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PhD: Integrated decision-making framework for climate change adaptation

  • Nieuwe Universiteitsgebouw (NU)
  • Amsterdam
  • 0,8 / 1
  • Faculteit der Bètawetenschappen
  • PhD
  • WO / MSc
  • Sluit op
    06-07-2025
  • Publicatiedatum
    11-06-2025
Solliciteer direct
Are you keen to contribute to improving societal resilience to climate change? Would you like to study how numerical models can be used to develop optimal climate change adaptation solutions? Then you could be the ideal PhD candidate to join us!

Jouw functie

The Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) has a new position for a PhD Candidate to work on a project titled “Integrated decision-making framework of climate change adaptation”.

Adaptation measures aimed at reducing the impacts of natural hazards (e.g., physical protection infrastructure, nature-based solutions, property-level adaptation, insurance) are often evaluated in isolation, and often only in terms of monetary benefits. When adaptation options, executed by a wide range of stakeholders ranging from households, governments and insurers, are combined, interactions, trade-offs and synergies should be considered.

However, this is a complex task, because decision-making regarding adaptation can involve a large number of potential policy pathways, with varying spatial-temporal impacts (e.g., who benefits and who bears the costs). Moreover, costs and benefits that are not easily expressed in monetary terms (e.g., biodiversity and livelihood impacts) are important to integrate transparently into decision-making processes.

You will contribute to continuous development of the existing Geographical, Environmental, and Behavioural (GEB) model, to include and improve decision-making mechanisms based on dynamic adaptation policy pathways. These adaptation pathways will be evaluated based on a range of metrics, such as flood and drought risk, nature/biodiversity metrics and measures of social welfare. A mechanism needs to be developed that allows making trade-offs between these different impact measures. The main aim of this research is then to develop a reinforcement learning algorithm (AI) that can be used to automatically optimize these adaptation pathways.

The PhD project will be supervised by Dr Jens de Bruijn, Dr Max Tesselaar and Prof. Jeroen Aerts.

Your duties

  • you will obtain a PhD in environmental sciences, which means that you will be working on developing new methodologies, and publishing advances in scientific journals
  • you will join an interdisciplinary team of PhDs and other researchers who work on improving societal adaptation capacity to future climate change. For example, several other PhDs currently work with the GEB model, each with their own focus. There are also PhDs currently working on ecosystem valuation and social welfare impacts of climate change.
  • you are expected to contribute 0.1 FTE (10% of working time) to support teaching in BSc and MSc educational programs and supervise BSc and MSc students
  • you will contribute to the scientific community, for example by working with others at IVM and presenting your results at international conferences

Jouw profiel

  • you have a MSc degree in Hydrology, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Computational sciences, in Earth & Economic sciences or similar
  • you possess excellent skills in quantitative analysis, and have programming skills or are keen to learn
  • you have excellent writing and verbal communication skills in English you are interested in doing cutting-edge scientific research

We realise that each individual brings a unique set of skills, expertise and mindset. Therefore we are happy to invite anyone who recognises themselves in the profile to apply, even if you do not fully meet all the requirements.

Nice to have:

Experience with risk, hydrological models, flood and drought risk

Wat bieden wij

An interesting position in a socially engaged organisation. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

  • a salary of minimum € 2,901.00 (PhD scale 85.0) and maximum € 3,707.00 (PhD scale 85.3) gross per month, on a full-time basis. This is based on UFO profile PhD candidate. The exact salary depends on your education and experience.
  • a position for at least 0.8 FTE. Your employment contract will initially last 1 year. If there is sufficient perspective, this will be extended to a total of 4 years. Your dissertation at the end of the fourth year forms the end of your employment contract.

