Digital Transformation of Chemical Analysis for Sustainable Materials Development

Chemical analysis is the process of identifying, separating, and quantifying the components of a sample to understand its composition and properties. It plays a vital role in the development of products across the consumer goods industry by ensuring regulatory and safety standards.

Digital transformation of chemical analysis using advanced robotics and automation will improve efficiency, accuracy, and safety, while also reducing costs and waste for a more sustainable product development process.

In this project, our aim is to develop a modular robotic platform for automated chemical analysis. The platform will integrate advanced robotics with chemical processing equipment and analytical instruments, enabling the rapid and reliable analysis of complex chemical systems. We will initially address a key problem in industrial materials science: the automation of fluoride measurement in toothpaste. Despite the regular measurement of fluoride in toothpaste being required for safety and regulatory reasons, the automation of this process remains elusive. Automating fluoride measurement is a complex process, with many different industry standards employed for manual measurements, therefore automation of the chemical analysis steps would be transformative, improving efficiency and accuracy of a currently labour intensive and repetitive process.

This project is cross-disciplinary between Chemistry and Computer Science and will be supported by Unilever. The student will work across the research groups of Dr Ward (Materials Innovation Factory) and Dr Pizzuto (Computer Science), and gain a unique blend of skills spanning materials characterisation, chemistry automation, and robotics.

The global need for researchers with capabilities in materials chemistry, digital intelligence and automation is intensifying because of the growing challenge posed by Net Zero and the need for high-performance materials across multiple sectors. The disruptive nature of recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and emerging quantum computing offers timely and exciting opportunities for PhD graduates with these skills to make a transformative impact on both R&D and society more broadly.

The University of Liverpool EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Digital and Automated Materials Chemistry is therefore offering multiple studentships for students from backgrounds spanning the physical and computer sciences to start in October 2025. These students will develop core expertise in robotic, digital, chemical and physical thinking, which they will apply in their domain-specific research in materials design, discovery and processing. By working with each other and benefiting from a tailored training programme they will become both leaders and fully participating team players, aware of the best practices in inclusive and diverse R&D environments.

This training is based on our decade-long development of shared language and student supervision between the physical, engineering and computer sciences, and takes place in the Materials Innovation Factory (MIF), the largest industry-academia colocation in UK physical science. The training content has been co-developed with 35 industrial partners and is designed to generate flexible, employable, enterprising researchers who can communicate across domains.

Applicant Eligibility

Applicant will have, or be due to obtain, a Master’s Degree or equivalent related to Physical Science, Engineering or Computational Science. Exceptional applicant with a First Class Bachelor’s Degree in an appropriate field will also be considered.

Application Process

Applicants are advised to apply as soon as possible no later than 30^th April 2025. We will review applications as they come in. The position will be closed when suitable candidate has been identified.

Please review our guide on “How to Apply” carefully and complete the online postgraduate research application form to apply for this PhD project.

We strongly encourage applicants to get in touch with the supervisory team to get a better idea of the project.

We want all our Staff and Students to feel that Liverpool is an inclusive and welcoming environment that actively celebrates and encourages diversity. We are committed to working with students to make all reasonable project adaptations including supporting those with caring responsibilities, disabilities or other personal circumstances. For example, if you have a disability you may be entitled to a Disabled Students Allowance on top of your studentship to help cover the costs of any additional support that a person studying for a doctorate might need as a result.

Please ensure you include the project title and reference number CCPR150 when applying.