Start Date 15/09/2025
Award Duration 4 years
Supervisor Dr Chris O’Malley
This PhD project is part of the CDT in Process Industries: Net Zero. The successful PhD student will be co-supervised by academics from the Process Intensification Group at Newcastle University. Nestling has designed a containerised cultivation and processing plant for a broad range of microorganisms with a focus on mycelium. The system is fully automated; the SCADA system is connected to the cloud and provides performance data, enabling the monitoring of critical process parameters (CPPs) and critical quality attributes (CQAs). Nestling wishes to collect the data and apply machine learning techniques to identify process efficiency improvements and enable prediction across scales for a given biological process.
The PhD project will develop, construct and apply Machine Learning techniques to the process data generated at the pilot scale to enable the prediction of process performance at larger scale. This will enable customers using Nestling’s new platform to recognise best practice, identify key vulnerabilities and predict economic outcomes from process deviations.
You must have, or expect to gain, a minimum 2:1 Honours degree or international equivalent in a subject relevant to the proposed PhD project (usually chemical engineering or chemistry, but please get in touch if you think your qualification may be relevant). Enthusiasm for research, the ability to think and work independently, excellent analytical skills and strong verbal and written communication skills are also essential requirements. Ideal applicants would have strong design engineering skills and have some proficiency working with SCADA and data-based modelling.
This studentship is available to home students only.
100% fees (UK home only), a minimum tax-free annual living allowance of £19,237 (2024/25 UKRI rate), and a research training support grant of £20,000.
You must apply through the University’s Apply to Newcastle Portal. Once registered select ‘Create a Postgraduate Application’.
Use ‘Course Search’ to identify your programme of study:
You will then need to provide the following information in the ‘Further Details’ section:
You must submit one application per studentship, you cannot apply for multiple studentships on one application.
Contact Details
pinzcdt@ncl.ac.uk
This studentship is available to home students only.
As a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive Universities, we’ve been working to understand our world sinc...