Placements available for PhD students at the Materials Innovation Factory

Three placement opportunities are available for postgraduate students with Unilever at the University’s Materials Innovation Factory (MIF).

The scheme, which is organised by the Careers & Employability Service in association with the Liverpool Doctoral College, provides postgraduate students with the opportunity to undergo a 15 day placement at the MIF with the option of applying for a £500 bursary.

The areas covered by the scheme are diverse and students will be working with Unilever researchers on their current projects allowing insight into the direction of current research.

A brief synopsis of the projects currently on offer are:

Project 1: The focus of this research project is the development of microscopy and image analysis to quantify hair fibre birefringence.

Project 2: The objective of this project is to identify solid water/surfactant insoluble piroctone salts.

Project 3: The objective of this project is to undertake a literature review into relevant methodologies to characterise lubricant deposits on hair – morphology, deposition, effect of humidity etc.

The hands-on placement scheme will give students a valuable insight into the research Unilever does at the unique on-campus facility and increase candidates’ employability skills and career options.

The Materials Innovation Factory is a collaboration between the University and Unilever. The £81 million facility brings together materials chemistry expertise with the latest computational and robotic equipment to accelerate research and reduce the time it takes to develop new products which have the potential to address a range of societal challenges.

Applications are open and will be accepted on a rolling basis until a suitable candidate for each project is found.

For more information on how to apply please see Liverpool Doctoral College’s intranet page.

For guidance with your application please contact Lib Golding at the University of Liverpool Careers and Employability Service.