The PhD student will work in the EU funded project FirEUrisk aimed at developing a holistic, risk-wise strategy for European Wildfire Management. Within this project the PhD student will work with other partners across Europe to fulfill the project task, both within selected pilot areas, as well as at the pan-European scale.
Within this project the PhD student will assess the range of potential land-use management strategies that can reduce fire risk. These strategies aim to change the vegetation and landscape structure, and include: a) prescribed burnings; b) silvo-pastoralism; c) mechanical brush-clearing; d) bio economy development and e) vegetation replacement by less flammable species. We will assess the applicability and the performance of various options to reduce the fire risk in different landscapes and socio-economic contexts, considering the socio-economic challenges and opportunities of adopting a management option, and by assessing the environmental impacts of the management strategies on other landscape uses to identify synergies and potential conflicts.
The PhD student will make an assessment of experience across Europe with different management options aiming to identify good practices, successful stories and potential opportunities, including a literature inventory combined with an expert-based assessment. The findings will be confronted with the situation in the FirEUrisk pilot studies and spatial data describing the socio-economic and environmental context across the EU.
Finally, an important task is to include and evaluate the proposed land use management approaches within land use change scenarios up to 2050 to help assess future fire risk and evaluate the potential impact of adopting these land use management approaches.


Your duties

• contribute to the FireEUrisk project by scientific research in collaboration with European partners
• simulate scenarios of future land use change using spatially explicit land use models
• write scientific papers that together present your PhD thesis

• Msc degree in environmental science, ecology or geography
• willingness to collaborate with colleagues within the institute and across Europe
• good writing skills
• experience in quantitative methods: GIS and/or modelling

Fixed-term contract: 1 year.

A challenging position in a socially involved organization. The salary will be in accordance with university regulations for academic personnel and amounts €2,395 per month during the first year and increases to €3,061 per month during the fourth year, based on a full-time employment. The job profile: is based on the university job ranking system and is vacant for  1 FTE. Intended starting date is May 1st or June 1st 2021. The appointment will initially be for 1 year. After a satisfactory evaluation of the initial appointment, the contract will be extended for a duration of 4 years.
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)

The ambition of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is clear: to contribute to a better world through outstanding education and ground-breaking research. We strive to be a university where personal development and commitment to society play a leading role. A university where people from different disciplines and backgrounds collaborate to achieve innovations and to generate new knowledge. Our teaching and research encompass the entire spectrum of academic endeavour – from the humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences through to the life sciences and the medical sciences.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is home to more than 26,000 students. We employ over 4,600 individuals. The VU campus is easily accessible and located in the heart of Amsterdam’s Zuidas district, a truly inspiring environment for teaching and research.

Diversity
We are an inclusive university community. Diversity is one of our most important values. We believe that engaging in international activities and welcoming students and staff from a wide variety of backgrounds enhances the quality of our education and research. We are always looking for people who can enrich our world with their own unique perspectives and experiences.

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.
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 is part of the Faculty of Science at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (www.ivm.vu.nl).

The Department of Environmental Geography investigates the role of spatial variation in environmental systems to increase our understanding of environmental change and support environmental management. The focus of the group is on land use change and its impacts on ecosystem services and society. Temporal dynamics and future scenarios are explored with spatial modelling of changes in land use and ecosystem services, including natural, rural and urban systems. Advanced methods for stakeholder participation and ex-ante evaluation are developed and tested to support environmental management and land use planning.