PhD Position Socio-Economic Modelling of Nature Restoration at European scale

Do you want to make the full value of nature restoration in Europe visible through new modelling approaches? This PhD position at the Institute for Environmental Studies (VU) focuses on developing socio-economic modelling of nature restoration at European scale.

The climate and biodiversity crises make it urgent to rethink how we use and shape land systems. Current land use is often eroding the ecological foundations that long-term wellbeing relies on. Existing socio-economic models mainly represent land use that delivers marketed goods and therefore miss important demands for nature and the services it provides, including benefits linked to health, wellbeing, recreation, pollination, and natural pest control. This can lead to restoration being undervalued and its costs overstated, resulting in biased outcomes of policy-relevant model-based assessments. You will contribute to the development of a new generation of land-use models that better include these demands and benefits of natural land uses, with the aim of helping rethink how people, businesses, and policymakers value restoration.

This research is part of the Horizon Europe project NatuRISE (NATUre Restoration Impact assessment for Socio-Economic and ecological benefits). The shared aim of NatuRISE is to develop and apply new EU- and local-scale modelling approaches to capture the full socio-economic and ecological benefits and costs of nature restoration. This PhD focuses on European-scale modelling. NatuRISE is coordinated within VU Amsterdam and brings together 17 collaborating partners from different institutes throughout Europe. The PhD work will be carried out at IVM in collaboration with other NatuRISE consortium partners.

Your function

For this PhD position, you will work on a PhD thesis related to the integration of socio-economic demands and benefits in EU-scale models of land-use dynamics. The position entails: (i) understanding the socio-economic demands and benefits of productive and non-productive land uses and how accounting for these may affect model outcomes and underreported indicators such as health and wellbeing; (ii) developing a modelling approach that considers multiple goals, through which we can assess restoration approaches for society and the environment under alternative policy scenarios; (iii) exploring different nature restoration measures at EU scale using these models; and (iv) communicating findings in terms of both costs and benefits of nature restoration.

Your duties

• you will conduct innovative research on the impact of nature restoration on land use, biodiversity and people
• you will contribute to developing new spatially explicit land-use modelling approaches and link these with macro-economic models to better capture the benefits of nature, beyond those typically reported in neoclassical economic frameworks
• you will process spatial data, analyse results, and explore scenarios for nature restoration
• you will write a PhD thesis consisting of 4 scientific papers

Your profile

• you have a university master’s degree in spatial engineering, nature and technology, environmental or spatial economics, geography, or environmental sciences
• you have experience with or interest in quantitative research methodologies, including dynamic spatial modelling, preferably including knowledge of mathematical programming languages such as GAMS or Python
• you have experience with data and spatial analysis and processing, e.g. in QGIS, is preferred
• you have organizational, communicative, and connective skills that allow you to collaborate with a wide variety of academic and societal partners and stakeholders

We recognise that each individual brings a unique set of skills, expertise, and mindset. We would like to invite everyone who recognises themselves in the profile to apply, even if they 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. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

• A position for 1 FTE. Your employment contract will initially last 1 year. Afterwards, the possibility of expansion for 3 years exists.
• A PhD education programme including training for teaching assistants and courses that are part of the SENSE graduate school
• Contribution to commuting expenses
• A wide range of sports facilities which staff may use at a modest charge
• Solid pension scheme (ABP)

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. 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 research community 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 to these.

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. Our teaching and research have a strong experimentally technical, computational and interdisciplinary nature.

The intended starting date is September 1, 2026