10 Postdoctoral Fellowship at Utrecht University, Netherlands

In this postdoc position, you will be at the forefront of discussions with Dutch practitioners who are currently working on the transformation of the water system in the Netherlands. You will specifically contribute to integrating knowledge from different domains (the physical system and the governance system) in a holistic approach of developing visual storylines that contribute to collaborative learning of the stakeholders involved. The storylines can be seen as joint imaginaries resulting from stakeholder discussions, informed by the analysis of the physical- and governance systems. The central aim of this position is to investigate how to combine the knowledge of different disciplines in an integrated spatial perspective on climate-robust water systems, and to propose methodologies that support stakeholder engagement and policy interventions (e.g., maps, narratives, digital knowledge technologies, etc.). The main tasks include:

1. developing tailored storylines at different stages of the project;
2. developing roundtable protocols that support inconvenient dialogues among stakeholders;
3. articulating desired and possible future visions within the living labs; and
4. visualising WaterScape storylines (through e.g. digital/GIS-based planning support tools).

The Postdoctoral position is for an artistic researcher whose artistic practice focuses on non-representationalist, performative, and norm-challenging approaches to art and research. We are searching for an artistic researcher who focuses on nature-culture relations from an intersectional feminist perspective, whose approach is informed by posthumanist and agential realist approaches, and who aims to make critical, anti-imperialist, and decolonial socio-environmental interventions. Your artistic research will be a part of a research project RESPIRE: Planetary Breathing in Asphyxiating Times lead by Dr. Magdalena Górska , funded by the European Research Council . The position consists of 0,5 fte (50%) and lasts for 48 months.

As part of the Horizon Europe project NATURE 3B (Including NATURE in decision making of central banks, investment benchmarks & bond issuers), you will work with the Utrecht University School of Economics (U.S.E.) team under the lead of Professor Irene Monasterolo . Next to the project, you will also be a member of the Finance Section  at U.S.E.

Your key responsibilities include:

• developing quantitative tools such as a Stock-Flow Consistent behavioural model and biodiversity stress tests to assess biodiversity risks and their macroeconomic and financial stability impacts;
• collaborating with top scholars from leading institutions (e.g., University of Oxford, University of Venice) and engaging with central banks, regulators, the European Commission and the NGFS network ;
• driving impact by informing macroprudential policies, financial regulations, and investors for managing biodiversity risks in Europe;
• contributing to academic output through publishing high-quality research with the team;
• supporting the project dissemination activities by participating in relevant conferences, workshops, and seminars.

You will use your background in chemistry, catalysis, polymer science and/or mechanochemistry to discover new recycling technologies for plastics using mechanochemistry. You will enter a relatively unexplored field of chemistry together with an expanding team of six PhD candidates and two Postdocs. The core objective of this project is to pioneer the conversion of polymers into essential chemical building blocks like monomers through innovative ball-milling. By unravelling the intricate interplay between mechanical forces, catalysis, and polymer chain cleavage, you will gain valuable insights into the fundamental mechanisms shaping the future of recycling technology. Embrace the array of cutting-edge spectroscopic and analytic techniques (e.g., EPR, SEC, Raman, IR and TGA) within the Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis (ICC) section, enhancing your proficiency in catalyst design and becoming a trailblazer in mechano-catalysis.

Mitigating climate change requires both citizen involvement and energy democratisation, which are key to the European Green Deal. Community efforts have a strong multiplicative potential which is amplified when a wide range of (non-expert) stakeholders are involved. They foster the installation of more renewable energy capacities, actively reduce the stress on the regional grid and optimise overall resource usage.

In the framework of the project RENvolveIT (Regional Energy Networking – cross-sectional involvement through a modular interactive toolbox), we aim to achieve these positive effects by focusing on energy communities as a leveraging strategy to facilitate regional energy transition. RENvolveIT is a transdisciplinary international project with partners in Austria, Germany, Czech Republic and The Netherlands. In this project, we will develop a user-friendly platform that will aid households, municipalities, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in navigating the complex renewable energy processes, offering networking, project guidance, participation, and energy planning tools. Demonstrator regions across Europe are the focus of the project, aiming to overcome challenges and foster cross-region synergies while prioritising the inclusion of communities.

In the framework of the project RENvolveIT (Regional Energy Networking – cross-sectional involvement through a modular interactive toolbox), we aim to achieve these positive effects by focusing on energy communities as a leveraging strategy to facilitate regional energy transition. RENvolveIT is a transdisciplinary international project with partners in Austria, Germany, Czech Republic and The Netherlands. In this project, we will develop a user-friendly platform that will aid households, municipalities, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in navigating the complex renewable energy processes, offering networking, project guidance, participation, and energy planning tools. Demonstrator regions across Europe are the focus of the project, aiming to overcome challenges and foster cross-region synergies while prioritising the inclusion of communities.

Supervise and mentor PhD candidates and/or MSc students in their research. You will work with real-world data (RWD) to address critical questions about the safety and effectiveness of medicines and the impact of regulatory decisions on public health. The research mainly focusses on post-marketing safety studies or intervention impacts. Your contributions will help shape the future of pharmacoepidemiology and its role in advancing healthcare. In this role, you will:

• research the application and evaluation of pharmacoepidemiologic methods to generate evidence on effectiveness and safety of medicines, including measuring impact of regulatory decisions on public health;
• contribute and support ongoing research projects and collaborations with external partners;
• supervise and mentor PhD candidates and MSc students in their research;
• coordinate and teach in real-world evidence related courses on pharmacoepidemiology, pharmacotherapy, and medication policy for the Bachelor’s and Master’s  programmes in Pharmaceutical Sciences (taught in Dutch) and the Pharmacoepidemiology Summer Programme  (taught in English).

Robust quantification of emissions is needed to get reliable estimates on the emission reductions and to evaluate emission mitigation strategies. Mobile measurements close to the sources can be used for reliable emission quantification. As part of the IM4CA project , you will use mobile measurements on vehicle and drone platforms to quantify emissions in target regions in North-Western and South-Eastern Europe. A special focus of the IM4CA project is to make such measurements more standardised and reliable.

Methane emissions from various sources to the atmosphere carry unique isotopic signatures that reflect their origins. This composition can be used to quantify the relative contributions of methane from different source categories in the atmosphere. Traditionally isotope measurements were only possible for molecules with one heavy isotope, but in the past years measurements of methane molecule with two heavy isotopes (“clumped isotopes”) have been developed. As part of the IM4CA project , you will carry out measurements on the single and multiple substituted isotopic composition of methane. Special focus will be on achieving a better quantification of the clumped isotope signatures from important source categories.