The complexity, covert nature and constantly changing power structures of organised crime pose a huge challenge to police strategies, tactics and operations. To effectively combat organised crime and criminal exploitation, a robust approach that enables the police to continuously adapt to changing realities is crucial. As a PhD student at TU Delft, you will have the unparallelled opportunity to conduct unique research and drive adoption of the latest technology within the Police.

In this 5-year project, you will spend 20% of your time at the Police. You will be working closely with police officers and scientists, thus benefiting from their in-depth knowledge, insights and expertise. Your research will be based on real-world cases related to e.g. narcotics, money laundering and corruption. Harnessing system dynamics to capture the complexity and deep uncertainty, you will model basic structures of crime organisations. Your models will leverage limited available data, yet generate a broad scope of potential futures and robust interventions. You will also focus on sharing knowledge to scientific and non-scientific police stakeholders. That’s how you will enable police scientists to continuously adapt your models to new realities. And you will help decision-makers, officers and detectives effectively use the insights gained.

Your project is part of the Model-Driven Decisions (MoDD) Lab, a Police -TU Delft initiative. At the MoDD Lab, you will join an interdisciplinary community of four fellow PhD students. Together, you will share knowledge to tackle model-based decision-making from different perspectives. You will, of course, also write scientific articles and speak at leading conferences. At TU Delft you will join the driven and internationally diverse Policy Analysis section of the Multi-Actor Systems department. In our team, some 60 academic staff, PhD students and postdocs work in fields ranging from health and security to infrastructure and climate. We share a drive to improve policy-making and foster a relaxed, collegial and collaborative atmosphere. And we will give you all the support you need to grow your career as a researcher.

Learn more about your project at the Model-Driven Decisions Lab

• You hold an MSc in a relevant subject, covering system dynamics, quantitative modelling and simulation, and policy analysis.
• You are familiar with decision-making under deep uncertainty, or are keen to learn.
• You thrive on conducting research geared to real-world application in the security domain and are intrinsically motivated to collaborate with the Police.
• You harness your communication skills to work with different scientific and non-scientific stakeholders in different work cultures.
• You have a good command of written and spoken English, as you will be working in an international environment. Since you will be working with the Police, it is an advantage if you also have a good command of the Dutch language.

Doing a PhD at TU Delft requires English proficiency at a certain level to ensure that the candidate is able to communicate and interact well, participate in English-taught Doctoral Education courses, and write scientific articles and a final thesis. For more details please check the Graduate Schools Admission Requirements.

Fixed-term contract: 5 years.

Doctoral candidates will be offered a 5-year period of employment in principle, but in the form of two employment contracts. An initial 1,5 year contract with an official go/no go progress assessment within 15 months. Followed by an additional contract for the remaining 3,5 years assuming everything goes well and performance requirements are met. The additional fifth year (compared to a standard 4 year PhD program) accommodates for the extra activities to get to know the police organisation and to secure the results in the police organisation.

Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, increasing from € 2770 per month in the first year to € 3539 in the fourth year. In the 5th year, you will receive a temporary monthly allowance based on the gross difference between salary scale P, step 3 and salary scale 10, step 3.

As a PhD candidate you will be enrolled in the TU Delft Graduate School. The TU Delft Graduate School provides an inspiring research environment with an excellent team of supervisors, academic staff and a mentor. The Doctoral Education Programme is aimed at developing your transferable, discipline-related and research skills.

The TU Delft offers a customisable compensation package, discounts on health insurance, and a monthly work costs contribution. Flexible work schedules can be arranged.

For international applicants, TU Delft has the Coming to Delft Service. This service provides information for new international employees to help you prepare the relocation and to settle in the Netherlands. The Coming to Delft Service offers a Dual Career Programme for partners and they organise events to expand your (social) network.

Delft University of Technology

Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Faculty Technology, Policy and Management

The Faculty of TPM provides an important contribution to solving complex technical-social issues, such as energy transition, mobility, digitalisation, water management and (cyber) security. TPM does this with its excellent education and research at the intersection of technology, society and policy. We combine insights from both engineering and social sciences as well as the humanities. TPM develops robust models and designs, is internationally oriented and has an extensive network of knowledge institutions, companies, social organisations and governments.

Click here to go to the website of the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management.

As you will be working in the security domain, you must undergo a security screening executed by the Dutch government before starting this position. This screening will take on average 2 to 3 months and could be up to 6 months. A positive outcome of the screening is a prerequisite for the contract for this PhD position to come into effect. At least a BO screening is needed for this PhD position.

Pending the screening result, a temporary employment contract as a researcher can be offered for up to 4 months, if requested by the candidate. This contract will be converted to a PhD contract upon a positive screening result.

If you would like more information about this vacancy, please contact Dr. Jan Kwakkel, Full Professor, j.h.kwakkel@tudelft.nl, or Dr. Willem Auping, Assistant Professor, w.l.auping@tudelft.nl.

If you would like more information about the selection procedure, please contact Helma Dokkum: AI Innovatiemanager, w.m.dokkum@tudelft.nl