BIO

I am open to highly motivated PhDs and Visiting Scholars (see my research interests below). Send me an email with the necessary information. 

Dr Okechukwu Okorie is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Manchester.

Dr. Okorie is the Principal Investigator of the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship, “A novel circular economy-modelling approach to achieving net zero manufacturing” with a total value of £0.625m. He is also a Co-Investigator and theme lead in the £1.5m EPSRC funded “Digital Enabled Circular Healthcare Innovation” DECHI. In total, he has been part of £3.3m funding as PI, Co-I and Lead Researcher since 2016. He obtained his PhD from Cranfield University, United Kingdom.

Dr. Okorie’s research area centres on, sustainable manufacturing. Consequently, he has published/he is publishing within manufacturing business strategy, smart remanufacturing, circular business models, simulation modelling of manufacturing systems, circular economy digitalisation, lifecycle assessment and carbon accounting. Okorie has over 30 publications on sustainable manufacturing and has presented his results at several international and national conferences.

Dr. Okorie is also a funding peer-reviewer for the EPSRC UKRI, Royal Academy of Engineering and Horizon Europe. He is an editor for leading journals, conferences and several Q1 journal articles. He is currently the Poster Chair & Paper Reviewer for the OR Society's Simulation Workshop (SW25) and Scientific Reviewer for Lifecycle Engineering Conference, 2025.

Okorie’s work has been supported by world-leading companies including, but not limited to Airbus, Rolls Royce, IBM, Signify (formerly Philips), Techbuyer, HSSMI and PSS. Policy bodies that are involved in his work include DEFRA, Ellen MacArthur Foundation. He is an invited member of a standard committee with the British Standards Institution (BSI) UK and one of the elected members of the EPSRC Early Career Researcher Forum in Manufacturing and the Circular Economy. He has several international collaborations, including but not limited to the US NSF funded VR(Ex)Change programme as Steering Committee Member. He is an External Examiner at Cranfield University & University of Birmingham.

He is a Chartered Engineer with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Authority and a member of MIET. He has contributed to policy papers and shared his work at the UK House of Parliament.

He is currently developing a multidisciplinary research group aligned to his research and is happy to welcome potential candidates as postgraduate researchers (MRes, PhD) and Visiting Researchers, particularly candidates who are slanted towards quantitative methodology. He currently supervises PhDs, MSc and MBA students.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Sustainable Manufacturing
• Circular Economy (Quanifitication and applications within Digital Manufacturing).
• Life Cycle Assessment and Carbon Accounting
• Circular Value Chains
• Circular Business Models
• Smart Manufacturing and Remanufacturing
• Modelling and Simulation of Manufacturing Systems
• Condition Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance.
• End-of-Product Life Cycle Analysis.
• Smart Decision Support Systems.

RESEARCH PROJECTS

• Lead Researcher, Feasibility Study Research Project on “Circular 4.0: Digital Intelligence to Enable a Circular Economy” funded by EPSRC Network Plus: Industrial Systems in the digital Age (EP/ P001246). 2017-2018
• Lead Researcher, Circular 4.0: Data Driven Intelligence for Circular Economy (EP/R032041/1). 2019-2022.
• Co-Investigator (Co-I), Future Payment Systems: Data, Technology and Privacy after Covid (SPRITE+ EPSRC (EP/S035869/1) 2020-2021
• Co-Investigator (Co-I), Can human dignity be modelled in an AI-based decision support system for post-Covid health certification? (SPRITE+ EPSRC (EP/S035869/1) 2020-2021
• Exeter PI, “Technology-Enabled Circularity (TEC): Digitalisation and Sustainability in Manufacturing” (2022)
• Exeter PI, British Council Funded "Feasibility Study to Enable the Circular-Digital Transition of the Saudi Arabia Manufacturing Sector" (2023 - 2024)
• Principal Investigator, Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship, " A novel circular economy-modelling approach to achieving net zero manufacturing”. (2023-2028)
• Manchester PI (Co-I), EPSRC, "Digitally Enabled Circular Healthcare Innovation (DECHI)", (2025-2028)

CLIENTS

• PSS
• HSSMI
• Riversimple
• Cisco
• Airbus
• Rolls Royce
• Techbuyer

FUNDING BODIES

• EPSRC/UKRI
• GW4
• British Council/ Newton Fund.
• Royal Academy of Engineering (The RAEng)

NEWS/ Media

• Delivering Publishing Expertise to Junior Academics Around the World
• PhD student conduct research with PSS
• Academy announces three new Research Fellowships
• Circular economist secures prestigious Research Fellowship.
• The Conversation- Nigeria hasn’t been able to produce steel: Remanufacturing could be the solution

AWARDS AND HONOURS

• Member, the EPSRC Manufacturing and the Circular Economy Early Career Forum (Appointed 2024)
• Associate Fellow, Higher Education Academy (AFHEA). Awarded 2023.
• Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship (Awarded 2023)
• Project Supervisor to Miss Yagmur Kirim, Winner Philip Booth's Prize for the Best Final Year Project (Department of Engineering, 2022/2023 Graduation Year)
• GW4 Crucible 2021 Participant. (Best 30 Early Career Researchers in the UK GW4 region)
• EPSRC (SPRITE +) Funding Award X2, 2020.
• British Council/ Newton Fund Researchers Fund Award (2019)
• University of Exeter, Business School Mobility Funding Award (2019/2020)
• People’s Choice Award, Cranfield University 3 Minutes Competition. Awarded at the Cranfield Doctoral Network Annual Event, 2018.
• Best Poster (Education) Award, EPSRC Network Plus: Industrial Systems in the Digital Age, “Looking Beyond Industry 4.0”, 2017 Conference, Glasgow 2017.
• Federal Government Scholar, 2001 A recipient of the Federal Government of Nigeria Scholarship Merit Award for Undergraduate Degree Studies