PhD position in “Valuing water for sustainable development”

Job description

Freshwater is crucial to sustain life, development, and the environment. Since water underpins social, economic, and environmental challenges, it lies at the heart of multiple Sustainable Development Goals. However, overconsumption and mismanagement of water resources are spawning a host of water-related crises in many places around the world, from water scarcity and exceedance of critical system boundaries to disrupted supply chains and human rights concerns over water.

In a world where water resources are increasingly under pressure, tough questions have to be answered—both in science and in policy and practice—on what to use finite water resources for. Water serves multiple interests and purposes, and thus represents multiple values. Which of these values underly or explain current water use and allocation? Is the water footprint of humanity the result of a conscious water use ethic? Are competing water use values reconcilable? Or will certain uses or values inevitably undermine fair and sustainable water consumption?

The hypothesis that underlies this PhD position is that these and other questions on the value of water use are underdeveloped. Moreover, the scientific discourse is highly fragmented, as hydrologists study water use primarily in relation to water balances; ecologists to ecosystem functioning; economists to continued productive output; and social scientists to resilience and distributional effects of water use. Absent a cross-disciplinary assessment, the scientific community is lacking a holistic and inclusive understanding of water use’s multiple values and their interactions—particularly at the global scale—even though such understanding is indispensable to address increasingly challenging allocation questions.

The position

The specific focus of your PhD project is to develop a conceptual framework to express multiple values of water use, including its constituent (inter-)disciplinary approaches and indicators. You will draw inspiration from literature on value assessment and valuation techniques from social, economic, and environmental research domains, as well as prior knowledge developed by other PhD candidates in our group working on related questions.

You will apply your framework to the water footprint of humanity, accounting for both the production and the consumption perspective. You will work with state-of-the-art water footprint models and datasets which are available within our group, expand on these where necessary, and make connections to other models or data sources as per your framework’s requirements. You will quantify and evaluate your indicators, perform statistical analyses, and represent the values of water in a spatiotemporally explicit way with particular emphasis on value dynamics at the global scale.

With the values operationalized and mapped, you will analyse when and where competing water-use values can be reconciled to overcome pressing water issues, or when and where inevitable trade-offs are encountered. You will publish your findings in peer-reviewed scientific journals, in collaboration with your advisors and colleagues.

Your profile

We are looking for an enthusiastic, professional, and highly motivated candidate with the following profile:

• You hold a Master’s degree in a field relevant to the PhD topic, such as (Environmental) Economics, Environmental Sciences, or Social Sciences disciplines;
• You are a strong conceptual thinker with outstanding analytical skills;
• You have affinity with quantitative modelling, Python, and/or GIS, or are confident that you can learn these skills quickly;
• A background in one or more of the following topics is an advantage: economic, environmental, and/or societal value assessments and valuation techniques, mixed-methods approaches, complex systems analysis, water footprint assessment;
• You exhibit high levels of self-motivation while also being a team player;
• You enjoy working in a multidisciplinary research setting with an international research team to achieve both scientific excellence and policy relevance;
• You can prove your excellent command of the English language and strong (professional) communication skills.

Our offer

• a full-time 4-year PhD-position, with excellent mentorship and a stimulating research environment.
• we encourage high responsibility and independence, while collaborating with colleagues, researchers, other university staff and partners.
• gross monthly salary will be ranging from € 2.541,00 (first year), increasing each year up to € 3.247,00 in the fourth year. Salary and associated conditions are in accordance with the collective labour agreement for Dutch universities (CAO-NU).
•  a minimum of 232 leave hours in case of full-time employment based on a formal workweek of 38 hours. A full-time employment in practice means 40 hours a week, therefore resulting in 96 extra leave hours on an annual basis.
• excellent fringe benefits including a holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary, an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%,
• a solid pension scheme,
• a family-friendly institution that offers parental leave (both paid and unpaid)
• free access to sport facilities.

Information and application

Please apply by uploading:

• motivation letter (1 page)
• CV (max 3 pages without photo)
• a writing sample (max 1 page e.g., an abstract of a publication or a one page summary of your master thesis)
• relevant certificates

until 28 January 2024, using the link below.

The application must not exceed 5 pages excluding certificates.

The first (online) job interview will take place in week 6, 2024.

We encourage Master students to apply even if they still have to graduate in the coming months.

About the organisation

The Faculty of Engineering Technology (ET) engages in education and research of Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Industrial Design Engineering. We enable society and industry to innovate and create value using efficient, solid and sustainable technology. We are part of a ‘people-first' university of technology, taking our place as an internationally leading center for smart production, processes and devices in five domains: Health Technology, Maintenance, Smart Regions, Smart Industry and Sustainable Resources. Our faculty is home to about 2,900 Bachelor's and Master's students, 550 employees and 150 PhD candidates. Our educational and research programmes are closely connected with UT research institutes Mesa+ Institute, TechMed Center and Digital Society Institute.