GreenTRIBOS

The world is warming and the weather is becoming increasingly unstable and extreme, and whether we like it or not, the overwhelming scientific consensus is that mankind’s use of fossil fuels is a key component in this climate change. Friction, wear and lubrication are major players in the consumption of energy, and so reducing friction and wear and using green lubrication is the most direct route to reducing energy consumption and pollution and so contributing to a better environment for us all. GreenTRIBOS takes up this very important challenge by developing innovative, but sustainable and green, technologies to decrease both friction and wear and improve lubrication. The 12 early-stage researchers (ESRs) will be working in three science-based work packages to develop integrative green concepts, their functional mechanisms, and lifecycle analyses to verify the sustainability, as well as quantifying the tribological performance to reduce energy consumption, resource depletion and polluting emissions. In the overarching integrative work package, the ESRs will assimilate these results into a coherent set of generic, green-tribology concepts and design rules – that will be made freely available to all – with a measurable impact on sustainability over the whole lifecycle of the system. All 12 ESRs will use complementary techniques, tools, models and approaches supported by their supervisors, research groups and non-academic mentors throughout their individual PhD-specific ESR project plans. By training the ESRs in scientific, technical and transferrable skills, they will become the next generation of high-potential scientists and engineers to instigate the step change that is required for a sustainable engineering future to serve the needs of a sustainable 21st century Europe.

Partners

The key academic groups of the Green TRIBOS consortium are leading and world renown in their own field of Tribology and Surface engineering. They are very complementary from point of view of surfaces, lubricants and interfaces, as well as engineering component design. Thus, their involvement in a single programme enables integration of the whole range of tribology sub-areas required for successful application solutions. The consortium of four partner universities: University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, University of Leeds, UK, University of Coimbra, Portugal, and Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, represents an outstanding added value to teaching of tribology and surface engineering, and consequently has a large impact on the industry, transport and energy sectors, as well as implementation of novel interface nanotechnologies, tribophysics and tribochemistry science in these fields, and will contribute to environment and socio-economic aspects of quality of life.

Associated Partners

Associated partners promote the study, actively participate in the management of the Green TRIBOS programme, they act as board members, review and evaluate the projects and programs, help defining master program projects and thesis, offer complementary visits and seminars and offer students internship possibilities.

Supporting Partners

Supporting partners offer a number of internship to acquire practical experience and understanding of the engineering and scientific challenges in real sector.

Acknowledgement

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 860246.