Utrecht University, Netherlands invites online Application for number of Fully Funded PhD Degree at various Departments. We are providing a list of Fully Funded PhD Programs available at Utrecht University, Netherlands.
Eligible candidate may Apply as soon as possible.
(01) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Combined PhD – Lecturer Position: Change Agents and Impact of Higher Education
Universities are increasingly expected to contribute to solving grand societal challenges, such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, or threats to global health. One way of doing so is to educate change agents. The primary goals of change agent education are to realise societal impact and promote the personal development of students by fostering change agent knowledge and competencies (examples include systems thinking, project management, knowledge about societal problems, design thinking, etc.) (see Van Rijnsoever, Sitzler, and Baggen, 2023). This is achieved through experiential learning and community-engaged learning. There is no one-size-fits-all model; students adopt various roles within teams operating during the change process. Additionally, the type of change agent activities they engage in can vary, encompassing a range of approaches such as social entrepreneurship, social activism, or governmental interventions. This position is guided by the question: How does using pedagogies and knowledge associated with change agent education influence societal impact and the personal development of students?
In this fully funded six-year position, you will seek answers to this question by analysing the impact of education in European regions using big data analysis techniques, survey research among alumni, and longitudinal monitoring of individual students in programs.
You will develop a solid portfolio of 21st-century research skills, gain teaching experience, and engage with practitioners, enabling you to jump-start your future (academic) career.
Deadline : 15 October 2024
(02) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: PhD Position on EU Strategic Autonomy and Defence Industries
The European Union has historically been framed as an economic giant and political dwarf. More than 30 years after the Treaty of Maastricht created EU competences in the fields of defence and foreign policy, there is still no consensus on the nature of the EU as a geopolitical actor. Ever since the EU’s 2016 Security Strategy, the ambition to become a stronger geopolitical actor has been embodied by the concept of strategic autonomy. In plain terms, the notion refers to the capacity of the EU to act independently and without reliance on actors from third countries in those policy areas which are strategically important; in particular in the area of defence industries.
While the structures of the international order are rapidly shifting, the EU’s constitutional foundations have largely remained the same. National sovereignty still forms the foundation for military capabilities. The concrete meaning of European strategic autonomy therefore remains inconclusive.
As a PhD researcher, you will undertake a four-year research project aimed at identifying and critically examining the constitutional foundations of strategic autonomy in the field of defence industries. To achieve this, you will integrate classical legal-doctrinal research methods with theoretical insights from geopolitics (international relations) and empirical insights from EU policymaking.
Deadline : 1 October 2024
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(03) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: PhD Positions: Mechano-Catalytic Depolymerisation of Plastic Waste
Decades of polymer engineering have led to various plastic materials with a variety of tuneable properties and applications. Considerably less effort has gone into strategies on how to deal with the waste created. Only 13.5% of plastics made in the EU consist of recycling content, mainly because current recycling technology leads to a lower quality material. Chemical recycling is hailed as the solution but still has to take off. Join us in advancing chemical recycling methods and make a meaningful impact on plastic waste management!
Use your experience in catalysis, polymer science and/or mechano-chemistry to develop new recycling technologies for plastics using ball milling. You will enter a relatively unexplored field of chemistry together with an expanding team of PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers.
The core objective of this project is to pioneer the conversion of polyolefins into essential chemical building blocks like monomers. 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. You will develop operando spectroscopic techniques to track the bond cleavage during ball milling. 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, becoming an expert in mechano-catalytic depolymerisation. As part of this project, you will excel in a top chemistry group with an extensive variety of state-of-the-art equipment.
Deadline :26 September 2024
(04) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: PhD Energy System integration on North Sea Region Scale
The development of the wind farm will take place in the coming years and aims at delivering more than 760 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind capacity (enough to supply the equivalent of almost one million Dutch homes) and will contribute to the Dutch ambitious build-out targets for offshore wind. The offshore windfarm is designed to deliver solutions for the optimal integration of offshore wind farms into the Dutch energy system, with the ultimate goal to perfectly match the demand for energy to the flexible generation profile of offshore wind farms, contributing to grid stability. To unlock full system integration the concept for the wind farm combines offshore wind with electrolyser capacity for green hydrogen production, and other flexible demand solutions like e-boilers and battery storage. Additionally, floating solar panels will allow a more efficient use of ocean space. The six PhD candidates within the programme will independently provide the development of a broad knowledge base on wind energy in the Netherlands and internationally, to support the growth of wind energy by both innovations and deeper knowledge of the (system related) issues at hand.
