DC12: Interactive science communication, public perception and co-creation using energy-neutral wastewater treatment technologies (WP4)
Host institution: Biofaction (Austria)
Supervisor: Markus Schmidt (PhD promoter)
Objectives: (i) to carry out interactive science communication with high school, engineering, and design students as well as lay-people, and (ii) conduct a public perception survey about energy-neutral wastewater treatment technologies.
DC 12 will work at the interface between science and society fulfilling the three objectives of science communication, public perception and co-creation. The development of energy-neutral wastewater treatment technologies aims to improve sustainability by (a) reducing energy requirements of wastewater treatment, (b) recovering nutrients by recapturing carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, and (c) generating excess renewable energy for other purposes. These goals support the European goals of the circular economy and the Green Deal. DC12 will involve non-experts to inform, engage with and learn from them, meaning that we depart from classical one-way to two-way-communication and mutual learning. DC12 will perform this through a prototype/demonstrator (developed in other DCs) that can be used for interactive workshops demonstrating the ability of energy-neutral wastewater treatment technologies to generate renewable energy. DC 12 will also investigate the public perception (e.g., using surveys) about the advantages and disadvantages, hopes and concerns of this technological approach.
Expected Results: Knowledge about how members of the public perceive the relevance of energy-neutral wastewater treatment technologies, and identifying novel creative fields and and diverse applications for these innovative technologies.
Planned secondments:
- AU (Sup.: S. Wu): M24-27, 3 months: Introduction to biological degradation processes for key priority pollutants;
- Sydvatten AB (Sup.: K. M Persson): M18-21; 4 months: Challenges of technology scale-up: engineering and energetic considerations.
Enrolment in Doctoral degree: KU Leuven Arenberg Doctoral School of Science, Engineering and Technology
Ideal candidate profile:
- has a Master’s degree in either science or social science with an interest in both science and social science
- great interest in environmental risk perception
- willing to work in an international and interdisciplinary team
- curious and self-organized
- successful candidate will need to be well organised, meticulous and confident working with spreadsheets and digital tools and apps (e.g. for analysis of data)
- able to work on his/her own initiative and within the team,
- self-managing a varied workload with competing priorities,
- deal calmly with difficult or pressured situations and prioritize his/her own workload to meet deadlines, with the flexibility to reorganize his/her workload at short notice to accommodate any changing priorities
- has the ability to interact positively and to communicate effectively with the research team members as well as with colleagues from Biofaction, KU Leuven and the whole NEUTEN consortium
Recruited candidate: pending employment formalities