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and regulations. Some examples:

  • a full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
  • 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
  • solid pension scheme (ABP)
  • contribution to commuting expenses
  • optional model for designing a personalised benefits package

Over ons

Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM)
Established in 1971, IVM is a leading environmental research institute that is internationally recognised for its high-quality research output in a range of environmental disciplines, as well as for its interdisciplinary work. The mission of the institute is to contribute to sustainable development and care for the environment through scientific research and teaching. IVM aims to do excellent problem-oriented research that is useful to a wide range of stakeholders in the Netherlands and internationally. A unique strength of our research is to understand sustainability problems in their social and economic context. IVM’s research community works within four departments: Environmental Economics; Environmental Geography, Environmental Policy Analysis; and Water and Climate Risk. Since 2001 IVM has been part of the Faculty of Science at VU Amsterdam (legal name Stichting VU).

The department of Water and Climate Risk (WCR) studies hydrological and climate processes, and how these processes lead to risks and opportunities for society, the economy, and the environment. A defining characteristic of the department is a multi-disciplinary approach that combines expertise from natural sciences with knowledge from the fields of economics, e-Science and geography. This approach has led to a unique research portfolio of water and climate risk projects, and the department is a global leading institute in flood and drought risk assessment, and risk management research.

The department of Environmental Economics (EE) leads the institute’s efforts in improving insights into the interaction between the environment and the economy. The department is one of the main groups of environmental economists in Europe, consisting of around 35 scientific staff and PhD researchers. The department strategy is to consolidate and further strengthen its position as a major player in the European field of environmental economics. Important fields of application include climate change, energy, circular economy, water, ecosystem services, and environmental and natural resource management. The philosophy of the EE department is to closely integrate its research projects with its teaching programme and to initiate and conduct research jointly with stakeholders and collaborating institutes. In the coming years, the EE department will further explore new research fields related to climate economics, economics of sustainable energy, and economics of natural capital.

Faculty of Science
Researchers and students at VU Amsterdam’s Faculty of Science tackle fundamental and complex scientific problems to help pave the way for a sustainable and healthy future. From forest fires to big data, from obesity to malnutrition, and from molecules to the moon: we cover the full spectrum of the natural sciences. Our teaching and research have a strong experimentally technical, computational and interdisciplinary nature.

We work on new solutions guided by value-driven, interdisciplinary methodologies. We are committed to research, valorisation and training socially engaged citizens of the world who will make valuable contributions to a sustainable, healthy future.

Are you interested in joining the Faculty of Science? You will join undergraduate students, PhD candidates and researchers at the biggest sciences faculty in the Netherlands. You will combine a professional focus with a broad view of the world. We are proud of our collegial working climate, characterised by committed staff, a pragmatic attitude and engagement in the larger whole. The faculty is home to over 11,000 students enrolled in 40 study programmes. It employs over 1,600 professionals spread across 10 academic departments.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam stands for values-driven education and research. We are open-minded experts with the ability to think freely - a broader mind. Maintaining an entrepreneurial perspective and concentrating on diversity, significance and humanity, we work on sustainable solutions with social impact. By joining forces, across the boundaries of disciplines, we work towards a better world for people and planet. Together we create a safe and respectful working and study climate, and an inspiring environment for education and research. Learn more about our codes of conduct

We are located on one physical campus, in the heart of Amsterdam's Zuidas business district, with excellent location and accessibility.  Over 6,150 staff work at the VU and over 31,000 students attend academic education.

Diversity
Diversity is the driving force of VU Amsterdam. VU wants to be accessible and receptive to diversity in disciplines, cultures, ideas, nationalities, beliefs, preferences and worldviews. We believe that trust, respect, interest and differences lead to new insights and innovation, to sharpness and clarity, to excellence and a broader understanding.

We stand for an inclusive community and believe that diversity and internationalisation contribute to the quality of education, research and our services.

Therefore, we are always searching for people whose backgrounds and experience contribute to the diversity of the VU community.

Interesse

Are you interested in this position and do you believe that your experience will contribute to the further development of our university? In that case, we encourage you to submit your application.

IMPORTANT: Motivation letters should be limited to 1 page, resumés to 2 pages. Motivation letters generated with ChatGPT or other AI language tools will not be considered.

Submitting a diploma and a reference check are part of the application process.

Reference letters can either be uploaded with your application, or you can list the contact information of two references in your CV or cover letter.

