iBUILD is a consortium of Newcastle, Leeds and Birmingham Universities. It is one of two Centres set up as part of the National Infrastructure Plan, published by the Government in 2011, with funding from the EPSRC and the ESRC. The Centres’ role is to catalyse and inform the national debate about the future of the UK’s infrastructure. The aim is to develop new approaches to infrastructure business models with the ultimate goal of replacing current public-private business models that in many cases provide poor value.

Leeds University Business School leads economics, business and social science-related research in iBuild. We are currently seeking PhD studentship applications for research topics that fit within this broad portfolio of research. Relevant general themes include value, well-being, resilience and sustainability. More specific themes include:

• Infrastructure business models: what, how, when, and for whom do they work?
• Financialisation and infrastructure: routes to long-term investment?
• Infrastructure independencies: enhanced value or increased vulnerability?
• Waste: what is ‘waste’ in a sustainable economy?
• Scaling infrastructure processes and outcomes: one size fits all?
• Systems of provision: tracking value from production to consumption
• Infrastructure futures: how will we deliver services in 2100?

These themes arise in a context where the discipline of economics and its boundaries with other disciplines are in flux. For example, behavioural economics, agent-based complexity economics, happiness economics and, in the wake of the economic crisis, heterodox economics and political economy have emerged in interdisciplinary contexts such as economic geography, management and business studies (e.g. ‘value chain’ analysis) and international political economy (e.g. ‘varieties of capitalism’). The time is apposite to harness the best of these approaches to infrastructure studies. Applications from any relevant discipline are invited. Successful applicants will be attached to the new IMBUES Centre of LUBS (which coordinates LUBS’s contributions to iBuild).

The deadline for full applications is 30 April 2014. For further information on how to apply, please contact Matthew Armstrong at phd@lubs.leeds.ac.uk or m.armstrong@leeds.ac.uk.