Research Fellow (Battery Recycling) - School of Metallurgy and Materials - 108039 - Grade 7

This is a fixed-term Research Fellow position focused on the SHREDDER project for sustainable lithium-ion battery recycling. Key responsibilities include investigating shredding conditions and their impact on material separation, characterising shredded materials, and collaborating with project partners to translate findings into industrial processes. A science or engineering degree and a PhD in a relevant field are required, with experience in mechanical shredding or materials characterisation being highly desirable.

• The responsibilities may include some but not all of the responsibilities outlined below.
• Fosters a fair and equitable workplace for all staff
• Identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant university policies and procedures
• Other relevant criteria from our equality and diversity duties document.
• Other relevant criteria from our
• equality and diversity duties document.
• Operate and further develop the bespoke instrumented research shredder, with due regard to safety, to investigate the relationship between shredding conditions (blade speed, geometry, process atmosphere, state-of-charge, moisture regime), safety, and selective material liberation
• Investigate closed-loop wet shredding processes and additive use to promote graphite delamination and separation from cathode active material and metal fractions
• Characterise shredded cell components, black mass, and separated fractions, including establishing and operating new analytical capability (ICP-OES, SEM, XRD, and XRF) for compositional and microstructural measurement
• Generate validated datasets linking shredding parameters to safety, graphite yield, purity, and downstream metal fraction quality, for translation into industrial-scale design by MTC
• Collaborate with MTC and Ecobat to support translation of laboratory findings into deployable industrial processes
• Contribute to project reporting, milestone delivery, and dissemination to Innovate UK and project partners, including contributing to an inclusive working culture

• Understanding of and ability to contribute to broader management/administration processes
• Contribute to the planning and organising of the research programme and/or specific research project
• Knowledge of the protected characteristics and duties under the Equality Act 2010. Including fostering good relations and advancing the universities Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED).
• Other relevant criteria from our equality and diversity knowledge, skills and experience document.
• Use of AI in applications: We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style.
• Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience.
• Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview.
• Hold a Bachelor's degree in a Science or Engineering discipline relevant to the project, or equivalent qualifications
• ICP-OES, SEM, XRD, or XRF) is highly desirable, however training will be given to the right candidate in these areas
• Demonstrably high level of: analytical capability
• ability to communicate complex information clearly to a diverse audience
• ability to work in an interdisciplinary team
• ability to co-ordinate own work with others to avoid conflict or duplication of effort
• Proven ability to assess resource requirements and use resources effectively
• Informal enquiries to Rob Sommerville, email: r.sommerville@bham.ac.uk
• equality and diversity knowledge, skills and experience document
• Hold, or be close to the completion of, a PhD in an area relevant to materials recycling, battery manufacture, particle or process engineering, chemistry, or mechanical, electronic or chemical engineering
• Prior knowledge, experience and achievements in: mechanical shredding or comminution processes, particle/material separation techniques, battery safety or abuse testing, and analytical characterisation (e.g.
• Please note that we reserve the right to close this vacancy early once a sufficient number of applications have been received.