PhD Position on Socio-Economic Tipping Points and Positive Levers in Scaling up Nature Based Solutions

Are you interested in socio-economic levers to upscale Nature Based Solutions? Join the NL2120 National Growth Fund Program with other 15 PhDs/PostDocs, and 30 NGOs, research institutes and industry.

Job description

Climate change, loss of biodiversity and resulting economic losses, pose an increasing threat to the prosperity and well-being of current and future generations. To be able to live and work safely and healthily in the Netherlands in the future, fundamental changes are needed in our land use and soil and water management. It is internationally recognized that Nature Based Solutions (NBS) – integral solutions that harness the power of nature to e.g. reduce climate and environmental problems in a sustainable manner – can play an important role in this transition.

NBS are at the core of climate policies, especially for climate change adaptation (e.g. the EU Adaptation Strategy). While their ecological and societal benefits are well known, NBS often compete for space and face land use trade-offs with various economic activities. Furthermore, at times short- and mid-term benefits for either local public (e.g. regional or municipal governments) or private actors (e.g. households and companies) are unclear or not yet realized. These two problems jointly create barriers to scaling up and speedy uptake of NBS. At the same time, NBS and nature, in general, are argued to become new critical ‘asset class’, increasingly attracting the attention of financial investors and calling for quantitative assessments of mechanisms to generate, maintain and distribute economic value of NBS. Even the high-level COP meetings call for identifying positive tipping points for NBS uptake and scaling up. Such analysis needs to rely on the existing, largely qualitative NBS frameworks, and go beyond to develop quantitative methods to assess benefits for various private and public actors across timescales (short-, mid- and long-term) and the distribution of both benefits and costs among actors to give guidance for the design of cost-effective NBS investment policies.

This PhD project will focus on the socio-economic and financial tipping points and positive levers in scaling up NBS. This requires mapping short-, mid- and long-term benefits and costs for private and public actors. A major part of this PhD research project will focus on computational agent-based modeling to capture the mechanisms that potentially drive tipping to NBS adoption that are socially acceptable, as well as economically and financially feasible for private and public actors. The PhD student will develop and apply an agent-based model to identify the distributional effects of NBS for various actors, and to explore under what circumstances positive socio-economic tipping points for NBS adoption emerge for a selection of NBS across policy scenarios. 

Requirements

A candidate should ideally have:

• Master’s degree in Environmental Policy; Spatial or Environmental Economics; Complex Systems Science; or Environmental Science.
• Previous experience with agent-based modeling or with one of the programming languages (Python; Java; C++; Julia) is an advantage.
• Capacity to perform statistical data analysis is beneficial.
• Domain knowledge in the field of environmental policy, sustainability or nature based solutions specifically is an asset.
• Excellent written and spoken command of English. For more details please check the Graduate Schools Admission Requirements: https://www.tudelft.nl/onderwijs/opleidingen/phd/admission. Dutch is not obligatory but is an advantage.

Doing a PhD at TU Delft requires English proficiency at a certain level to ensure that the candidate is able to communicate and interact well, participate in English-taught Doctoral Education courses, and write scientific articles and a final thesis. For more details please check the Graduate Schools Admission Requirements.

Conditions of employment

Fixed-term contract: 1 year.

Doctoral candidates will be offered a 4-year period of employment in principle, but in the form of 2 employment contracts. An initial 1,5 year contract with an official go/no go progress assessment within 15 months. Followed by an additional contract for the remaining 2,5 years assuming everything goes well and performance requirements are met.

Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, increasing from € 2770 per month in the first year to € 3539 in the fourth year. As a PhD candidate you will be enrolled in the TU Delft Graduate School. The TU Delft Graduate School provides an inspiring research environment with an excellent team of supervisors, academic staff and a mentor. The Doctoral Education Programme is aimed at developing your transferable, discipline-related and research skills.

From 1 September next, a salary increase of 3.7% applies due to a Collective Agreement amendment, followed by an additional 1% increase on 1 January 2025. In addition, most employees employed on 1 September 2024 will receive a one-off payment of €300 gross based on full-time employment.

The TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, discounts on health insurance, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged. 

For international applicants, TU Delft has the Coming to Delft Service. This service provides information for new international employees to help you prepare the relocation and to settle in the Netherlands. The Coming to Delft Service offers a Dual Career Programme for partners and they organise events to expand your (social) network.

Employer

Delft University of Technology

Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Department

Faculty Technology, Policy and Management

The Faculty of TPM provides an important contribution to solving complex technical-social issues, such as energy transition, mobility, digitalisation, water management and (cyber) security. TPM does this with its excellent education and research at the intersection of technology, society and policy. We combine insights from both engineering and social sciences as well as the humanities. TPM develops robust models and designs, is internationally oriented and has an extensive network of knowledge institutions, companies, social organisations and governments.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management.

Additional information

For additional information about this project feel free to contact prof. dr. Tatiana Filatova (TU Delft; t.filatova@tudelft.nl). For information about the application procedure, contact the HR Advisor Martine van de Vorst, email: recruitment-tbm@tudelft.nl.