PhD position: Individual behaviour under climate change risks

Are you keen to contributing to climate resilience within a team of top scientists? Would you like to study how individuals prepare for flood risks? Then apply for this PhD position at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

PhD position: Individual behaviour under climate change risks

Your function

The Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) has a new position for a PhD student in the field of behavioural economics. As PhD student you will become part of a new interdisciplinary ERC-Synergy project (LIMIT2ADAPT), which is a collaboration of top-scientists from VU Amsterdam (NL), Princeton (USA), GfZ (Germany) and Bristol Univ. (UK). This project aims to improve preparedness of households for global flood and climate risks.

You will be based at IVM and collaborate with other researchers in the USA, Germany and the UK who will be recruited for this project. Your main tasks are to:

• Design and apply theories from the fields of behavioural science and psychology that explain why some people take effective measures to prepare for the various risks posed by climate change and floods, whereas many others do not.
• Implement surveys among households and empirically test these behavioural theories in various countries with varying climate risks.
• Draw lessons for public sector policy makers that aim to stimulate individuals to better prepare for natural hazards posed by climate change, such as building-scale measures that limit damage to properties.

An important part of the ERC-Synergy project LIMIT2ADAPT is the integration of the survey insights from this PhD project into an agent-based model. This model will be developed by other PhDs in the project team and simulates household adaptation behaviour over time in global flood-prone regions. An inter- or multidisciplinary background and good communication skills are therefore important assets.

Your duties

• Publish research results in international peer-reviewed journals.
• Teach for 0.1 FTE in Bachelor and/or Master’s educational programs and supervise Bachelor and Master students.
• Contribute to project tasks, meetings and activities.
• Present your research findings, for example at international conferences.

Your profile

• An MSc degree in (behavioural) economics, psychology or a related discipline.
• Quantitative statistical and/or econometric skills.
• Excellent writing and verbal communication skills in English.
• Interest in doing cutting-edge scientific research.

Nice to have

• Affinity with environmental sustainability and/or climate change topics.
• Experience with Dutch and German language.

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 meet all the requirements.

What do we offer?

• A salary of € 3.059,00 (PhD scale 85.0) and maximum € 3.881,00 (PhD scale 85.3) gross per month in the fourth year, for a full-time employment.
• An employment contract of initially 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.
• 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.

Additionally, we also offer a PhD education programme including training for teaching assistants and courses that are part of the SENSE graduate school.

About the team and employer

Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM)

IVM is an 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. A unique strength of the institute’s 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.

The department of Environmental Economics (EE) focuses on improving insights into the interaction between the environment and the economy. The department consists of around 35 scientific staff and PhD researchers. Fields of application include climate change, energy, circular economy, water, ecosystem services, and environmental and natural resource management.

Faculty of Science

Working at the Faculty of Science means collaborating with students, lecturers and researchers who are focused on their field, yet have a broad view of the world. The faculty collaborates extensively with leading scientific institutes and industry.