Postdoc ‘Towards a Truly Sustainable Transportation System (TRUST)’

Are you passionate about fair and sustainable transportation? TRUST is looking for a postdoc to evaluate the fairness of sustainable mobility policies, assess public acceptability, and analyse systemic justice outcomes. Join our interdisciplinary team to help develop ethical, evidence-based policy tools that support a just transition in transportation.

Your job
Given the negative environmental and health effects of transportation, a transition toward a sustainable transportation system is much needed. Since this is an urgent issue, this likely requires disruptive rather than incremental measures. However, such measures affect some groups more strongly than others, raising issues of equity and fairness. This cannot be neglected, as the perceived fairness of policies is a strong determinant of their acceptability. TRUST aims to develop a framework for evaluating the fairness of sustainable transportation policies, examining their acceptability, and analysing their systemic justice outcomes.

In this position, you will collaborate with experts from different fields involved in the project (ethics, travel behaviour and transport system analysis), and interact with stakeholders in the transportation field to analyse justice aspects of sustainable mobility policies. The aim is to provide policy makers and other stakeholders with the tools to develop fair policies. The project is divided into four parts:

• Part one will develop an ethical framework of just mobility scenarios, based on literature in moral and political philosophy and focus groups, including values such as distributive and procedural justice, quality of life, ecological sustainability, health, and individual liberty.
• Part two will investigate citizens’ responses to sustainable mobility policies in terms of behaviour and acceptability, in order to draw conclusions about the distributive outcomes of these policies.
• Part three will conceptually investigate how distributional effects are shaped as a result of dependencies and feedback loops in the transportation system based on complex systems theory.
• Part four will develop examples of sustainable mobility policy packages, based on co-creation with stakeholders.

Specifically, your tasks will include:

• conducting the research as described above (literature research, developing conceptual models, survey development, recruiting participants, collecting and analysing data, preparing and storing data packages for sharing);
• writing (inter)national scientific publications;
• giving presentations at (inter)national scientific conferences;
• actively engaging in outreach activities and disseminating findings to public policy professionals and the general public;
• active participation in the research team involved in this project.

This project may be the right fit for you, if you have:

• a PhD in transportation studies, public policy or another relevant and related field;
• experience with theoretical/conceptual development and survey research;
• experience and affinity with both quantitative and qualitative research approaches;
• ambition and skills to conduct excellent scientific research;
• good social and organisational skills and an outreaching personality;
• good communication skills (written and oral);
• proficiency in English.

We offer:

• a position for 18 months;
• a working week of 32 hours and a gross monthly salary between €3,378 and €5,331 in the case of full-time employment (salary scale 10 under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU));
• 8% holiday pay and 8.3% year-end bonus;
• a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave and flexible terms of employment based on the CAO NU.

In addition to the terms of employment laid down in the CAO NU, Utrecht University has a number of schemes and facilities of its own for employees. This includes schemes facilitating professional development, leave schemes and schemes for sports and cultural activities, as well as discounts on software and other IT products. We also offer access to additional employee benefits through our Terms of Employment Options Model. In this way, we encourage our employees to continue to invest in their growth. For more information, please visit Working at Utrecht University.

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major strategic themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Pathways to Sustainability. Sharing science, shaping tomorrow.

Utrecht University’s Faculty of Geosciences studies the Earth: from the Earth’s core to its surface, including man’s spatial and material utilisation of the Earth – always with a focus on sustainability and innovation. With 3,400 students (BSc and MSc) and 720 staff, the faculty is a strong and challenging organisation. The Faculty of Geosciences is organised in four Departments: Earth Sciences, Human Geography & Spatial Planning, Physical Geography, and Sustainable Development.

The Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning investigates sustainability challenges in the context of an ongoing worldwide trend of increasing urbanization. The Department’s ‘Urban Futures’ research program focuses on urban inequalities, geographies of digital transitions, and urban environmental change. It develops novel theoretical and empirical approaches that are not solely at the forefront of academic debates but also create new perspectives on successful policies and interventions to address urban challenges. Unique characteristics of the Department are a special team focusing on innovations within teaching methods, its strong involvement in the transdisciplinary sustainability research theme and professional consultancy for public partners.

This project is funded by NWA Innovative Projects within the Route Logistics and transport in an energetic, innovative and sustainable society. The project team consists of Prof.Dr Dick Ettema and Dr Jaime Soza-Parra (UU Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning), Dr Jamie Draper (UU Ethics Institute) and Prof. Dr Oded Cats (TU Delft Civil Engineering).

For more information, please contact Prof. Dick Ettema at d.f.ettema@uu.nl

Candidates for this vacancy will be recruited by Utrecht University.

As Utrecht University, we want to be a home for everyone. We value staff with diverse backgrounds, perspectives and identities, including cultural, religious or ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age. We strive to create a safe and inclusive environment in which everyone can flourish and contribute.

To apply, please send your curriculum vitae, including a letter of motivation, via the ‘apply now’ button.