PhD Fellowship in Circular Battery Strategies: Business Models and Value Chains

PhD Fellowship in Circular Battery Strategies: Business Models and Value Chains

Decision overview

How are scarce battery resources allocated between reuse, repair, second-life storage and material recycling, and who controls those decisions? This three-year, full-time employed PhD examines innovation, circular business models and value-chain governance at the Center for Research on Digitalization and Sustainability (CREDS). The advertised workplace is Innlandet Science Park, Strandvegen 3, Kongsvinger, with substantial on-site presence expected. The employer lists 12 November 2026 but gives no cutoff time or time zone; current application availability has not been verified.

The strongest opportunity is to connect a consequential industrial transition with organisational and ecosystem research. The main early screening issue is unusually specific: qualifying degrees must come from institutions in Norway, the EU/EEA or Switzerland, or an international institution accredited by AACSB, AMBA and/or EQUIS. This concerns the degree-awarding institution, rather than citizenship. A Chinese applicant's nationality alone neither proves eligibility nor rules it out. The awarding entity and applicable accreditation scope need checking before investing in a full proposal. Current employer advertisement.

The salary is paid under government position code 1017, but its numerical amount is unknown. The named academics are contacts; the advertisement promises a CREDS academic principal supervisor without assigning a particular individual. Overall, the opportunity has credible thematic and organisational value, conditional on eligibility, practical field access and written employment details. This is an assessment of the opportunity, not an estimate of an individual's admission probability.

Research problem, methods and feasible contributions

The project's intellectual task is to explain who controls resources, which pathways become viable, and how incentives and institutions change those choices. An engineering model that chooses the cheapest recycling route without representing ownership, information access or conflicting actor objectives would address only part of the call. Equally, assuming that every longer battery life automatically improves sustainability would prejudge the question.

Three possible designs illustrate the scope; none is an assigned requirement. One would compare how vehicle, storage and recycling actors negotiate ownership, liability and value capture.

A second could connect interviews and institutional analysis with a bounded system-dynamics or agent-based model of competing resource flows. A third could examine how changing value propositions and business relationships affect second-life arrangements.

Whichever design is chosen, it needs a defined unit of analysis, a realistic access plan, transparent sustainability criteria and an alternative explanation against which to test the findings.

The call permits qualitative cases, optimisation, system dynamics and agent-based modelling; it does not require every method. A three-year design should select a tractable core instead of promising simultaneous battery testing, a national material-flow model and extensive multi-country fieldwork. Partner access, confidentiality and data ownership should be agreed early. The centre's current research portfolio and partners establish an active circularity and regional collaboration setting, but do not establish a signed battery-company data agreement for this student.

The IEA/EPO Battery Circularity overview, published 29 April 2026, identifies reuse, repurposing and recycling as growing innovation concerns and notes competition between secondary and primary material supplies. Its patent analysis is evidence of technological activity, not proof that particular business models are profitable. The IEA's 2026 battery-industry chapter reports 1.2 TWh of EV battery deployment in 2025, almost 30% growth, alongside falling prices and regional competitive pressures. These conditions make pathway economics time-sensitive. They do not guarantee employment or research success. Norway's 2022 battery strategy provides national value-chain policy context; a strategy announcement is not evidence of current funding for this vacancy.

University, subject and doctoral training

Employer and degree. The current institution is the University of Inland Norway, and the host is CREDS within the Inland School of Business and Social Sciences. The Norwegian government approved university status on 8 November 2024. Older publications may use Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences; that historical name should not be mistaken for a different employer. A ranking figure is not needed to assess this opportunity: the relevant institutional evidence is the university’s legal status, INSEPP accreditation and the research setting. Missing ranking information alone would not establish low research value.

Subject environment. The degree route is Innovation in Services in the Public and Private Sectors, INSEPP, accredited in 2011. Its service-innovation and social-science focus explains why a battery project belongs in a business school. CREDS links digitalisation with sustainability through Smarter Greener Innovation and Sustainable Ecosystem Transition. This setting is relevant to market formation and interorganisational change; it is not evidence of an electrochemistry laboratory. Kongsvinger is a regional university teaching and collaboration location, and travel to other academic activities may need planning.

