Post-doctoral researcher in process engineering and optimisation

A leading general engineering school within IMT (Institut Mines-Télécom), the number one group of engineering schools in France, IMT Atlantique aims to support transitions and train responsible engineers. We place scientific and technical excellence at the service of education, research, and innovation.

Department presentation

The Energy systems and Environmental Engineering Department (DSEE) conducts research and teaching in the field of environmental technologies for energetic and the environmental applications, with a particular focus on processes for generating energy from waste and by-products, the optimisation of energy systems in interaction with their environment, and processes for the removal and separation of pollutants from water, air and gases. The work involved in this job offer will take place within the VERTE team, which focuses on processes for the recovery of residues and biomass, and the OSE team, which is dedicated to the optimisation of energy systems.

Project description

The DISCOVER project, funded by the European Union under Horizon Europe (Grant No. 101129909), brings together 14 partners from 8 EU countries and is coordinated by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. It aims to develop a comprehensive solution to identify, classify and define waste management solutions for building demolition, whilst ensuring the traceability of the resulting second-hand products.

Given the diversity of their nature, characteristics and economic value, choosing a viable and sustainable recovery pathway for waste streams from a demolition or deconstruction site proves to be a real headache. The use of multi-criteria decision-making tools is essential to solving these equations, where a fair balance must be struck between economic viability, environmental sustainability and social impact in order to identify an optimal solution. Among the criteria there are distance from various reuse/recovery facilities, life cycle assessment (LCA) indicators, environmental impacts and job creation. Aggregating these criteria, which are of different natures, is one of the most difficult tasks. Indeed, the various criteria have varying degrees of importance in the decision-making process, and this must be taken into account to reflect the decision-maker’s preferences. Many multi-criteria decision-making methods rely on aggregating all criteria into a single objective function. This involves parameters that must be correctly adjusted to produce high-quality decisions.

The objectives of this project are to define a decision-making framework, based on the principles of the circular economy and the European waste management hierarchy, by describing the various parameters involved in the process, and to identify a fair compromise in order to aggregate them into a single economic impact. The resulting single-objective problem will be solved using a framework developed at IMT Atlantique for multi-stream optimisation (hubs.jl).

Under the functional responsibility of Sary AWAD and Mohamed Tahar MABROUK and in collaboration with the DICOVER project consortium, the main tasks of the position are:

1-       Attend various working meetings and collaborate with the DISCOVER project partners

• Organise and manage the meetings for the task 5.4, which focuses on the decision-support framework

• Coordinate the work of Task 5.4 with the other partners within the same task, as well as with the other tasks In Work Package (WP 5)

• Draft and share the minutes of Task 5.4 meetings and review the minutes of other meetings in which he/she is required to participate.

• Collect data generated by other partners, relating to material banks, economic analysis, life cycle analysis, etc., in order to integrate it into the decision support framework

• Contribute to the drafting of project progress reports and scientific articles.

2-       Research data on the recovery of plastics and organic construction waste (recovery pathways, TEA, LCA) so that it can be shared with the partners..

The project partners conducting technical-economic studies and life-cycle assessments will require data on methods and processes for recycling plastic and/or organic waste. In this context, the post-doctoral fellow will be required to carry out literature reviews on technical-economic analyses (TEAs) and life-cycle assessments (LCAs) of similar processes in order to extract the necessary data.

3-       Develop a comprehensive decision-support framework that incorporates the various criteria influencing the choice of recovery pathways…

• Define the decision criteria in collaboration with project partners and formulate the optimisation problem

• Define the constraints and decision rules in order to transform them into objective functions

• Aggregate criteria of different types (economic, environmental, social) into a single criterion

• Consolidate the decision-making methodology and implement it in an existing tool at IMT Atlantique (hubs.jl). Collaboration with the Gemellus project is planned for this purpose.

• Test the decision-support framework using data from partners and the four case studies already identified within the project.

Minimum education and/or experience required:

·        PhD obtained less than 3 years before date of hire in process/chemical engineering

Essential skills, knowledge and experience:

·     Knowledge of life-cycle assessments and technical-economic studies

·     Knowledge of waste recovery processes

·     Having a first experience in optimisation and the mathematical formulation of optimisation problems

·     Having experience with at least one tool for process simulation, technical and economic analysis, or life-cycle analysis would give an advantage to the candidate

Abilities and skills:

·      Ability to work as part of an international team comprising academic and industrial partners

·      Excellent command of spoken and written English

·      Very good Writing skills in English

·      Ability to work independently

• Ability to supervise interns

1-     OTHER INFORMATION

·     Travels to attend consortium meetings, workshops and conferences will be required as part of this role

2-     APPLICATION DOCUMENT

·        CV, including your academic background and scientific publications

·        Cover letter

·        Two letters of recommendation

BENEFITS :

🥗 On-site cafeteria

🏃‍♀️ Leisure and sports offers

🚌 Public transport subsidies

🚴‍♂️ Sustainable mobility package (for carpooling or cycling)

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Family allowance

💶 Wide range of social benefits

🖥️ Partial teleworking possible

🌴 Generous leave package

 REMUNERATION :

💰 Indicative salary: €35,800 gross per year, depending on profile and experience (reduced employee social security contributions in the public sector).

CONTACT INFORMATION :

o    job content: Sary AWAD - Professor - sary.awad@imt-atlantique.fr

o    administrative/HR aspects: Aurore FORNY - aurore.forny@imt-altantique.fr

Application Deadline: July 17th, 2026

Contract Start Date: September 1st, 2026

Interviews: Rolling basis

Legal Notices :

• Nature and Duration of the Contract: Fixed-term contract (CDD) of 12 months under public law or secondment for civil servants, renewable.

• Job Location: IMT Atlantique, Nantes campus – Nantes : 4 rue Alfred Kastler – La Chantrerie, 44307

• Internal Use Only:

  • Job Category: II P

• The positions offered are open to all applicants, with accommodations available upon request for candidates with disabilities.

• This position is open to civil servants and/or contract employees.

• Any application may be subject to an administrative investigation.