PhD Studentship: Digital twinning for post-mining environmental transitions

Overview

This PhD project focuses on digital twinning for post-mining environmental transitions, aiming to build sustainability on the natural capital and infrastructure left behind by end-of-life extractive industries. The mission of the research is to create a decision-making strategy to support mine transition throughout industrial planning and development. The work addresses challenges in post-mining communities such as economic diversification, community resilience, and environmental legacies. The primary case studies involve overland mine spaces in South Wales and underland mine spaces on the Isle of Portland, with scalability comparisons including South West England and the Peak District.

What you get

The studentship provides coverage for tuition fees as well as an annual stipend of £21,805 per annum for the 2026/7 period. The research is supported by the Deep Digital Cornwall lab facility situated at the Camborne School of Mines, operating under an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Doctoral Landscape Award.

Requirements

The student will undertake desk surveys and consult on international remining practices for resources, environmental restoration, tourism, cultural heritage, and manufacturing industries. Field surveys utilizing remote sensing and laser scanning will be conducted to gather data for replicating underground and overground landscape case studies. The candidate will digitally twin the landscapes using the lab facility, test reconfiguration options, analyse sustainability potential through appropriate criteria and local consultation, and develop an adaptable technical optimization tool kit.

Key dates

The closing date for applications is 2026-12-08.