MSCA PhD Position in the Doctoral Network BETTER : Influence of marine environment properties o[...]

Organisation/Company: CNRS

Department: Laboratory of Mechanics and Acoustics

Research Field: Mathematics » Computational mathematics, Mathematics » Applied mathematics, Geosciences » Other, Physics » Acoustics

Researcher Profile: First Stage Researcher (R1)

Positions: PhD Positions

Country: France

Application Deadline: 6 Apr 2025 - 12:00 (Europe/Paris)

Type of Contract: Temporary

Job Status: Full-time

Offer Starting Date: 1 Oct 2025

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Horizon Europe - MSCA Marie Curie Grant Agreement Number 101169348

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

The PhD position is part of the MSCA Doctoral Network BETTER (Building the nExT generaTion of marine Eco-friendly wind faRm) which is coordinated by CNR (Italy).

BETTER aims to form a new generation of professional experts on Offshore Wind Farming (OWF). This team will address the noticeable knowledge and technological gap that exists in comprehending how marine ecosystems respond to the ongoing and anticipated extensive expansion of OWFs and how to incorporate these considerations into the optimised design. BETTER will conduct comprehensive research spanning multiple disciplines and sectors, across various functional and operational scales, to quantify the intricacies and nuances inherent in current designs related to OWF and assess their corresponding environmental impact.

The BETTER consortium is formed by experts in geology, oceanography, marine ecology, marine biology, geotechnical engineering, computation modelling, offshore engineering, underwater acoustics, data science and mathematics across 7 European countries (Italy, Norway, Netherlands, Germany, France, Portugal and UK). The whole network comprises 15 academic partners and 3 industry partners.

The successful candidates will benefit from an excellent scientific environment, up-to-date technologies and supervision by international leaders in the field. They will learn to integrate academic and industrial aspects in their research work and they will sharpen their experimental and complementary skills in a well-designed and diversified training program.

PhD position at CNRS: Influence of marine environment properties on noise propagation and seabed vibrations induced by pile driving

Installation of bottom-fixed foundation piles is known to generate high levels of noise in the water column, that affect marine mammals even at great distances to the piles, and energetic seismic waves of different kinds inducing seabed vibrations. Recent studies have suggested that the particle motion of interface waves has potential deleterious effects on species living near to or on the seabed (e.g. fish, invertebrates, plants).

The proposed PhD topic aims to broaden the knowledge of noise propagation and seabed vibrations induced by pile driving by investigating the wave interaction between the water column and the seabed, according to various marine environments with different physical and geometrical properties. The methodology will be mostly based on full-wave numerical modeling using a spectral-element method and High-Performance Computing (HPC), and considering a realistic source model of pile driving.

Supervision, Host institution and Secondments

Host institution: CNRS / Laboratory of Mechanics and Acoustics – Marine acoustics and Seismic imaging group (Marseille, France)

Duration: 36 months (preferred starting dates: 01 October or 01 November 2025)

PhD program: ED353 – Engineering Sciences: Mechanics, Physics, Micro and Nano-electronics

Secondments at TU Delft (The Netherlands), CNR (Italy) and WAVEC (Portugal)

An enthusiastic candidate who has a strong quantitative background, with a M.Sc. or equivalent degree in Computational Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Geosciences, Acoustics or Simulation engineering. The candidate will ideally have a good knowledge of acoustic and/or elastic waves, and/or partial differential equations. It will be an asset if the candidate has prior research experience in numerical modeling and/or ocean acoustics. A good knowledge of scientific programming (e.g., Python, C, Fortran) is essential.

We will also take into account that you have:

• Interdisciplinary skills: Ability to work at the intersection of ocean acoustics and seismics, applying numerical modeling to understand experimental results, and vice versa.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills: To collaborate with researchers within and outside the lab, and share findings.
• Adaptability and problem-solving skills.

Languages: ENGLISH Level Good

Additional Information

You will be offered:

• To work within an interdisciplinary environment combining seismo-acoustics, High-Performance Computing (HPC) simulations and real data, receiving training from leading experts in a full-time PhD position for 36 months.
• An attractive salary that consists of the gross Monthly Living Allowance of 3,043 EUR per month, plus a Mobility Allowance of 600 EUR per month. If applicable, additional allowances may be granted.

Eligibility criteria

The PhD position is open to applicants fulfilling with the following eligibility requirements:

• should have — at the date of recruitment — LESS than 4 years of a research career, and not have been awarded a doctoral degree.
• should NOT have — at the date of recruitment — resided or carried out their main activity in France for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to recruitment.
• should satisfy the eligibility requirements to enrol on a PhD degree.

Their application will receive fair consideration. No discrimination will be made on the basis of gender, race, religion, disability or nationality. However, they may have to comply with any security restrictions imposed by CNRS.

A selection committee adhering to gender equality and equal opportunity rules will be set up consisting of the supervisors and at least one BETTER representative. A first evaluation will be made on the basis of the documents provided. The short-listed candidates will then be invited for an online interview with the selection committee.

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available: 1

Company/Institute: CNRS / Laboratory of Mechanics and Acoustics

Country: France

City: Marseille

Postal Code: 13013

Street: 4 impasse Nikola Tesla Geofield