Your function
Kenya faces high drought and land degradation risks. Nature-based solutions such as water bunds restore soil moisture retention capacity, enhance rangeland conditions, and improve livelihoods. Though promising, these solutions need scaling across landscapes and communities to deliver widespread benefits, which in turn requires understanding of adoption behaviour by communities and individuals.
In this Postdoc you will identify values, barriers and opportunities to adoption of water bunds. You will conduct fieldwork in Kenya and develop a deliberative monetary valuation study, including both discrete choice experiment and deliberative discussions. You will analyse choice data to willingness to pay for bunds, and to understand how different social groups value bunds, and what expertise and knowledge as well as scaling tools may trigger adoption behaviour.
The Postdoc is part of the SwaRM project (Scaling Water bunds for climate Resilience Management in Kenyan rainfed agri-food systems). This NWO (NL-CGIAR) funded research project aims to understand water bunds adoption behaviour by communities and individuals and identify efficient and equitable scaling pathways of nature-based water retention practices. In the project we will work closely with researchers from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and Tegemeo Institute (Nairobi). Furthermore, we will work with Justdiggit, a Dutch African INGO that promotes water bunds in partnership with Kenyan NGOs.
Your duties
- You apply deliberative monetary valuation (DMV) methos– develop protocol, organise data collection, collect and analyse data
- You contribute to project management and collaboration
- You support outreach through publications and stakeholder events
- You contribute to teaching at IVM
Your profile
- you have a PhD degree in environmental economics or a closely related discipline (submitted before August 2026)
- you have experience with discrete choice modelling
- you are motivated to conduct field research in Kenya
- you have experience in setting up and executing data collection independently
We realise that each individual brings a unique set of skills, expertise and mindset. Therefore we are happy to invite anyone who recognises themselves in the profile to apply, even if you do not (fully) meet all the requirements.
What do we offer?
An exciting postdoc position in a socially-engaged organisation with a supportive project team and an active early-career scientist community. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:
- a salary of minimum € 3.546,00 (Scale 10.0) and maximum € 5.538,00 (Scale 10.12) gross per month, on a full-time basis. This is based on UFO profile Researcher 4. The exact salary depends on your education and experience.
- a position for at least 0.8 FTE. Your employment contract will initially start with a 1 year contract with the possibility to extend with another 2 years.
We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and regulations. Some examples:
- A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
- 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
- solid pension scheme (ABP)
- contribution to commuting expenses
- optional model for designing a personalized benefits package
About us
Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM)
Established in 1971, IVM is a leading environmental research institute that is internationally recognised for its high-quality research output in a range of environmental disciplines, as well as for its interdisciplinary work. The mission of the institute is to contribute to sustainable development and care for the environment through scientific research and teaching. IVM aims to do excellent problem-oriented research that is useful to a wide range of stakeholders in the Netherlands and internationally. A unique strength of our research is to understand sustainability problems in their social and economic context. IVM’s research community works within four departments: Environmental Economics; Environmental Geography, Environmental Policy Analysis; and Water and Climate Risk. Since 2001 IVM has been part of the Faculty of Science at VU Amsterdam (legal name Stichting VU).
The department of Environmental Economics (EE) leads the institute’s efforts in improving insights into the interaction between the environment and the economy. The department is one of the main groups of environmental economists in Europe, consisting of around 35 scientific staff and PhD researchers. The department strategy is to consolidate and further strengthen its position as a major player in the European field of environmental economics. Important fields of application include climate change, energy, circular economy, water, ecosystem services, and environmental and natural resource management. The philosophy of the EE department is to closely integrate its research projects with its teaching programme and to initiate and conduct research jointly with stakeholders and collaborating institutes.
Faculty of Science
Working at the Faculty of Science means collaborating with students, lecturers and researchers who are focused on their field, yet have a broad view of the world. We are proud of a positive and inclusive workplace culture within the faculty, where we work together with great energy and a pragmatic attitude to tackle social challenges. At the Faculty of Science, scientists and students work on fundamental and complex societal issues for a sustainable, healthy and just future.
From forest fires to big data, from obesity to malnutrition, from helium to the universe and from genetics to medicine: our education and research cover the full breadth of science, from molecules to mankind. Our academic education and research are highly experimental, technical and interdisciplinary in nature. That is why we collaborate extensively with leading scientific institutes and industry. The faculty has more than 8,000 students studying in one of the 39 programms and employs more than 1,400 staff across 10 scientific departments, making us one of the largest science faculties in the Netherlands.
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam stands for values-driven education and research. We are open-minded experts with the ability to think freely - a broader mind. Maintaining an entrepreneurial perspective and concentrating on diversity, significance and humanity, we work on sustainable solutions with social impact. By joining forces, across the boundaries of disciplines, we work towards a better world for people and planet. Together we create a safe and respectful working and study climate, and an inspiring environment for education and research. Learn more about our codes of conduct
We are located on one physical campus, in the heart of Amsterdam's Zuidas business district, with excellent location and accessibility. Over 6,150 staff work at the VU and over 31,000 students attend academic education.
Diversity
Diversity is the driving force of VU Amsterdam. VU wants to be accessible and receptive to diversity in disciplines, cultures, ideas, nationalities, beliefs, preferences and worldviews. We believe that trust, respect, interest and differences lead to new insights and innovation, to sharpness and clarity, to excellence and a broader understanding.
We stand for an inclusive community and believe that diversity and internationalisation contribute to the quality of education, research and our services.
Therefore, we are always searching for people whose backgrounds and experience contribute to the diversity of the VU community.
Interested
Are you interested in this position and do you believe that your experience will contribute to the further development of our university? In that case, we encourage you to submit your application.
IMPORTANT: Motivation letter should be limited to 2 pages, resumés to 2 pages. Motivation letters generated with ChatGPT or other AI language tools will not be considered.
Submitting a diploma and a reference check are part of the application process.
Optional: Please list the contact information of two references in your CV or cover letter.
Applications received by e-mail will not be considered.
Acquisition in response to this advertisement is not appreciated.