Training and milestones. The current INSEPP guidelines specify 35 ECTS: 30 compulsory, comprising philosophy/ethics, service innovation and social-science methods, plus five elective credits. They provide 240 total supervisory hours across the doctorate and start-up, midway and concluding seminars. An article-based thesis normally includes at least three articles, with at least one published or accepted by submission; a monograph is another route. General guidance expects at least 50% campus presence, while this vacancy expressly expects substantial presence in Kongsvinger. Discuss actual attendance and research travel rather than treating the general minimum as permission for remote employment.

Admission and hiring are separate processes. The fellow must apply for doctoral admission within three months of starting, with an admission agreement in place within six months; otherwise employment may be terminated. Programme participation in NORSI and a separately agreed INN–Rennes double-degree collaboration exist, but this post is not advertised as automatically awarding a Rennes degree. Confirm individual eligibility, places and funding for external courses or visits.

Academic contacts and three recent original studies

Johan Kask is a CREDS professor and advertised contact, johan.kask@inn.no. His Örebro university profile connects innovation, entrepreneurship, industrial marketing and interorganisational adaptation, while confirming his INN affiliation. Bård Tronvoll, bard.tronvoll@inn.no, is the advertised CREDS director and professor. His Karlstad research profile focuses on value creation, service ecosystems, digitalisation and organisational relationships. Marit Engen, marit.engen@inn.no, is the INSEPP programme head. These identities do not assign principal or co-supervision for this call, nor establish individual availability or supervision style.

The following three separate original empirical journal studies support the contacts’ transitions and service-business expertise; none establishes the superiority of a battery pathway. The cited abstracts and publication records support the limited comparisons below; they do not establish the superiority of a battery pathway or provide a full-method assessment of these studies.

1. Sophie-Marie Ertelt; Johan Kask. “Home field advantage: examining incumbency reorientation dynamics in low-carbon transitions.” Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 50, article 100802, March 2024. DOI 10.1016/j.eist.2023.100802. Publisher record. The cited abstract describes a Swedish road-freight case and a multi-system framework for incumbent actors’ relationships. Coalitions, competition and contestation can shape system reconfiguration. Kask is second author; author order alone does not establish his individual contribution. The paper offers an actor-governance lens for battery pathways, not a transferable quantitative result. The exact online publication day needs confirmation; repository deposit dates are not publication dates.
2. Zsófia Tóth; Alexey Sklyar; Christian Kowalkowski; David Sörhammar; Bård Tronvoll; Oliver Wirths. “Tensions in digital servitization through a paradox lens.” Industrial Marketing Management 102, 438–450, April 2022; online 18 February 2022, accepted 12 February 2022. DOI 10.1016/j.indmarman.2022.02.010. Durham university record. The cited abstract reports 56 depth interviews and site visits across aerospace and maritime cases, identifying eight tensions within and between organisations. Tronvoll is fifth author; author order alone does not establish his individual contribution. The Finnish national record supplied by Hanken independently classifies it as original refereed research. It informs questions about competing priorities, information and cooperation; it does not demonstrate battery-industry findings.
3. Bjørn Ronny Vien; Bård Tronvoll; Rolf Findsrud. “Navigating digital servitization in manufacturing SMEs through value propositions.” Journal of Service Management 37(3), 511–532, 2026. DOI 10.1108/JOSM-07-2024-0292. The official INN staff publication record summarizes managers from 18 manufacturing SMEs and an inductive/abductive approach, distinguishing value-driven, workforce-driven and collaboration-driven digitalisation. The authors themselves note the management perspective and limited depth relative to a single-case study. Tronvoll is second author; no assigned PhD supervision follows from coauthorship. This provides a business-model framing resource rather than battery-specific validation. Precise online publication day was not verified.

