Postdoc: Climate governance and corporate sustainability

Are you passionate about climate politics, corporate sustainability, and stakeholder engagement? Keen to explore how corporations set net-zero emission targets? Then we’re looking for you! Apply now at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Join a New Research Project on Corporate Net-Zero Commitments

You will join a new short-term research project investigating how political shifts, especially during Trump’s second term, affect corporate net-zero commitments. As part of a small team of social scientists at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), you will conduct qualitative research, primarily through interviews, to understand how major international companies respond to changing political attitudes toward climate action, ESG, and sustainability. You will be responsible for collecting and analysing interview data, presenting findings at academic conferences, publishing in peer-reviewed journals, and organizing a stakeholder workshop in Amsterdam.

Your duties

• Plan and execute 20–30 interviews with corporate leaders
• Analyse interview data using scientifically robust methods
• Contribute to an academic publication and presentation on corporate net-zero commitments
• Organize a stakeholder workshop to present and discuss the results

Your Profile

• Strong interest in climate politics, environmental governance, or sustainability
• PhD in political science, sociology, public administration, or environmental social science
• Experience in planning, conducting, and analysing qualitative interviews, preferably with corporate actors
• Structured and proactive working style
• Excited to join an interdisciplinary, impact-oriented team at IVM and available to start on January 15, 2026, at the latest

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 We Offer

An exciting postdoc position in a socially-engaged organisation with a supportive project team and an active early-career scientist community. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. In return for your efforts, we offer you:

• A salary of minimum €3.546,00 (Scale 10.0) and maximum €5.538,00 (Scale 10.12) gross per month, on a full-time basis, based on UFO profile Researcher 4. The exact salary depends on your education and experience.
• A position for at least 0.5 FTE. Your employment contract will last 9 months.

We also offer attractive fringe benefits and regulations, such as:

• A full-time 38-hour working week with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours annually. 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 personalized benefits package

About Us

Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM)
Established in 1971, IVM is a leading environmental research institute 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 Environmental Policy Analysis (EPA) at IVM is a team of more than 25 researchers that was evaluated in the most recent international research quality review as “world leading” and as being “one of the highest profile academic research groups involved with sustainability governance from around the world”. We address questions related to institutional effectiveness and change, governance innovation and complexity as well as learning and adaptation. Empirically, we have a strong focus on water, climate change and biodiversity.

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. We are proud of a positive and inclusive workplace culture within the faculty, where we work together with great energy and a pragmatic attitude to tackle social challenges. At the Faculty of Science, scientists and students work on fundamental and complex societal issues for a sustainable, healthy and just future.

From forest fires to big data, from obesity to malnutrition, from helium to the universe and from genetics to medicine: our education and research cover the full breadth of science, from molecules to mankind. Our academic education and research are highly experimental, technical and interdisciplinary in nature. That is why we collaborate extensively with leading scientific institutes and industry. The faculty has more than 8,000 students studying in one of the 39 programs and employs more than 1,400 staff across 10 scientific departments, making us one of the largest science faculties in the Netherlands.

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.

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.