PhD Position in European Transformative Governance Pathways for Biodiversity and Equity

Location Wageningen

We are looking for

Are you an enthusiastic scholar in the field of social sciences and/or inter-disciplinary environmental and natural resource studies. Are you interested in understanding how policies can be transformed to achieve sustainable telecoupled consumption, trade and production with positive impacts on biodiversity and equity? Then this could be the ideal PhD position for you!

This PhD position focuses on telecoupling: developing transformative governance pathways for biodiversity and equity focussing on the links between European consumer countries and agrofood producer countries in the global south. The PhD candidate will be supervised jointly by the Forest Nature and Conservation Policy (FNP) group and the Market & Consumer Behaviour group (MCB). Your research should be co-developed with stakeholders and policy-makers in demand-side consumer countries to identify and assess transformative governance pathways, mechanisms and scenarios with positive biodiversity and equity outcomes. This study should advance understanding on what shapes market demand from a consumer perspective. In addition, the study will also contribute to understand the impacts of such telecoupled trade on agrofood producers and landscapes they originate from.

This PhD positions is embedded in the ”Transformative Change for Biodiversity & Equity (TC4B)” project, conducted jointly by Wageningen University with academics and societal partners from Europe, Africa and Latin America. This project departs from the fact that EU agrofood systems are driving land use change in biodiversity-rich countries (with a focus on Kenya, Cameroon and Colombia) in the Global South, leading to major biodiversity losses. Tackling the EU’s global biodiversity footprint is a top EU policy priority. The science demonstrates the need for transformative change in economic, social, and financial models for safe and just transitions, but there is limited knowledge on how to achieve transformative change in practice, which requires navigation of biodiversity, climate and equity trade-offs and synergies. TC4BE aims to conduct support transdisciplinary research on different dimensions and scales of telecoupled agrofood systems, engaging diverse stakeholders, including EU and producer-country policy-makers and Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

We ask

• a completed Master’s degree (before starting the PhD) to a high standard in the field of social sciences (including consumer behaviour and market theories and/or inter-disciplinary environmental and natural resource studies);
• skills in transdisciplinary qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis research methods, and excellent skills in scientific writing
• keen interest in conducting empirical research, relevant fieldwork experience would be considered an advantage;
• keen interest and ideally experience with the topic
• keen interest in international research collaboration and inter- or transdisciplinary research;
• for this position your command of the English language is expected to be at C1 level.

We offer

Wageningen University & Research offers excellent terms of employment. A few highlights from our Collective Labour Agreement include:

• study leave and partially paid parental leave;
• working hours that can be discussed and arranged so that they allow for the best possible work-life balance;
• the option to accrue additional compensation / holiday hours by working more, up to 40 hours per week;
• there is a strong focus on vitality and you can make use of the sports facilities available on campus for a small fee;
• a fixed December bonus of 8.3%;
• excellent pension scheme.

More information

For any questions pertaining to this call please contact: Georg Winkel, Chairholder of FNP, e-mail: georg.winkel@wur.nl

For more information about the procedure, please contact Edgar Tijhuis, Corporate Recruiter, e-mail edgar.tijhuis@wur.nl.

Do you want to apply?

You can apply directly by uploading the documents mentioned below, using the apply button on the vacancy page on our website which will allow us to process your personal information with your approval.

• Cover letter (approx. 500 words) detailing in a single document your research interests, qualifications and motivation for the position
• Curriculum Vitae (CV) with a detailed course description of your research training
• Academic transcript(s): Final and current degree transcripts including grades and degree certificates (and an official translation, if it’s not in English) - scanned copy in colour of the original document/s
• Degree Certificate(s) and an official translation, if needed - scanned copy in colour of the original document/s

We are

Wageningen University and Research

The mission of Wageningen University and Research is “To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life”. Under the banner Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen University and the specialised research institutes of the Wageningen Research Foundation have joined forces in contributing to finding solutions to important questions in the domain of healthy food and living environment.

With its roughly 30 branches, 7,200 employees and 13,200 students, Wageningen University & Research is one of the globally leading organisations in the domain of land use, conservation and food. WUR is constantly ranked high in international rankings, inter alia it is globally ranked as the number 1 university in the field of agriculture and forestry in several rankings, and ranked between number 1 and 5 in the field of environmental science and/or ecology (https://www.wur.nl/en/wageningen-university/rankings.htm

The Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group is embedded in the Department of Environmental Sciences of Wageningen University, which provides fundamental research and academic education on our living environment. The chair group focuses on the political, socio-cultural and economic dimensions of forests and nature. The FNP research program includes four interrelated themes: 1. Forest and nature conservation governance, 2. Human-nature interactions, 3. The role of power and knowledge in policymaking, 4. Management of forest value chains and markets. FNP is a member of the Wageningen School of Social Sciences (WASS) and of the Wageningen Centre for Sustainability Governance.
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We will recruit for the vacancy ourselves, so no employment agencies please. However, sharing in your network is appreciated