Conference precursors are not counted again as independent original studies. An applicant developing a proposal should obtain and read the relevant complete papers before relying on detailed mechanisms or reproducing a design.

Employment, funding and living in Kongsvinger

The offer is a three-year, 100% paid appointment, with Norwegian Public Service Pension membership and insurance arrangements. Code 1017 is a job classification; the advertisement gives no numerical salary. Gross annual pay, progression, deductions, any duties beyond research and the exact start date require written confirmation. Another institution's advertised doctoral salary must not be substituted.

Official national cost and tuition guidance states that doctoral students are normally exempt from public-institution tuition. This supports a general fee-exemption expectation, including international doctoral students; the appointment letter should confirm the actual arrangement. It does not create a personal tuition debt, identify every research-cost payer or guarantee that all travel is reimbursed. The INN admission handbook cites institutional funding requirements for externally financed candidates; its example of NOK 1.3 million per year is a total employer/project cost framework, not this fellow's salary or a required personal deposit. Programme guidelines describe normally up to NOK 120,000 in total operating resources across the doctorate; allocation and eligible spending require confirmation.

The current INSEPP guidelines assign supervision-related travel and meeting expenses to the candidate, while the programme covers external-supervisor travel for midway evaluation and defence. Confirm project-account reimbursement and supplementary support; the normal up-to-NOK 120,000 operating allocation is for the entire doctorate and restricted to research, not personal pay. Operating and supervision rules.

For concrete accommodation comparison, Campus Kongsvinger's room table lists a furnished shared room at NOK 5,705/month, deposit 11,410, and a private single unit at 6,570/month, deposit 13,140, with energy and internet included. These are published options, not secured availability or confirmed eligibility for an employed PhD. SINN's separate housing rules normally exclude PhD candidates; that rule should not automatically be transferred to the different Kongsvinger operator.

The national 2026–27 student benchmark is NOK 15,488/month, or 170,368 for the stated academic year. It is a planning comparator, not a Kongsvinger household quote or annual employee salary. Rent, initial deposit, food, transport, insurance, relocation and travel should be budgeted separately. With salary unknown, a net savings figure would be speculation. Local fieldwork and Nordic-language contexts can also affect transport and research costs.

Official Norway guidance identifies PhDs as normally employees and states that residence rules depend on citizenship and immigration status. The appointment does not automatically supply residence permission. Confirm the applicable paid-researcher permit route, processing steps, employer support and current financial threshold with INN and UDI.

Required eligibility, preferred experience and proposal preparation

Required by the call: a relevant master's degree and thesis, normally 120 ECTS with a 30-ECTS thesis and B-level average; the stated geographical/accreditation condition for qualifying institutions; documented spoken and written English; independent empirical work and research collaboration. Acceptable fields include business, innovation, energy systems, industrial ecology, modelling, sustainability transitions, science and technology studies and relevant engineering. An unfinished master's can qualify only if the thesis is already submitted by the deadline, a temporary transcript and thesis accompany the application, and the final diploma is available before employment.

For degrees outside the specified European region, check the actual institution against AACSB, AMBA or EQUIS. Membership, institutional prestige and an unrelated accredited business-school programme should not be assumed to satisfy the call. INN must clarify whether accreditation of a particular business school covers an engineering degree awarded elsewhere in its university, and whether the condition applies to both qualifying degrees.

The advertisement requires foreign master's holders to attach NOKUT recognition. The general doctoral handbook instead permits HK-dir recognition or an institutional equivalence assessment. HK-dir's official automatic-recognition explanation lists China, but a generic statement involves no individual identity/document assessment and differs from an ordinary binding recognition decision. Ask which document this vacancy accepts; neither recognition route automatically removes the separate accreditation condition. The call does not give exact English test scores, accepted evidence or exemptions; confirm the applicable INSEPP requirements rather than copying another university’s rules.

