Are you eager to contribute to moving forward the circular transition in different companies? Are you interested in ecosystem development and passionate about doing this in collaboration with a variety of industrial partners? Then we are looking for you to support our team as a Postdoc for 2 years in the TKI Dinalog project 'LInear to CIrcular Transition' (LINCIT) that aims to guide companies operating a linear supply chain to transition to a circular business ecosystem, and organize the associated logistics and operations.

Job Description

Circular economy is at the heart of the sustainability transition, as outlined in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and The Paris Agreement. Our current economic system, however, is far from circular. This is not necessarily due to a lack of ambition - many businesses today, small and large, have integrated clear sustainability goals into their strategic vision. Yet they find themselves struggling with the 'how to' question. How to redesign entire supply chains to close the loop? And how to reorganize the associated logistics and operations? One crucial condition is clear: Companies cannot achieve circularity on their own. Circularity, after all, is not a property of a single product, service, or business model - it is a property of an entire system. This project thus studies circularity from an ecosystem perspective.

Once a successful minimum viable circular ecosystem is in place, companies need to manage and scale their operations, possibly involving stakeholders from other institutional contexts (including individuals, companies, regulators), and create the right governance mechanisms to support efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency in their circular business ecosystem. We are looking for a Postdoc who can take a leading role in our project 'LInear to CIrcular Transition' (LINCIT) which aims at guiding companies operating a linear supply chain to transition to a circular business ecosystem, and organize the associated logistics and operations.

TU/e is the lead partner of LINCIT. Other consortium partners are Wageningen University & Research, Hogeschool Utrecht, NHL Stenden, and over 30 industrial partners. Together with the TU/e-team, consisting of, amongst others dr. Néomie Raassens and dr. Alex Alblas, you will manage the project and conduct research in scaling up ecosystems.

As a successful applicant, you will (1) manage the project and consortium partners, (2) help in valorizing the project ideas and results, and (3) publish academic articles with your research team. You will apply various research methods, including interviewing, systematic literature reviews, focus groups, and workshops, and surveys to develop decision support tools for upscaling the minimum viable ecosystem.

You will be located in the Innovation, Technology Entrepreneurship & Marketing (ITEM) group and will work closely with dr. Néomie Raassens and dr. Alex Alblas, and several industry partners. In this setting, you will benefit from the strong industry relationships of the consortium. These will facilitate interviews and access to stakeholders and data and help ensure the research's practical relevance. In addition, you will also have the opportunity to interact closely with other researchers working on different aspects of moving the circular transition forward.