Applications received by e-mail will not be considered.

Acquisition in response to this advertisement is not appreciated.

Jouw functie

The Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) has a new position for a PhD Candidate to work on a project titled “Integrated decision-making framework of climate change adaptation”.

Adaptation measures aimed at reducing the impacts of natural hazards (e.g., physical protection infrastructure, nature-based solutions, property-level adaptation, insurance) are often evaluated in isolation, and often only in terms of monetary benefits. When adaptation options, executed by a wide range of stakeholders ranging from households, governments and insurers, are combined, interactions, trade-offs and synergies should be considered.

However, this is a complex task, because decision-making regarding adaptation can involve a large number of potential policy pathways, with varying spatial-temporal impacts (e.g., who benefits and who bears the costs). Moreover, costs and benefits that are not easily expressed in monetary terms (e.g., biodiversity and livelihood impacts) are important to integrate transparently into decision-making processes.

You will contribute to continuous development of the existing Geographical, Environmental, and Behavioural (GEB) model, to include and improve decision-making mechanisms based on dynamic adaptation policy pathways. These adaptation pathways will be evaluated based on a range of metrics, such as flood and drought risk, nature/biodiversity metrics and measures of social welfare. A mechanism needs to be developed that allows making trade-offs between these different impact measures. The main aim of this research is then to develop a reinforcement learning algorithm (AI) that can be used to automatically optimize these adaptation pathways.

The PhD project will be supervised by Dr Jens de Bruijn, Dr Max Tesselaar and Prof. Jeroen Aerts.

Your duties

  • you will obtain a PhD in environmental sciences, which means that you will be working on developing new methodologies, and publishing advances in scientific journals
  • you will join an interdisciplinary team of PhDs and other researchers who work on improving societal adaptation capacity to future climate change. For example, several other PhDs currently work with the GEB model, each with their own focus. There are also PhDs currently working on ecosystem valuation and social welfare impacts of climate change.
  • you are expected to contribute 0.1 FTE (10% of working time) to support teaching in BSc and MSc educational programs and supervise BSc and MSc students
  • you will contribute to the scientific community, for example by working with others at IVM and presenting your results at international conferences

Jouw profiel

  • you have a MSc degree in Hydrology, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Computational sciences, in Earth & Economic sciences or similar
  • you possess excellent skills in quantitative analysis, and have programming skills or are keen to learn
  • you have excellent writing and verbal communication skills in English you are interested in doing cutting-edge scientific research

We realise that each individual brings a unique set of skills, expertise and mindset. Therefore we are happy to invite anyone who recognises themselves in the profile to apply, even if you do not fully meet all the requirements.

Nice to have:

Experience with risk, hydrological models, flood and drought risk

Wat bieden wij

An interesting position in a socially engaged organisation. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

  • a salary of minimum € 2,901.00 (PhD scale 85.0) and maximum € 3,707.00 (PhD scale 85.3) gross per month, on a full-time basis. This is based on UFO profile PhD candidate. The exact salary depends on your education and experience.
  • a position for at least 0.8 FTE. Your employment contract will initially last 1 year. If there is sufficient perspective, this will be extended to a total of 4 years. Your dissertation at the end of the fourth year forms the end of your employment contract.

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and regulations. Some examples:

  • a full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
  • 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
  • solid pension scheme (ABP)
  • contribution to commuting expenses
  • optional model for designing a personalised benefits package

Over ons

Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM)
Established in 1971, IVM is a leading environmental research institute that is internationally recognised for its high-quality research output in a range of environmental disciplines, as well as for its interdisciplinary work. The mission of the institute is to contribute to sustainable development and care for the environment through scientific research and teaching. IVM aims to do excellent problem-oriented research that is useful to a wide range of stakeholders in the Netherlands and internationally. A unique strength of our research is to understand sustainability problems in their social and economic context. IVM’s research community works within four departments: Environmental Economics; Environmental Geography, Environmental Policy Analysis; and Water and Climate Risk. Since 2001 IVM has been part of the Faculty of Science at VU Amsterdam (legal name Stichting VU).

