 employees and 150 PhD candidates. The departments of the faculty cooperatively conduct the educational programmes and participate in interdisciplinary research projects, programmes and the research institutes: Mesa+ Institute, TechMed Centra and Digital Society Institute.