Preferred rather than mandatory: a Scandinavian language, Nordic or comparable industry/practice experience, relevant research software and research experience after the master's. The latter is explicitly an advantage, not a requirement. Evidence of practitioner access and understanding of institutional context matters because of the intended fieldwork.

Suggested preparation: demonstrate one strong methodological foundation and how it answers a focused innovation question. A technical applicant should explain firms, actors and institutions; a management applicant proposing models should establish modelling competence and credible data needs. The required 5–7-page Norwegian or English project proposal with a progress plan should identify the gap, framework, feasible cases/data, method, risks and a three-year schedule. The programme's later admission proposal can be up to ten pages; that does not replace the vacancy's shorter submission limit.

Also submit an application letter, CV, relevant work, certified complete bachelor's and master's transcripts/diplomas, necessary English translations, the master's thesis PDF and at least two referees' names and contact details. Upload separate attachments; compress files if the stated 30-MB limit is exceeded. Late documents are not considered. Public applicant-list disclosure can occur even after a request for nonpublication. Government employee and export-control compliance is assessed; the advert gives no general China-specific exclusion.

Career value, unresolved risks and questions

The likely transferable strengths are circular-business analysis, innovation research, governance, case design, stakeholder work and transparent modelling where chosen. Plausible fields include academic innovation studies, sustainability strategy, circular-economy consulting, industrial ecosystem development and public-policy analysis. These are skill-based possibilities rather than verified placement outcomes. A specialised battery chemistry or hardware-development career would require additional technical evidence beyond this advertised business-and-innovation remit. Neither patent growth nor a government strategy measures available jobs or guarantees a subsequent position.

Before committing, obtain answers to these specific questions:

• Does the exact degree-awarding institution and accreditation scope meet the call, including an engineering degree at a university with an accredited business school?
• Must both bachelor's and master's institutions satisfy that condition, and what accreditation evidence/date is acceptable?
• Is HK-dir automatic recognition for a Chinese degree accepted, or is an individual decision required by 12 November?
• Which English tests, scores, validity periods or education-based exemptions apply specifically to INSEPP and this vacancy?
• What is the exact 12 November cutoff time and time zone, and can all required files be uploaded in advance?
• Who will be principal and co-supervisors, and which methods and battery-sector expertise will each contribute?
• Which partner access, data rights, confidentiality arrangements and fallback empirical cases are actually secured?
• What are gross salary, pension deductions, progression, duties, intended start date and residence-support arrangements?
• Who pays training, operating, fieldwork, external-course and supervisory travel expenses, and what allocation is approved?
• What does substantial Kongsvinger presence mean in practice, and which housing options accept employed PhDs?

Evidence and Sources

The employer’s stated date and lack of a cutoff time leave the submission hour unresolved. The three cited studies provide adjacent evidence about low-carbon transitions and digital service models; none reports findings on circular battery pathways. Their summaries support only the claims stated above.

Project, university and programme

• Circular Battery Strategies: current employer advertisement
• INSEPP doctoral programme
• Current INSEPP guidelines
• University of Inland Norway
• University recruitment video
• Equal-opportunity applicant guidance
• INN admission and start-up handbook
• CREDS research centre
• University Kongsvinger teaching and research location

People and original studies

• Johan Kask official university profile
• Bård Tronvoll official academic profile
• INN staff publication record and Vien 2026 abstract
• Ertelt and Kask 2024 Home field advantage
• Tóth and colleagues 2022 digital servitization tensions
• Finnish national publication record: Tóth 2022

Costs, eligibility and industry

• Norwegian government: INN becomes a university
• Kongsvinger student-house room prices
• Official Norway tuition and living-cost guidance
• SINN housing eligibility
• HKdir automatic recognition
• AACSB accredited-school directory
• AMBA accredited business-school directory
• EFMD EQUIS accredited schools
• IEA/EPO Battery Circularity 2026
• IEA Global EV Outlook 2026 battery chapter
• Norwegian Battery Strategy 2022
• Official Norway employment and residence context