The system integration requires an interdisciplinary approach and cooperation and exchange with the other five PhD projects is considered conditional. Also, it is expected that the you will work closely together with experts from the applied research institute TNO. A 50% presence at the TNO offices is expected to ensure the anticipated intense cooperation. While at TNO, 100% of the time of the PhD is dedicated to the research programme. The PhD programme itself is part of a larger dissemination and communication program that provides ample opportunity to work together with other stakeholders from academia, research institutes and industry.
In this project you will, building on energy system modelling capabilities available at the project partners, advance the knowledge on how the energy system of the North Sea region countries may be developed over time, considering a very large scale off-shore wind energy deployment (over 400 GW in 2050 is imaginable). Scenarios and tools to assess the feasibility of this development are available, but are often lacking accurate models for new and emerging technologies for grid balancing and system integration offshore, on-shore and a more refined representation of the (very costly) multi-carrier energy infrastructure. Improving those modelling capabilities, as well as spatial and temporal granularity, can often lead to a lower system cost and the computation of faster and more accurate optimal solutions.
Deadline : 6 October 2024
(05) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: PhD position on high altitude mountain precipitation
Mountains are the water towers of the world. They receive a disproportionately large amount of precipitation due to orographic lifting. The most important water towers are Asia’s mountain ranges, particularly the Himalaya, the Karakoram and the Pamir. These mountains contain the largest ice reserves beyond the polar regions and are therefore often collectively referred to as the Third Pole.
Here, mountain precipitation feeds glaciers and snowpacks, generating river flow that supplies major reservoirs and sustains millions of people downstream. Extreme mountain precipitation can also trigger floods, landslides, debris flows, and avalanches. Understanding the drivers and magnitude of mountain precipitation is essential for quantifying the mountain water cycle.
In the ERC Advanced project DROP, you will be part of a team investigating how mountains, land-surface feedback, and large-scale atmospheric circulation influence the distribution of mountain precipitation on the Third Pole.
In this PhD project, you will focus on high-altitude snow and rainfall patterns in two climatically contrasting catchments: one in the Himalayas and one in the Pamir mountain range. Using ice cores, snow observations, and a dense network of rain gauges, you will adopt a data-driven approach to understand spatial and temporal variations in precipitation. Your tasks will include organizing high-altitude research expeditions, conducting fieldwork in challenging conditions, and analyzing ice core and field-based data. Collaboration with another PhD candidate and a postdoc in the project will be crucial.
To support your academic and personal development, you will also follow courses and assist in teaching Earth Sciences at the Bachelor’s and Master’s levels. These activities will constitute twenty percent of your contracted time.
Deadline :15 September 2024
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(06) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: PhD position on the interaction between mountains and precipitation
Mountains are the water towers of the world. They receive a disproportionately large amount of precipitation due to orographic lifting. The most important water towers are Asia’s mountain ranges, particularly the Himalaya, the Karakoram and the Pamir. These mountains contain the largest ice reserves beyond the polar regions and are therefore often collectively referred to as the Third Pole.
Here, mountain precipitation feeds glaciers and snowpacks, generating river flow that supplies major reservoirs and sustains millions of people downstream. At the same time, extreme mountain precipitation triggers floods, landslides, debris flows, and avalanches. Without understanding the drivers and magnitude of mountain precipitation, quantifying the mountain water cycle is virtually impossible. You will work as a team member in the ERC Advanced project DROP, which focuses on understanding how mountains, land-surface feedbacks, and large-scale atmospheric circulation control the distribution of mountain precipitation in time and space on the Third Pole.
In this PhD project, you will focus on understanding the interaction between mountain ranges and precipitation using observations and large-scale remote sensing at the synoptic scale. You will combine observations, remote sensing, and outputs from an atmospheric model to investigate and explain seasonal differences in the large-scale orography-precipitation interplay. You will work closely with another PhD candidate and a postdoc in the same project.
