[Stipend of £23,805 for 2025-26, full Home and International tuition fees for 2025-26, research training & support grant of £1,000 per year, award length: 4 years (3 years full time + 1 year writing up).] This PhD studentship at King's College London investigates the business case for battery traceability, focusing on digital product passports and their role in circular value creation. As global demand for energy storage rises, the ability to track materials and components throughout a battery’s lifecycle is becoming both a regulatory requirement and a strategic opportunity. The project aims to examine how battery traceability can create value beyond compliance, enabling product life extension, second-life applications, and innovative circular business models. Batteries are central to decarbonising industry and mobility, but their production and disposal pose significant environmental, social, and geopolitical challenges. Critical material supply chains are concentrated in a few regions, creating dependencies and risks for global production systems. The EU Battery Regulation (2023) has introduced digital product passports as a mechanism to ensure transparency, accountability, and resource efficiency throughout the battery value chain. These passports store and share verifiable information on a product’s origin, composition, use, and condition, supporting sustainable production, reuse, and recycling. While regulations increasingly mandate sharing verifiable information, the business rationale for implementing traceability systems remains contested. Such systems require investment in costly technologies, organisational change, and new partnerships. However, early adopters may gain strategic advantages, such as discovering new value-creation opportunities. The project is conducted in collaboration with Circularise, a technology company developing blockchain-based digital product passport solutions. Circularise works with firms across sectors, including battery and energy storage, to enable secure and decentralised data exchange. This collaboration provides the student with direct access to a pioneering firm and its network of industrial partners. Applicants must have a first or good 2:1 degree, preferably in a related social science discipline, and must hold a relevant master’s degree that included a dissertation module. Applied knowledge of qualitative research methodologies, including qualitative interviewing, ethnography, and document analysis, is required. The King's Business School PhD programme offers support and training in both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The studentship offers a stipend of £23,805 for 2025-26, covers full Home and International tuition fees for 2025-26, and provides a research training & support grant of £1,000 per year. The award length is 4 years (3 years full time + 1 year writing up). The application deadline is 31 March 2026. For further information or informal discussion, applicants may contact Professor Jonatan Pinkse at [email protected]. To apply, visit the King's College London postgraduate research portal and review the Management Research MPhil/PhD programme details. Ensure you meet the entry requirements before submitting your application.

This collaborative PhD studentship at King’s Business School, King’s College London, offers an exciting opportunity to explore the business case for battery traceability, focusing on product passports and circular value creation. The project is conducted in partnership with Circularise, a technology company specializing in blockchain-based product passport solutions. As the world transitions to a circular economy, businesses must anticipate and operationalize future product life cycles, creating value in innovative ways. Batteries, as a key technology for electrification and decarbonisation, require effective management and stewardship across every stage of their life cycle to maximize value and recover materials. The research investigates how digital product passports—tools that record and share information on materials, usage, and quality throughout a product’s lifecycle—can create strategic value for firms beyond regulatory compliance. This includes enabling second-life applications, new circular business models, and end-of-life material recovery. The project aims to provide insights into how digital transparency can strengthen accountability in the battery sector, unlock business value in previously overlooked areas, and enable new revenue models. By addressing challenges related to resource resilience, economic viability, and supply security, the study will contribute to broader discussions on governance and policy design for critical materials. Supervision is provided by Prof Jonatan Pinkse and Dr Laura Lander from King’s Business School, as well as Dr Phil Brown, Head of Sustainable Innovations at Circularise. The student will benefit from substantial support from Circularise, including access to digital tools, data, internal expertise, workspace, and mentorship during the placement period. Visa arrangements for time spent with Circularise will be supported, and the student will be treated as an integral member of the team, participating in ongoing projects, client interactions, and collaborative activities. This close involvement offers valuable professional experience and exposure to industry practice. Applicants must have a first or good 2:1 degree, preferably in a related social science discipline, and a relevant master’s degree with a dissertation module. Applied knowledge of qualitative research methodologies, such as qualitative interviewing, ethnography, and document analysis, is required. The KBS PhD programme provides support and training in both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Funding includes a stipend of £23,805 for 2025-26, full Home and International tuition fees for 2025-26, a research training and support grant of £1,000 per year, and conference fees and UK fieldwork allowance of £230 each year. The award length is four years (three years full time plus one year writing up). The application deadline is 31 March 2026, with interviews for short-listed applicants expected within two weeks of the closing date. For informal discussions, applicants may contact Prof Jonatan Pinkse at [email protected]. For further details and to apply, visit the FindAPhD project page.