PhD Position: Transformative Potential of Climate Mitigation Strategies

JOB DESCRIPTION

Are you eager to contribute to a more sustainable world? Are you interested in researching the impacts of humans on the environment and the societal dynamics that drive our responses to environmental problems like climate change and biodiversity loss? As a PhD candidate in the Environmental Science department, you will conduct interdisciplinary research on how climate change mitigation strategies can contribute to transformation towards a sustainable future.

Many international institutions, such as the United Nations and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recognise that a societal transformation towards sustainability is needed to curb climate change, bend the curve of biodiversity loss and reach other environmental and social sustainability goals. The multitude of environmental crises and lack of progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals emphasises the need to change from our current business-as-usual attitude towards inherently sustainable practices.

In this project, we aim to analyse climate change mitigation strategies (e.g. electric mobility, biobased energy and materials, and carbon credits) and their potential to contribute to societal sustainability transformations, or perhaps hinder true transformations. Topics that we aim to include in the analysis are impacts of a climate change mitigation strategy on land and resource scarcity, implications for global and intergenerational justice, and how the strategies support or hinder the achievement of other sustainability targets.

To do so, we need a methodological framework that allows integrating methods and expertise from different disciplines from the natural and social sciences. Methods that can be part of the framework include, but are not limited to, discourse analysis, policy reconstruction, life cycle assessment, multi-regional input-output modelling, and statistical data and text analysis. You will develop this framework, together with your supervisors, and apply it to one or more climate change mitigation strategies to study their transformative potential. This project gives you much freedom and responsibility to steer the direction of the research.

You will be encouraged to work closely with your colleagues in the department and university-wide, as well as with others in the field. You will participate in relevant conferences and workshops, and you will communicate your findings through publications in peer-reviewed journals. Part of your workload (10%) will consist of teaching activities at our institute, assisting staff members in their courses at the MSc level (in English). You will work under the supervision of Dr Carlijn Hendriks and Prof. Birka Wicke. Upon successful completion of the research project, you will be awarded a PhD degree from Radboud University. We particularly encourage applications from underrepresented groups.

REQUIREMENTS

• You hold a Master's degree in environmental science, sustainability science, environmental and resource management or an equivalent interdisciplinary field, or will have completed such a degree before the start date.
• You are excited to integrate different lines of thinking and research into an interdisciplinary research design.
• You enjoy working in a team as well as independently and taking responsibility for developing this project.
• You have experience with one or more of the following methods for data collection and analysis: discourse analysis, interviews, statistics, life cycle assessment, input-output modelling.
• Additional knowledge of and experience with one or several climate mitigation strategies would be a plus.
• You have excellent oral and written communication skills in English.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

Fixed-term contract: See job description.

• We will give you a temporary employment contract (0.8 FTE 5- year contract - 1.0 FTE 4- year contract) of 1,5 years, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, your contract will be extended by 2.5 years (4-year contract) or 3.5 years (5-year contract).
• You will receive a starting salary of €2,770 gross per month based on a 38-hour working week, which will increase to €3,539 from the fourth year onwards (salary scale P).
• You will receive an 8% holiday allowance and an 8,3% end-of-year bonus.
• You will be able to use our Dual Career and Family Support Service. The Dual Career Programme assists your partner via support, tools, and resources to improve their chances of independently finding employment in the Netherlands. Our Family Support Service helps you and your partner feel welcome and at home by providing customised assistance in navigating local facilities, schools, and amenities. Also take a look at our support for international staff page to discover all our services for international employees.
• You will receive extra days off. With full-time employment, you can choose between 30 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the statutory 20.

Work and science require good employment practices. This is reflected in Radboud University's primary and secondary employment conditions. You can make arrangements for the best possible work-life balance with flexible working hours, various leave arrangements and working from home. You are also able to compose part of your employment conditions yourself, for example, exchange income for extra leave days and receive a reimbursement for your sports subscription. And of course, we offer a good pension plan. You are given plenty of room and responsibility to develop your talents and realise your ambitions. Therefore, we provide various training and development schemes.

DEPARTMENT

The Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences (RIBES) aims to perform world leading research in order to understand the response of the natural environment to human impact. RIBES investigates stress and adaptation processes in severely affected ecosystems. This curiosity-driven, fundamental research is cross-linked with innovative applications in both industry and society with a focus on mitigating ecosystem degradation and finding solutions to restore the natural environment. RIBES is nationally and internationally unique, as its research encompasses three major groups of organisms (microorganisms, plants and animals) and spans nearly all levels of biological organisation. In addition to developing world-class research, the institute is dedicated to first-rate education in its Biology BSc, MSc and international PhD programmes.

The mission of the Environmental Science cluster of RIBES is to provide high-quality scientific knowledge that can help the world move towards greater sustainability. To achieve this, we aim to understand, project and address the impact of anthropogenic pressures on ecosystems and humans from the landscape to the global scale. This enables us to explore and develop wide-ranging sustainable solutions for the environmental challenges the world faces today.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

You can apply only via the button below. Address your letter of application to Carlijn Hendriks. In the application form, you will find which documents you need to include with your application.

The first interviews will take place on 30 September and 1 October. You will preferably start your employment on 1 November.

We can imagine you're curious about our application procedure. It describes what you can expect during the application procedure and how we handle your personal data and internal and external candidates.