To support academic and personal development, PhD candidates follow courses and assist in teaching Earth Sciences at the Bachelor’s and Master’s levels. Together, these activities amount to twenty percent of the contracted time.
Deadline :15 September 2024
(07) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: PhD Position: Burden of Zoonoses in Europe
We are looking for a colleague with a Master’s degree and affinity for quantitative research, such as (animal) health economics, veterinary epidemiology, One Health, and computational biology. You have affinity with zoonoses and you are familiar with livestock production in the European context. Full proficiency in English, both written and oral, is a prerequisite. Good communication and collaboration skills are essential for this interdisciplinary and international project.
Deadline : 29 September 2024
(08) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: PhD Candidate Cartilage Collagen Fiber Formation
Tissue engineering (TE) approaches can be used to produce implants with a composition not unlike real tissues. However, their collagen-based matrix often lacks the intricate organisation that is imperative for biomechanical stability. Here, we aim to unravel the triggers that underlie the formation, guidance and integration of the collagen networks in articular cartilage and leverage biofabrication technologies to generate durable implants.
Deadline :13 September 2024
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(09) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Various PhD positions available in FLOW – Protein Quality for Health
FLOW aims to uncover the molecular principles of how the cellular protein quality-control network modulates the fate of proteins from cradle to grave. Molecular chaperones and the degradation machinery determine the fate of proteins, and failure to do so leads to diseases as divergent as neurodegeneration or cystic fibrosis. The FLOW consortium, a unique and highly interdisciplinary team, aims to discover, rebuild and control the triaging of protein fate. We do this by combining biochemical, biophysical, cell biological, computational, and genetic methods, from single molecule to cell.
Deadline : 1 October 2024
(10) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Combined PhD – Lecturer Position in Research Mediatisation in Transitions
The results of the research will have to lead to the completion of a PhD thesis. Through this research activity you will become embedded in the exciting scientific communities that exist on futuring, transition studies and media studies, and you can develop yourself through participation in congresses, workshops, trainings for doctoral students, and a vibrant group of PhD candidates at the Copernicus Institute. Next to the development of the doctoral thesis (60% of your time), you will also be involved in teaching (40%). This involves teaching in selected courses on Innovation and in the interdisciplinary bachelor’s course Futuring for Sustainability, as well as various roles in tutoring, supervision and lecturing on topics relevant to your research topic, interests and capacities. In addition to teaching, you can obtain your University Teaching Qualification
Deadline : 15 September 2024
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(11) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: PhD Acceleration of implementation and future scale-up of offshore wind
This PhD program focuses on the large-scale offshore wind farm, Oranje Wind, located in the North Sea about 53 kilometers off the Dutch coast. The project aims to deliver over 760 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind capacity, sufficient to power nearly one million Dutch homes, and contribute to the Netherlands’ offshore wind build-out targets. The wind farm will integrate offshore wind with electrolyser capacity for green hydrogen production, flexible demand solutions like e-boilers and battery storage, and floating solar panels to maximize ocean space use.
The development of a North Sea Energy system with 300-400 GW of offshore energy generation capacity by 2050 presents significant challenges. Your research will involve creating quantified roadmaps for this energy system through energy system modeling and scenario analysis. These roadmaps will provide insights into timing, location, technological design, investments, and costs, and will be used to develop policy roadmaps through backcasting methods.
You will analyze national policies and strategies, including planning and legal procedures for offshore wind parks and infrastructure, to identify best practices and address discrepancies between national approaches. The research will also focus on the innovation system around the North Sea and multilateral collaboration frameworks.
Engagement with societal actors involved in the energy transition, including government bodies, companies, startups, NGOs, citizens, and networking organizations, is crucial. Your research will address how to accelerate and upscale offshore wind capacity while balancing other key preconditions, such as ecological impacts and marine uses.
Deadline : 30 September 2024
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(12) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: Two PhD Positions on Power Dynamics in Transformative Social Innovation
We know that countless initiatives and movements worldwide are experimenting with social innovation to promote justice and sustainability by altering social relations and creating new ways of doing, thinking, and organizing. However, there is limited understanding of the power dynamics underlying these social innovation movements. Key questions include: Who gains or loses power, and how are power relations challenged or reinforced in social innovation?
