Doctoral Researcher Project Smart-Ethic: SMART energy Evaluation Human-Centred Information

Organisation/Company Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) Department LOCI / LAB Research Field Engineering Architecture Computer science Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions PhD Positions Final date to receive applications 31 Oct 2026 - 18:00 (Europe/Brussels) Country Belgium Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Louvain Research Institute for Landscape, Architecture, Built Environment (LAB)

Research Group Architecture & Climat

Sciences and Technologies Sector main site
:
Louvain la Neuve

Full-time contract (100%) for an initial fixed term of 24 months (see funding details below)

Start date: from 1st January 2027

Background:

We offer a PhD scholarship at the Louvain research institute for Landscape, Architecture, Built environment (LAB), Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium), with initial funding provided for 24 months.

PhD scope:

The PhD projectprovides a framework to simulate how decisions about smart energy transition affect and are affected by building owners and end-users
. It focuses on the different degrees of ownership, control and data sharing building owners and end-users have over smart heating, cooling, ventilation and electricity and how these affect and are affected by energy efficiency, optimization and security. You will be developing simulations that enable decision-makers to assess the interplay between social and technical systems and the abilities of stakeholders to exert control over, and benefit from, smart building operation.

This will empower designers to gauge justice, sufficiency and equity in energy transition.

Activities:

You will carry out a doctoral thesis within the Louvain research institute for Landscape, Architecture, Built environment (LAB) and will be responsible for the following activities:

• Mapping the state of the art on how decisions related to smart energy transition affecting and affected by building owners and end-users are currently defined and represented in policies, governance schemes, technical standards, and business models.
• Extracting recurrent patterns of ownership, governance and their interdependencies
  , abstracting rules, mandates and models to build a Knowledge Base
  - a library that holds information plus rules to understand it.
• Representing
  pseudocodes in the Knowledge Base using Onto Agency vocabulary, implementing them in the Open Access software Protégé using OWL/RDF computer language.
• Digitally representing real decisions and their results based on case studies coming from collaborators to ground the framework into practice and cross-validate the Knowledge Base and Digital Representations.

During your PhD, you will have the opportunity to work in close collaboration with the LAB research group Architecture et Climat and will be involved in research seminars and upskilling workshops throughout your research work. This will include doctoral training
focused on the development and writing of a thesis, and the scientific dissemination associated with the research.

Candidates must meet the following requirements

• A master’s degree of at least 300 ECTS in Architecture, Engineering, Architectural Engineering, Energy Engineering, Knowledge engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent, with a top-tier final grade;
• A top-tier grade final Master thesis on a topic of pertinence to this project;
• Commitment and ability to work as part of a team;
• Good interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to interact and collaborate with other researchers;
• Be able to work independently and take the initiative in conducting research;
• An excellent…