Are you ready to make a meaningful impact on the governance of water-related risks to increase the sustainability of water services under growing hydroclimatic risks? Do you want to work alongside a dynamic team of water governance and policy experts?
If so, we invite you to apply for this exciting postdoc position with the Public Administration and Policy Group at Wageningen University and Research.
We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher who wants to advance research on the governance of drinking water risks by helping answer the following questions: How can innovative governance arrangements be designed to address and mitigate increasing environmental, financial, operational, social and political risks around water services? How should risks and responsibilities be divided between state, market and civil society actors, and how could this division be evaluated? What is the role of the state in promoting safe and sustainable water services? Researching these questions will contribute to advancing concepts in water risk governance and practices in the governance of sustainability transformations.

You will combine quantitative and qualitative research methods in advancing an understanding of the relationship between risk and institutional innovation in water governance at a time when more and more service providers face the risk of their taps running dry and progress towards the water SDG is becoming increasingly urgent.This will involve conducting surveys capturing the main environmental, operational and financial risks of water service providers as well as their core design principles.

You will also do qualitative research, including in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with hybrid water service providers from the global south and north to examine how they perceive and respond to water-related risks as well as with policymakers to better understand the enabling environment. The position includes field work in different locations globally. You should have excellent empirical and analytical skills and be interested in working at the science-policy interface.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• conducting innovative research on risk and institutional innovation in water services building on existing research lines;
• conducting field work (quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews) in sites across the global south and north;
• publishing articles in international refereed scientific journals;
• co-supervising MSc theses;
• contributing to the teaching portfolio of the Public Administration and Policy group;
• working on the science-policy interface and outreach (e.g. co-learning workshops).

You will work here
The research is embedded within the Public Administration and Policy (PAP) group. You will work with a growing team of scholars working on the governance of environmental risks, including several PhD and MSc candidates.

The wider Public Administration and Policy group hosts experts on water and climate governance and provides ample room for collaboration and exchange through regular seminars and meetings. We also actively collaborate with neighbouring groups in the Wageningen Centre for Sustainability Governance, which employs more than 100 researchers and is at the forefront of global discussions.

You will be supervised by Dr Johanna Koehler, Assistant Professor of Environmental Risk Governance. The chairholder of the Public Administration and Policy Group is Professor Dave Huitema.

You are:

• a talented academic who is passionate about advancing theories and concepts in water risk governance and creating impact through research;
• an enthusiastic team player and have a background and relevant networks in water/environmental governance;

You also have:

• a PhD degree in social sciences, political science, public policy and administration, geography, natural resources governance, or similar;
• made a start in publishing research on water (risk) governance and policy in high quality academic journals;
• a strong track record in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis (e.g. surveys, QCA, statistical analysis, modelling, text-mining, serious games);
• experience (or interest) in (sub)national and/or international policy processes and in working at the science-policy interface;
• the willingness to work in an interdisciplinary and international environment;
• the willingness to travel globally for extended periods;
• experience in academic teaching (or willingness to acquire it);excellent English language proficiency (a minimum of CEFR C2 level).Sometimes it is necessary to submit an internationally recognised Certificate of Proficiency in the English Language. More information can be found here.

Wageningen University & Research offers excellent terms of employment. A few highlights from our Collective Labour Agreement include:

• partially paid parental leave;
• working hours that can be discussed and arranged so that they allow for the best possible work-life balance;
• the option to accrue additional compensation / holiday hours by working more;
• there is a strong focus on vitality and you can make use of the sports facilities available on campus for a small fee;
• a fixed December bonus of 8.3%;
• excellent pension scheme.

In addition to these first-rate employee benefits, you will of course receive a good salary. Depending on your experience, we offer a competitive gross salary of between €3.226 and €5.929 for a full-time working week of 38 hours, in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreements for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU) (scale 10 or 11).The total length of this project is 26 months (on a 1.0 FTE contract) to 36 months (on a 0.7 FTE contract).

Wageningen University & Research encourages internal advancement opportunities and mobility with an internal recruitment policy. There are plenty of options for personal initiative in a learning environment, and we provide excellent training opportunities. We are offering a unique position in an international environment with a pleasant and open working atmosphere.
You are going to work at the greenest and most innovative campus in Holland, and at a university that has been chosen as the “Best University” in the Netherlands for the 18th consecutive time.

Coming from abroad
Wageningen University & Research is the university and research centre for life sciences. The themes we deal with are relevant to everyone around the world and Wageningen, therefore, has a large international community and a lot to offer to international employees.
Our team of advisors on Dutch immigration procedures will help you with the visa application procedures for yourself and, if applicable, for your family.

Feeling welcome also has everything to do with being well informed. Wageningen University & Research's International Community page contains practical information about what we can do to support international employees and students coming to Wageningen. Furthermore, we can assist you with any additional advice and information about helping your partner to find a job, housing, schooling. For instance, under the "30% rule", certain categories of international staff can receive tax exemption on approximately 30% of their gross salary.

Wageningen University & Research

Wageningen University & Research
The mission of Wageningen University & Research is “To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life”. Under the banner Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen University and the specialised research institutes of the Wageningen Research Foundation have joined forces in contributing to finding solutions to important questions in the domain of healthy food and living environment.

With its roughly 30 branches, 7,200 employees (6,400 fte) and 13,200 students and over 150.000 participants to WUR’s Life Long Learning, Wageningen University & Research is one of the leading organisations in its domain. The unique Wageningen approach lies in its integrated approach to issues and the collaboration between different disciplines.. An integrated approach to problems and the cooperation between various disciplines are at the heart of Wageningen’s unique approach. WUR has been named Best Employer in the Education category for 2019-2020.

These are the points our employees list as good reasons to come work at WUR: read the 5 reasons to come work at WUR



About Public Administration and Policy Group (PAP)
The Public Administration and Policy Group (PAP) is an enthusiastic, ambitious and rapidly growing group within the Department of Social Sciences of Wageningen University. We actively collaborate with neighbouring groups in the Wageningen Centre for Sustainability Governance (WCSG), which employs more than 100 researchers and is at the forefront of global discussions. The WCSG was recently assessed and was found to do “excellent, impact-driven and ample research”, and to be “in an eminent position to meet the demand for innovation in governance related to sustainability issues”.

Our group’s mission is to study the governance of wicked problems in the interrelated domains of water, climate, food, biodiversity and agriculture. In our work, we build on a diverse set of social science concepts and theories and apply a diverse range of methods that we use whenever suitable for the research questions at hand, without being completely wedded to one such perspective or method. We take an active interest in the role of the state in sustainability governance and actively seek to think through innovative governance arrangements. The group is impact oriented and aims to contribute to scientific progress, to societal debates, and to policy practices.

We will recruit for the vacancy ourselves, so no employment agencies please. However, sharing in your network is appreciated.