University of Birmingham to lead European doctoral network on sustainable cooling
University of Birmingham coordinates SurPhase, a €3.7 million Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network.
Illustration of sustainable phase-change cooling, linking heat removal from electronics with building-scale cooling and energy systems
University of Birmingham is coordinating SurPhase, a €3.7 million Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network funded under Horizon Europe, which will train doctoral researchers in sustainable phase-change heat transfer.
The programme brings together academic and industrial partners across Europe to address an important engineering challenge: how to make heat transfer more efficient while transitioning to lower-global-warming-potential refrigerants, durable surfaces and intelligent design tools.
The consortium includes partners from the United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey, Norway, Italy and Sweden. SurPhase will integrate surface engineering, additive manufacturing, multiscale numerical modelling and artificial intelligence to develop next-generation technologies with improved performance, durability and sustainability.
The research is relevant to heat pumps, refrigeration, electronics cooling, batteries, telecommunications and wider energy technologies, where improved heat transfer can reduce energy demand and increase reliability.
Dr Ali Sadaghiani, Associate Professor in the School of Engineering, who is coordinating the network, said:
SurPhase will train a new generation of researchers who can combine surface engineering, advanced manufacturing, multiscale modelling and AI to tackle one of the growing challenges in clean energy and advanced technologies: managing heat efficiently. By bringing universities and industry together, we aim to develop new approaches to phase-change cooling that can improve the efficiency, reliability and sustainability of technologies ranging from high-power electronics to energy systems.
At University of Birmingham, the programme will strengthen research at the interface of thermal engineering, materials and advanced manufacturing, while creating new opportunities for collaboration with European partners. Doctoral researchers will undertake interdisciplinary research, international mobility and secondments, helping prepare them for careers in academia and industry.
Dr Sadaghiani added:
“By linking fundamental science with industrially relevant design, the network will help accelerate the development of more efficient, reliable and sustainable thermal technologies.”
The industrial relevance of the project is reflected in the participation of partners such as Ericsson.
Thermal management is important in telecom and other high-performance technologies, and SurPhase creates an excellent platform for connecting research with industrial needs.
The network also brings applied research and advanced manufacturing expertise through partners including Fraunhofer IFAM in Germany, strengthening the connection between fundamental research, manufacturing and practical thermal-management technologies.