Are you interested in interdisciplinary research and education? Are you interested in addressing societal concerns about biodiversity decline, climate change, sustainable development of land use as well as fair distribution and access to natural resources? The Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) is looking for an assistant professor with a background in ecological and environmental ethics and an understanding of environmental policy who has a keen interest in interdisciplinary research and education.

There is an increasing ambition of and demand for scientists to provide citizens and policy makers with tools and knowledge for conserving natural resources and ecosystem services. A major challenge that we face is how to address multiple and potentially competing objectives and diverse values systems related to possible actions in complex environments. Ecologists as well as earth and environmental scientists often lack the tools needed to integrate ethical concerns, environmental legislation and diverse socio-economic values into their research, recommendations and public engagement. A researcher with the right expertise can, in collaboration with other scientists, help develop a suitable framework to simultaneously address these competing objectives and diverse value systems and cultivate a deliberative education and research community which interfaces IBED’s expertise with societal challenges and policy needs.

Examples of challenges that are of specific interest within IBED include natural resource management, climate change and energy transition, conservation biology, uncertainty in ecological systems or geo-engineering environment-climate systems. Your research will be embedded within the Department of Theoretical and Computational Ecology where we address the complexity of ecological systems in terms of processes, patterns, diversity and functioning. We are fascinated by the abiotic and biotic factors that determine how nature and life is distributed across our planet, that govern how or why animals move, and that shape the dynamics of ecological communities. We use advanced theoretical and computational approaches to pursue our fascination and increase our understanding, while at the same time addressing societal challenges related to sustainable development, human-wildlife interactions and biodiversity decline.

Through this position we aim to: 

• provide a theoretical foundation in environmental / ecological ethics, environmental policies and philosophy of science in our education of BSc and MSc students, applied to topical issues in ecology, environmental sciences and sustainability;
• enhance the expertise in our institute and the Faculty of Science to engage with and give direction to reflective research and education on ethical questions and philosophy of science within research domains of IBED;
• contribute to societal and policy debates and decision making on ecological and environmental issues in the Netherlands as well as internationally;
• help colleagues critically assess the societal and environmental impact of actions, or lack thereof and train MSc students, PhD candidates and staff in this;
• strengthen and extend interdisciplinary research across the boundaries of the natural sciences, the humanities and the social sciences towards integrating ecological research outcomes, ethical dilemmas and consequences for decision making;
• foster interactions between academic and societal stakeholders;

Read a full description of the function profile

What will you be doing

Expected teaching responsibilities are to (~50% investment):

• provide a significant contribution to the BSc Future Planet Studies (FPS) and MSc Earth Sciences, and potential contributions to other relevant programs (BSc and MSc Biological Sciences, BSc BetaGamma);
• coordinate and/or teach in the courses such as: “Philosophy of Science” (BSc FPS), “Energy and Climate Change; Science, Policy and Economics”, “Climate Change and Environmental Ethics” (MSc Earth Science);
• supervise (interdisciplinary) BSc and MSc research projects.

Research responsibilities are to (~40% investment):

• conduct (interdisciplinary) research at the interface of ethics, ecology and environment and publish results in leading academic journals;
• foster collaboration within IBED, the UvA, as well as with national and international partners;
• aquire funding through national and international sources to finance your research;
• contribute to scientific outreach or engagement with stakeholders outside academia.

Approximately 10% of your time will be dedicated to organizational tasks.

What do we require of you

• a PhD in a field related to: ecological and environmental ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of science or environmental policy, applied to ecological and environmental challenges';
• strong didactic skills – as evidenced from previous academic teaching and development of educational material, and have high affinity with university teaching and the development and organization thereof;
• experience in supervising BSc and MSc student projects;
• scientific expertise in ecological and environmental ethics or environmental policy evidenced by publications in the international scientific literature;
• the ability to critically assess the environmental and socio-economic impact of (in)actions, and an affinity for quantitative analysis of ecological processes;
• the ability and willingness to apply your expertise in collaborative projects with domain scientists (e.g. fields like ecology & evolution, environmental sciences, epidemiology);
• excellent oral and written communication skills;
• fluent in English and in Dutch, or willing to learn Dutch to a level appropriate for teaching in Bachelor programmes taught in Dutch;
• work well in a collaborative environment.

Fixed-term contract: 12 months.

A temporary contract for 32-38 hours a week, preferably starting on 1 December 2021 (with flexibility)  for the duration of 12 months. A permanent contract subsequently follows if we assess your performance positive.

The salary, depending on relevant experience before the beginning of the employment contract, will be € 3,746 to € 5,127 (scale 11) gross per month, based on a fulltime contract (38 hours a week). This is exclusive 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus. A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants. The Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities is applicable.

Are you curious about our extensive package of secondary employment benefits like our excellent opportunities for study and development? Take a look here.

University of Amsterdam

With over 6,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

Faculty of Science – Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics

The Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) is one of eight research institutes of the Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam. The research at IBED aims to unravel how ecosystems function in all their complexity, and how they change due to natural processes and human activities. At its core lies an integrated systems approach to study biodiversity, ecosystems and the environment. IBED adopts this systems approach to ecosystems, addressing abiotic (soil and water quality) and biotic factors (ecology and evolution of plants, animals, and microorganisms), and the interplay between those. The IBED vision includes research encompassing experimental and theoretical approaches at a wide variety of temporal and spatial scales, i.e. from molecules and microorganisms to patterns and processes occurring at the global scale.