Dr Evangelia Manola, Research Fellow in the UCL Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering
Introducing the research group
I am based in the Civil Engineering Department at UCL and working with Professor Liz Varga on eco design of mineral-based materials. The Research Group is called Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centre for Mineral-Based Construction Materials ICEC ICM – funded by UKRI.
The ICEC ICM Centre is led by UCL and encompasses five other universities: Loughborough, Leeds, Lancaster, Sheffield, Imperial College London, and also the British Geological Survey. We have 15 post-doctoral researchers as well as associated PhDs, co-investigators, a management team and policy impact team. Each of our post-docs has a unique research project such as the economics of the Circular Economy, and the eco materials themselves – a lot of different aspects of research are happening across a variety of disciplines.
We have independent advisors from the Environment Agency, DSIT (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology) and DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) and often invite them to centre meetings where they can see progress and outputs. The ICEC ICM Centre is frequently asked to give their research perspective regarding different decisions and strategies the agencies are formulating.
After my PhD on Composite Pavement numerical modelling and distress prediction, I did a secondment at DSIT as part of the ICEC ICM eco materials project, and I started a new secondment with National Highways in September 2023.