The Department DICEA of University of Naples Federico II (UNINA), Italy, is recruiting a Doctoral Candidate (DC) within the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network i3WaterS – Intelligent, Innovative and Integrative Water Systems. The successful candidate will be enrolled in a PhD programme at UPC and will work under the supervision of Cristiana Di Cristo, Full Professor of Hydraulics at the University of Naples Federico II.
i3WaterS brings together leading universities, research centres, technology developers and water utilities across Europe. The project will train 15 Doctoral Candidates to develop innovative AI-driven solutions for intelligent, resilient and sustainable water systems, contributing to the digital transformation of one of the most critical infrastructures for society.
The risk of water scarcity due to climate change and human activities is real. i3WaterS stands for Intelligent, Innovative, Integrative Water Systems and addresses the urgent need to optimize water resources management by providing a comprehensive solution to upgrade, optimally operate and maintain water distribution systems (WDSs). For the first time, a unique holistic approach will find the key interrelationships between external, day-to-day and extreme, factors and WDS failures, to advise actions and protocols to make WDSs robust and reliable.
Offer description
Research Objectives
The specific research objective of this call is to develop intelligent methodologies for the analysis, management, and optimization of Water Distribution Systems (WDSs) under critical operating conditions, including infrastructure failures, climate change impacts, and accidental or intentional contamination events, with the aim of ensuring the continuity, reliability, and safety of drinking water services in terms of both water quantity and quality while enhancing the security and resilience of WDSs..
The candidate will contribute to achieving this objective through the following sub-objectives:
sub-Objectives: 1) Identify and characterize future critical scenarios affecting Water Distribution Systems (WDSs), including infrastructure failures, variations in water demand and the number of users, climate change impacts, and accidental or intentional contamination events, through data collection and analysis, and predict system responses using numerical simulations and/or complex network approaches. Given the high level of uncertainty associated with input data and future scenarios, both deterministic and stochastic modelling techniques will be employed. 2) Develop and apply optimization models to evaluate and compare management strategies under the identified scenarios, assessing the reliability, resilience, and adaptive capacity of WDSs. The outcomes will support the development of innovative methodologies and practical decision-support tools for improving resource management, operational efficiency, and the security of drinking water distribution systems.
Expected Results: 1) Support water utilities in enhancing the safety, reliability, and resilience of WDSs, ensuring the continuous provision of high-quality drinking water to consumers. 2) Produce innovative tools and management strategies for the efficient operation of WDSs under critical scenarios, preventing service disruptions, mitigating water quality deterioration, and improving the systems’ capacity to respond and adapt to infrastructure failures, climate change impacts, and contamination events.”
Training Program
Apart from the PhD thesis done under a multidisciplinar and international supervisory panel composed by an advisor, a coadvisor from a second i3WaterS university and an industrial mentor linked to a real water facility, the program includes an International Doctoral School with six training chapters that take place under an international mobility structure (Barcelona (Spain), Dublin (Ireland), Bordeaux (France), Delft (The Netherlands), Bussels (Belgium), NewCastle (UK).
International mobility will easy connections and visits to water facilities all over Europe, and industrial secondments will give a realistic perspective.
Two International Secondments in other second real water facilities will allow extensive testing and validation of thesis findings to guarantee real contribution to the state of art. These Secondments into industrial partners are included with two aims: testing the PhD findings in a different water facility from the one supporting the project development, and to allow providing specialised training to the water utilities staff.
Requirements.
Education level: Master Degree
Skills:
• Knowledge of the functioning and management of water distribution systems
• Knowledge of drinking water quality requirements
• Data-driven models
• Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI)
• Optimization models and Complex Network approach
• Decision Support Systems
• Python, Matlab, Java or related programming languages
• Data integration and interoperability
• Documenting in Latex
• Teamwork
Deadline: september 30, 2026
Benefits: gross annual salary approximately €45,000, plus mobility and family allowances if applicable