Post Title: Design Researcher - Product Design for the Circular Economy (DTIF Solascope Project)

School/Unit School of Design

Subject Area: Product Design for the Circular Economy (DTIF Solascope Project), Department of Product Design

Post Duration: Specified Purpose Funded contract until 15th April 2027

Grade: IUA Post-Doctoral Researcher Level 2

Location: NCAD, 100 Thomas Street, Dublin 8.

Salary: IUA Post Doc Researcher Level 2 Pt 1 - €53,770* per annum (Funded)

*This salary is due to increase by 1% effective 1st August 2025 and will be subject to any future public sector pay increases due.

Hours of work: FTE 1 - Working hours will be 35 hours per week (net of rest breaks)

Reports to: Head of Department of Product Design

Background

Building on the technical and clinical outcomes of the completed EyeVU DTIF project, Solascope brings together a consortium to deliver the world’s first sterile, sustainable, panoramic endoscope with integrated lens cleaning intended to disrupt the single-use endoscope market.

Solascope innovations will result in reduced surgical procedure time, improve visualisation for surgeons, reduce surgical waste and allow a fully integrated remanufacturing technology, making the circular economy for medical devices a reality. The project is led by Tympany Medical, a Galway-based start-up. The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland will lead prototype testing simulation and evaluation, while InverMed Ltd. will be responsible for the device manufacturing process development. NCAD’s Product Design department will be involved in 5 work packages on the project. These will include Design for Circular Manufacturing, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), Design of Reverse Logistics Infrastructure and Project Dissemination.

Role Description

This academic research role is required to deliver a programme of research as part of the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund project Solascope.

This project is focused on the development and delivery of an endoscope for the circular economy. The researcher will take a lead on the research, development, prototyping and validation of medical device packaging / transport system design suitable for reverse logistics scenarios in the highly regulated area of healthcare. This will entail design research across the whole lifecycle of the product from “cradle to cradle”. The process will include in-depth and rigorous contextual research in healthcare settings, conducting and synthesising research on manufacturing, procurement, circular logistics and any touch points along the product journey. The researcher will then generate product concepts for evaluation and develop, prototype and test various iterations of the concepts in a series of iterative pilots over the course of the project. The role will also entail working in conjunction with a Service Designer to develop outputs suitable for Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of various product and packaging iterations, configurations and service propositions.

This senior role in the project will be responsible for a number of outputs associated with the project including a final, validated reverse logistics packaging / transport system design and contribution to LCA evaluations, service blueprints, a circular economy integrated business model, and conducting an incremental series of validation pilots. This will be alongside the coordination of relevant work-packages, project timeline, budget and other resources. The role may also involve input in, and contribution to, any adjacent academic work and design research being conducted in the Product Design Department and NCAD DesignLabs. NCAD Design Labs are an innovative series of collaborative design-led research spaces dedicated to the research and design of new products, services and systems that reimagine and transform healthcare, learning and circular economies.

The role will operate under the direction and supervision of an academic principle investigator for the project and will be located within the Product Design department in NCAD.