Civil Engineering: SURES Funded PhD in Advanced AI-Designed Bio-Based Capsules for Self-Healing Asphalt

About the Project

Key Information

Open to: UK and international applicants

Funding Providers: Swansea University is pleased to offer fully-funded Swansea University Research Excellence Scholarships (SURES) for full-time doctoral students to its seventh cohort, commencing in October 2026.

Each SURES scholarship includes tuition fees and a stipend – reviewed annually at the UKRI standard rate and a £1,000 annual training allowance to support immersive training experiences, conference attendance, engagement with industry and international collaborative opportunities.

Each scholarship is offered for a maximum period of three years; SURES students are expected to submit their theses within this timescale.

Informal scholarship enquiries from applicants to prospective supervisors – prior to the application deadline – are warmly encouraged; please direct these to the relevant member/s of faculty staff.

Subject Area: Civil Engineering

Project Start Dates: October 2026

Supervisors: Dr Jose Norambuena-Contreras and Professor Antonio J. Gil

Aligned programme of study: Civil Engineering

Mode of study: Full-time

Place of study: Swansea University (Singleton and Bay Campus)

Project description:

Climate change and advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping road design, as accelerated asphalt ageing driven by environmental and traffic changes leads to earlier cracking and increased pothole formation. Traditional repair methods are often labour-intensive and resource-consuming, highlighting the need for advanced self-healing solutions to design more sustainable and durable asphalt roads. Bio-based capsules containing rejuvenating agents offer a promising strategy to extend pavement lifespan by autonomously repairing micro-cracks and mitigating early-stage pothole formation. By integrating AI-enhanced computational design with experimental validation, these systems can be precisely optimised to deliver exceptionally durable, cost-effective, and environmentally sustainable asphalt materials, with the potential to revolutionise road infrastructure maintenance. This project aims to develop advanced bio-based capsules with rejuvenating agents, designed using AI-enhanced computational methods and experimentally validated, to establish a fundamental understanding of their structure–property relationships to promote adaptive self-healing asphalt. We will adopt a bottom-up methodology based on multiscale experimental testing, combined with a suite of AI-enhanced computational approaches. These will include machine learning for property prediction, generative models for inverse design, and physics-informed neural networks (or Gaussian predictors) to integrate experimental data with physical constraints, enabling the design and optimisation of bio-based capsules for self-healing asphalt materials.

Eligibility

Please note that the programme requires some applicants to hold ATAS clearance, further details on ATAS scheme eligibility are available on the UK Government website.

ATAS clearance IS NOT required to be held as part of the scholarship application process. Successful award winners (as appropriate) are provided with details as to how to apply for ATAS clearance in tandem with a scholarship course offer.

Candidates must have achieved, or be expecting to achieve, a 1st class UK undergraduate degree (or equivalent international qualification), or a 2:1 UK undergraduate degree and a Distinction in a UK master’s degree (or international equivalent).

• Where applicants have multiple master’s degrees, a distinction must be held in the degree that is most relevant to the intended PhD study.
• If you are currently studying for a master’s level qualification with an expected award date that is later than 01/10/2026, you should hold a minimum of an upper-second-class (2:1) honours degree.
• You should be able to demonstrate a pass with a minimum grade average of at least 70% for your part-one master’s degree modules (the taught aspect of your master’s course rather than a research-focused dissertation) and submit your dissertation by no later than 30/09/2026.

NB: If you hold a non-UK degree, please see the Swansea University degree comparisons to find out if you meet the eligibility criteria.

Applicants must be able to begin their course of study in October 2026.

As a cohort-based programme, deferral to an alternative enrolment window within the academic year or to another academic year is not permissible.

English Language requirements: If applicable – IELTS 6.5 overall (with a score of at least 6.5 in each individual component) or equivalent that is recognised by Swansea University.

Details on the Swansea University English Language entry policy can be found here.

Please note that both the degree and language-proficiency entry requirements for SURES are higher than the baseline standard for entry that is stipulated for most of the PhD programmes at Swansea University.

UK and International applicants

Please note that International applicants will be required to hold a SUIPRES scholarship, with further guidance to follow if shortlisted.

Funding Notes

This scholarship covers the full cost of tuition fees and an annual stipend at UKRI rate (currently £21,805 for 2026/27).

Additional research expenses of up to £1,000 per year will also be available.