Providing both clean water and energy to a growing global population, especially under a changing climate, is a major challenge. Demands for these two resources and their systemic interdependencies are particularly strong during droughts and heatwaves. You will work as a team member of the ERC Starting grant project B-WEX, which aims to develop spatially explicit pathways that evaluate how the provision of clean water and energy can be balanced under global change in regions worldwide, with an emphasis on present and future droughts and heatwaves.

Your job
In this postdoc project, you will develop clean water and energy transition pathways, jointly with key stakeholders at a regional and global scale. You will develop methodological frameworks for stakeholder participation to quantitatively explore trade-offs in stakeholder defined objectives and possible management actions under unknown future water-energy resources and climate states. You play a leading role in organising stakeholder workshops.

In this role you collaborate closely with another postdoc researcher (background in water-energy resources modelling), the PI and staff members on developing spatially explicit clean water and energy transition pathways that are robust under increases in droughts and heatwaves.

We are looking for someone with the following qualifications:

• a PhD in environmental sciences, energy resources, water resources, (socio-)hydrology or a related field;
• proven knowledge and peer-reviewed publications in the field of environmental sciences, water or energy resources research or (socio-)hydrology;
• a sound understanding of water and energy systems in the context of global change;
• willingness to integrate insights from stakeholder engagement and participatory research with quantitative water-energy system modelling of our research group;
• experience with programming languages (Python / R) ideally using spatial and temporal datasets;
• interested in highly interdisciplinary collaborations;
• sensitive to the fact that successful and impactful research is a team effort;
• excellent English oral and scientific writing skills.

We offer:

• a position for one year, with an extension to 2.5 years upon a successful assessment in the first year;
• a working week of 36 hours and a gross monthly salary between €3,226 and €5,090 in the case of full-time employment (salary scale 10 under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU));
• 8% holiday pay and 8.3% year-end bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave and flexible terms of employment based on the CAO NU.

In addition to the terms of employment laid down in the CAO NU, Utrecht University has a number of schemes and facilities of its own for employees. This includes schemes facilitating professional development, leave schemes and schemes for sports and cultural activities, as well as discounts on software and other IT products. We also offer access to additional employee benefits through our Terms of Employment Options Model. In this way, we encourage our employees to continue to invest in their growth. For more information, please visit Working at Utrecht University.

Universiteit Utrecht

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major strategic themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Pathways to Sustainability. Sharing science, shaping tomorrow.

Utrecht University’s Faculty of Geosciences studies the Earth: from the Earth’s core to its surface, including man’s spatial and material utilisation of the Earth – always with a focus on sustainability and innovation. With 3,400 students (BSc and MSc) and 720 staff, the faculty is a strong and challenging organisation. The Faculty of Geosciences is organised in four Departments: Earth Sciences, Human Geography & Spatial Planning, Physical Geography, and Sustainable Development.

The team of the department of Physical Geography excels in research and education on BSc, MSc and PhD level. We research processes, patterns and dynamics of Earth’s systems from the mountains to the sea, and the interaction in between. This knowledge is essential for the sustainable management of our planet and to guarantee the availability of resources for the next generations. We are a lively department that hosts an active early career community (PhD candidates, researchers and lecturers). We organise a warm welcome for every new member.

For more information, please contact Professor Michelle van Vliet at m.t.h.vanvliet@uu.nl.

Candidates for this vacancy will be recruited by Utrecht University.