To explore these questions, the 5-year POTRANSI project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC), will analyze four social innovation movements—decentralized energy production, the sharing economy, eco-communities, and participatory democracy—across Europe and beyond. We will investigate local initiatives in Portugal, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, as well as examine how these innovations are connected through translocal networks as ‘prefigurative social movements.’ Our goal is to understand how participants navigate the paradoxes and challenges of power dynamics in practice.
In addition to traditional fieldwork methods like interviews and participant observation, we will organize a translocal Transformative Power Arena. This innovative research method will engage entrepreneurs, activists, policy-makers, and citizens through action research and systematic methodology testing. We will experiment with alternative inquiry forms, such as Theatre of the Oppressed, to explore power dynamics in a more experiential manner.
Deadline : 30 September 2024
(13) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: PhD Position on the Future of Work and Organisational Creativity
Creative tasks—those where the generation of new ideas and products traditionally relies heavily on the individual and group-related competencies of human workers—are widespread in many jobs, and for these tasks the adoption of Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) may be considered both a blessing and a curse. The project focuses on GAI purposefully as we want to contribute to the debate on how human capacity for creation/creativity is affected by the technological paradigm shift.
Over a period of four years, you will conduct doctoral research on this topic. The focus of your research is to explore how the future of creative work is evolving in light of technological disruptions. There is room for shaping the research objectives within the PhD trajectory.
Deadline : 14 September 2024
(14) PhD Degree – Fully Funded
PhD position summary/title: PhD Position: Accelerating the Transition to a Circular Textile Economy
The extensive use of land, water, energy, and chemicals makes the textile industry one of the most polluting sectors worldwide. Both the Dutch government and the European Commission aim to improve the circularity of the textile sector to ensure a sustainable future. The Dutch Circular Economy programme highlights the necessity of behaviour change and the adoption of circular principles, such as the use of second-hand platforms and the dissuasion of fast-fashion consumption, to name two examples. Central to the programme is the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which in principles is meant to encourage producers and retailers in the Dutch textile industry to change their business models and enhance textile collection efforts.
This PhD project aims to accelerate the transition to a circular textile economy by leveraging the Mission-specific Innovation Systems (MIS) framework. This framework provides a systems perspective to study the dynamics of diffusion and implementation of innovation. It maps the actors, networks, and institutions involved, assesses system performance, and identifies barriers to achieving societal missions through innovation. Until now, the MIS has mainly focused on technological innovation but in this project we also want to focus on the social innovations that are needed to accelerate the transition towards circular textiles. The research will focus on integrating both technological and social innovations and will focus on those R strategies that involve behavioural change and new business models. The project will map the mental models of various stakeholders within the Mission-specific Innovation System (MIS), assess the viability of circular business models, and provide intervention options for stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem that might be needed to supplement the shortcomings of existing mechanisms, such as some aspects of EPR.
Deadline : 15 September 2024
About Utrecht University, Netherlands – Official Website
Utrecht University is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established 26 March 1636 (385 years ago), it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrolment of 31,801 students, and employed 7,191 faculty and staff. In 2018, 525 PhD degrees were awarded and 6,948 scientific articles were published. The 2018 budget of the university was €857 million.
Utrecht University counts a number of distinguished scholars among its alumni and faculty, including 12 Nobel Prize laureates and 13 Spinoza Prize laureates. Utrecht University has been placed consistently in the top 100 universities in the world by prominent international ranking tables. The university is ranked the best university in the Netherlands by the Shanghai Ranking of World Universities 2019, ranking 13th in Europe and 49th in the world.
The university’s motto is “Sol Iustitiae Illustra Nos,” which means “May the Sun of Righteousness Enlighten Us”. This motto was gleaned from a literal Latin Bible translation of Malachi 4:2. Rutgers University, having historical connections with Utrecht University, uses a modified version of this motto.
Utrecht University is led by the University Board, consisting of prof. dr. Henk Kummeling (Rector Magnificus), prof. dr. Anton Pijpers (Chair) and prof. mr. Annetje Ottow (Vice Chair).
Close ties are harboured with other institutions internationally through its membership in the League of European Research Universities (LERU), the Utrecht Network and the European University Association (EUA).
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