Pathways to Sustainability is a new programme aimed to stimulate innovative research into sustainability issues at Utrecht University. Pathways to Sustainability adopts “rigor meets relevance” as its guiding principle – aiming at promoting interdisciplinary research and transdisciplinary collaboration with stakeholders. Our aim is to reposition the University in its endeavour to facilitate the transition towards a sustainable society.

Sustainability research at Utrecht University is exceptionally strong already, spanning many different disciplinary fields, including Geo-, Natural-, Life-, Social Sciences and Humanities. With this new 8 million euro initiative, funded by the Board of the Utrecht University as well as the three contributing Faculties, we aim to bring together talented scholars to identify and actively support sustainability solution pathways for cities, deltas, food systems and the deep decarbonisation of industry.

As a Postdoc Researcher you will play a critical role in the Pathways to Sustainability initiative by analyzing sustainability problems, exploring sustainable futures and unintended effects and outlining transformational actions for cities, deltas, food systems or industry. Academic work in the field of sustainability will be directly linked to societal stakeholders realizing sustainability transitions in their professional work. If you are excited about generating evidence for impact and have experience in collaborating across disciplines and with societal stakeholders, then we encourage you to apply.

Successful candidates have a track record in sustainability research, are flexible and innovative team players, build relationships easily with societal stakeholders and can adaptively manage their own research within the dynamic Pathways to Sustainability initiative.

Employment conditions are based on the Collective Labour Agreement of the Dutch Universities. The appointments are initially for a period of 2 years, starting in September 2018 or as soon as possible thereafter. Subject to good performance, the employment will be extended up to 32 months (2 years and 8 months). Additionally, we intend to extend all positions to a total period of 4 years subject to the acquisition of external funding and to good performance. All positions are financed by 0.75 of full-time employment (FTE) through activities in the research hub. Position 1 to 4 (futuring, experimentation, co-provision, governance) can be extended to a full-time position by teaching/research activities in the respective department (with teaching in in the Bachelor and Master Programmes of their home department for up to 20% of actual appointment).

The gross monthly salary is based on experience and qualifications, and ranges from a minimum of €2,984 to a maximum of €4,757 on a full-time basis (Salary scale 10 – 11). The salary is supplemented with a holiday allowance of 8% per year and a year-end bonus of 8.3%. We offer a pension scheme, collective insurance schemes and flexible employment conditions (multiple choice model). Facilities for sports and childcare are available on our campus, which is only 15 minutes away from the historical city centre of Utrecht. More information is available at: working at Utrecht University.

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major societal themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Sustainability.