The Assistant Professor hired for this position will join the Department of Environmental Policy Analysis (EPA) at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM). The successful candidate will have the responsibility to develop and implement innovative research related to the complexity of environmental governance across different levels of policy-making and across different policy fields, including climate and energy, biodiversity, food and agriculture, fresh water resources and oceans.

In addition to research, the successful candidate will be teaching at Bachelor and Master levels within the field of environmental policy and governance as well as supervising PhD dissertations, Master and Bachelor theses. Teaching and research at IVM are strongly linked, allowing for mutual cross-fertilization. While working closely with colleagues within the Department of Environmental Policy Analysis, the candidate is also expected to engage in interdisciplinary research establishing collaborations with researchers from other scientific disciplines, such as economics, geography, ecology, hydrology and climatology.

The successful candidate should have excellent empirical and analytical skills, a strong record with quantitative research methods, and experience working at the science-policy interface. The candidate should show academic leadership, maintain a high publication output, and raise competitive research funding. Teaching, research and management are respectively distributed following a 40%-40%-20% time and effort allocation. The desired starting date is February 2020.

Your duties

• conduct innovative research by further developing existing research lines at EPA
• write research proposals for external funding
• teach and coordinate courses in BSc and MSc programmes, in particular in the Global Environmental Change and Policy (GEC&P) programme of our Earth Sciences Master
• teach and supervise PhD students as part of the nation-wide graduate school Netherlands Research School for Socio-Economic and natural Sciences of the Environment (SENSE) 
• recruit and co-supervise PhD researchers
• fulfil limited managerial duties at the department and institute level, including managing European consultancy contracts for the department

• experience in environmental governance and policy and a related PhD degree
• record of publishing research on environmental governance in high quality academic journals
• experience in academic teaching at bachelor and master levels
• demonstrate a good understanding and application of quantitative methods
• experience with the policy-process, in particular at the EU-level
• good knowledge of one or more of the following policy areas: climate change, energy, water, biodiversity, agriculture, food, oceans
• evidence of prior interdisciplinary research and collaborations
• experience in acquiring and leading projects in the environmental governance domain
• be a team player

Fixed-term contract: 5 years.

A challenging and rewarding position in one of the world’s leading socio-environmental research institutes with the responsibility to play a strong role in research, teaching and have extra-academic social impact. We offer a tenure track position at the level of Assistant Professor, initially for the duration of 5 years. Within an agreed period, tenure will be achieved if the faculty criteria for Assistant Professor are fulfilled. During the tenure, the performance will be evaluated in terms of teaching, publication record, and acquisition of prestigious personal grants or equivalent project funding. After a successful evaluation, permanent employment will be granted.
 
On full-time basis the remuneration amounts to a minimum gross monthly salary between €3,637 and 4,978 (scale 11), depending on education and experience. The job profile is based on the university job ranking system and is vacant for a minimum of 0.8 FTE.

Additionally, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam offers excellent fringe benefits and various schemes and regulations to promote a good work/life balance, such as:

• a maximum of 41 days of annual leave based on full-time employment
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• solid pension scheme (ABP)
• contribution to commuting expenses

The ambition of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is clear: to contribute to a better world through outstanding education and ground-breaking research. And to be a university where personal education and societal involvement play a leading role. Where people from different disciplines and backgrounds work together on innovations and on generating new knowledge. Our teaching and research embrace the whole spectrum of science – from the humanities, the social sciences and the pure sciences through to the life sciences and the medical sciences.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is home to more than 24,500 students. We employ more than 4,600 individuals. The VU campus is easily accessible, located in the heart of Amsterdam’s Zuidas district, a truly inspiring environment for teaching and research.

Diversity
Diversity is one of our university’s core values. We are an inclusive community, and we believe that diversity and international activities enhance the quality of education and research. We are always looking for people who can enhance diversity on our campus thanks to their background and experience.

The Faculty of Science
The Faculty of Science inspires researchers and students to find sustainable solutions for complex societal issues. From forest fires to big data, from obesity to medicines and from molecules to the moon: our teaching and research programmes cover the full spectrum of the natural sciences. We share knowledge and experience with leading research institutes and industries, both here in the Netherlands and abroad.

Working at the Faculty of Science means working with students, PhD candidates and researchers, all with a clear focus on their field and a broad view of the world. We employ more than 1,250 staff members, and we are home to around 6,000 students.
 
About the institute
Established in 1971, 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’s research community works within four departments: Environmental Economics; Environmental Policy Analysis; Environmental Geography; and Water and Climate Risk. Since 2001 IVM has been part of the Faculty of Sciences at VU Amsterdam (legal name Stichting VU).

About the department Environmental Policy Analysis
The Department of Environmental Policy Analysis is a vibrant international and world-renowned team of about 25 faculty members, postdocs and PhD students within the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM). The group explores the theory and practice of environmental governance at various levels, with a special interest in institutional change, governance evaluation and complexity research across various thematic areas, ranging from climate change to energy, water, food and biodiversity. Our aim is to assist societies to better secure a transition to a sustainable future.