The department of Water and Climate Risk (WCR) studies hydrological and climate processes, and how these processes lead to risks and opportunities for society, the economy, and the environment. A defining characteristic of the department is a multi-disciplinary approach that combines expertise from natural sciences with knowledge from the fields of economics, e-Science and geography. This approach has led to a unique research portfolio of water and climate risk projects, and the department is a global leading institute in flood and drought risk assessment, and risk management research.

The department of Environmental Economics (EE) leads the institute’s efforts in improving insights into the interaction between the environment and the economy. The department is one of the main groups of environmental economists in Europe, consisting of around 35 scientific staff and PhD researchers. The department strategy is to consolidate and further strengthen its position as a major player in the European field of environmental economics. Important fields of application include climate change, energy, circular economy, water, ecosystem services, and environmental and natural resource management. The philosophy of the EE department is to closely integrate its research projects with its teaching programme and to initiate and conduct research jointly with stakeholders and collaborating institutes. In the coming years, the EE department will further explore new research fields related to climate economics, economics of sustainable energy, and economics of natural capital.

Faculty of Science
Researchers and students at VU Amsterdam’s Faculty of Science tackle fundamental and complex scientific problems to help pave the way for a sustainable and healthy future. From forest fires to big data, from obesity to malnutrition, and from molecules to the moon: we cover the full spectrum of the natural sciences. Our teaching and research have a strong experimentally technical, computational and interdisciplinary nature.

We work on new solutions guided by value-driven, interdisciplinary methodologies. We are committed to research, valorisation and training socially engaged citizens of the world who will make valuable contributions to a sustainable, healthy future.

Are you interested in joining the Faculty of Science? You will join undergraduate students, PhD candidates and researchers at the biggest sciences faculty in the Netherlands. You will combine a professional focus with a broad view of the world. We are proud of our collegial working climate, characterised by committed staff, a pragmatic attitude and engagement in the larger whole. The faculty is home to over 11,000 students enrolled in 40 study programmes. It employs over 1,600 professionals spread across 10 academic departments.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam stands for values-driven education and research. We are open-minded experts with the ability to think freely - a broader mind. Maintaining an entrepreneurial perspective and concentrating on diversity, significance and humanity, we work on sustainable solutions with social impact. By joining forces, across the boundaries of disciplines, we work towards a better world for people and planet. Together we create a safe and respectful working and study climate, and an inspiring environment for education and research. Learn more about our codes of conduct

We are located on one physical campus, in the heart of Amsterdam's Zuidas business district, with excellent location and accessibility.  Over 6,150 staff work at the VU and over 31,000 students attend academic education.

Diversity
Diversity is the driving force of VU Amsterdam. VU wants to be accessible and receptive to diversity in disciplines, cultures, ideas, nationalities, beliefs, preferences and worldviews. We believe that trust, respect, interest and differences lead to new insights and innovation, to sharpness and clarity, to excellence and a broader understanding.

We stand for an inclusive community and believe that diversity and internationalisation contribute to the quality of education, research and our services.

Therefore, we are always searching for people whose backgrounds and experience contribute to the diversity of the VU community.

Vragen over de vacature?

Neem contact op met

Dr Jens de Bruijn en Dr Max Tesselaar

Assistant Professor

Interesse

Are you interested in this position and do you believe that your experience will contribute to the further development of our university? In that case, we encourage you to submit your application.

IMPORTANT: Motivation letters should be limited to 1 page, resumés to 2 pages. Motivation letters generated with ChatGPT or other AI language tools will not be considered.

Submitting a diploma and a reference check are part of the application process.

Reference letters can either be uploaded with your application, or you can list the contact information of two references in your CV or cover letter.

Applications received by e-mail will not be considered.

Acquisition in response to this advertisement is not appreciated.

Vragen over de vacature?

Neem contact op met

Dr Jens de Bruijn en Dr Max Tesselaar

Assistant Professor

Sollicitatieprocedure

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