PhD Position on Resilient Landscapes and the Values of Restoration

Are you passionate about researching how nature restoration can strengthen biodiversity, resilience, and human wellbeing across landscapes and time? This PhD position at the Institute for Environmental Studies (VU) offers the opportunity to contribute to that work.

Your function

The climate and biodiversity crises make it urgent to rethink how we manage land and water. Current land-use systems are often eroding the ecological foundations on which long-term prosperity depends. Existing land-use and socio-economic simulation models to inform land use planning and policy still inadequately capture many of the benefits of nature restoration, especially those that emerge through spatial and temporal feedbacks between biophysical and socio-economic processes. For example, restoration can boost agricultural productivity through pollination, natural pest control, and water regulation, while also improving health, wellbeing, and resilience across landscapes and regions. As a result, restoration of nature is often undervalued, and its wider societal benefits remain insufficiently visible in policy and decision-making.

In this PhD, you will contribute to a new generation of spatially explicit models and assessments that capture these feedbacks across spatial and temporal scales. The research will start from case-study level analyses of how restoration changes ecological and socio-economic dynamics in specific landscapes over time, and use these insights to improve regional- and EU-level modelling of restoration impacts. In doing so, the PhD will help bridge fine-grained spatial processes and behavior at local level with broader assessments of land use, ecosystem services, and socio-economic outcomes across Europe.

This research is part of the Horizon Europe project NatuRISE (NATUre Restoration Impact assessment for Socio-Economic and ecological benefits). NatuRISE develops new EU- and local-scale modelling approaches to capture the full socio-economic and ecological benefits and costs of nature restoration. The project is coordinated at VU Amsterdam and brings together 17 partners from institutes across Europe. The work will be carried out at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), in close collaboration with consortium partners across disciplines.

For this PhD position, you will work on research leading to a PhD thesis on the spatial assessment of nature restoration across case-study, regional, and EU scales. The position focuses on:

1. Analyzing spatial and temporal feedbacks between restoration, ecosystem functioning, and human decision-making at case-study level
2. Capturing restoration feedbacks through biophysical processes, such as the effects of pollination, biodiversity, and water regulation on agricultural and land-use outcomes
3. Assessing where restoration benefits and costs occur, and how the plural values of these benefits are recognized, experienced, and distributed across places, sectors, and societal groups
4. Translating these insights into regional- and EU-level scenario analysis and socio-economic decision-support tools, including multi-criteria assessments

Your duties

• You conduct innovative research on the spatial and temporal relations and feedbacks of nature restoration on human systems
• You develop modelling approaches that incorporate behavioural analysis into regional and EU scale spatial modelling
• You analyse the spatial diversity in consequences of land-use decisions for biodiversity, ecosystem services, and sustainable food systems
• You will carry out case-studies, mixing quantitative and qualitative methods to understand the impact of restoration on different values for society

Your profile

• You have a master degree in geography, environmental or ecological economics, environmental science, sustainability science or a related field.
• You have demonstrable experience with quantitative spatial research approaches and land use change analysis.
• You have experience with spatial analysis and data processing, preferably ArcGIS or QGIS
• You have affinity with interdisciplinary research and willingness to engage with both natural and social science perspectives.
• You have good communication skills in English (spoken and written).

We recognize that each individual brings a unique set of skills, expertise and mindset. We would like to invite everyone who recognizes themselves in the profile to apply, even if you do not fully meet all the requirements.

What do we offer?

A challenging position in a socially engaged organisation. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world.

• A position for 1 FTE. Your employment contract will initially last 1 year. Afterwards, the possibility of expansion for 3 years exists.
• Additionally, we offer a PhD education programme including training for teaching assistants and courses that are part of the SENSE graduate school.

About us

Institute for Environmental Studies

The work will be carried out at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM). IVM is a leading environmental research institute that is internationally recognized 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. A unique strength of the research is its focus on understanding sustainability problems in their social and economic context. IVM works within four departments: Environmental Economics; Environmental Policy Analysis; Environmental Geography; and Water and Climate Risk. IVM is part of the Faculty of Science at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. This position is based within the Environmental Geography department in collaboration with the Environmental Economics department. The Environmental Geography department conducts interdisciplinary research on the spatial aspects of environmental and social challenges and the solutions sustainable land use can provide.

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. The teaching and research have a strong experimental, technical, computational and interdisciplinary nature.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam stands for values-driven education and research. By joining forces across the boundaries of disciplines, the university works towards sustainable solutions with social impact and aims to create a safe and respectful working and study climate, and an inspiring environment for education and research.

The intended starting date is September 1, 2026.