PhD Position: Collaborative Governance in the Local Energy Transition, on our Way to Positive Energy Districts

The Department of Geography, Planning and Environment at Radboud University is seeking a highly motivated and talented PhD candidate to join the EmPowerED project.

In the EmPowerED project, researchers from research universities and universities of applied sciences and TNO work together with citizens, businesses and governments to develop integrated energy solutions. The goal of this project is to create a toolbox to help design energy systems that fit local needs, integrating heat and electricity solutions. These solutions are tested in real-life situations to prove their effectiveness. The overarching goal of the EmPowerED project is to accelerate the very challenging energy transition in neighbourhoods. Addressing this challenge requires new knowledge of innovative technologies, energy system integration, the energy behaviour and preferences of citizens, and the governance of decentralised energy systems. You will work on this challenge together with nine other PhD candidates from different universities in the Netherlands.

The focus of this PhD position is collaboration in the governance of local integrated energy systems, including heat and electricity. You will analyse the collaboration of the different parties (involved in both electricity and heat chains) in local decision-making processes with the help of so-called ‘use cases’ in Groningen, Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Tilburg, alongside other new, possibly experimental, cases in the Netherlands and abroad. You will conduct a local analysis of the collaborative governance regimes in which market parties, governmental authorities and civil society organisations work together on the energy transition. These processes are influenced by changing governance arrangements at national, international and regional levels, for instance from market-dominated to new public and cooperative governance arrangements. Together with legal, economic and social science -scholars in the project, you will therefore also map out current changes in the macro-environment.

Together with researchers from the fields of spatial planning, energy modelling, social network analysis, economy and law, you will develop tools for appropriate governance models for the local energy transition, working towards Positive Energy Districts. You will collaborate closely with the PhD candidate on ‘Spatial Energy Planning for Positive Energy Districts’ from the Spatial Planning chair group at Radboud University.

Possible research themes include:

• The changing roles of markets, state and civil society in the governance arrangements relevant to integrated energy systems.
• The dynamics of collaborative governance regimes regarding local decision-making processes, for instance the division of roles of actors, the available resources, the rules of the game and the dimension of discourses, combined with elements such as leadership, drivers, capacities and (varying) engagement in these processes.
• The shift towards public energy companies and the role of the cooperative movement and democratic decision-making.
• Energy communities and the challenges of energy congestion and decentralisation of the energy supply and demand.

Your teaching load may be up to 10% of your working time.

Would you like to learn more about what it’s like to pursue a PhD at Radboud University? Visit the page about working as a PhD candidate.

• We will give you a temporary employment contract (1.0 FTE) of 1.5 years, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, your contract will be extended by 2.5 years (4-year contract).
• You will receive a starting salary of €2,901 gross per month based on a 38-hour working week, which will increase to €3,707 in the fourth year (salary scale P).
• You will receive an 8% holiday allowance and an 8,3% end-of-year bonus.
• We offer Dual Career Coaching. The Dual Career Coaching assists your partner via support, tools, and resources to improve their chances of independently finding employment in the Netherlands.
• You will receive extra days off. With full-time employment, you can choose between 30 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the statutory 20.

Work and science require good employment practices. This is reflected in Radboud University's primary and secondary employment conditions. You can make arrangements for the best possible work-life balance with flexible working hours, various leave arrangements and working from home. You are also able to compose part of your employment conditions yourself, for example, exchange income for extra leave days and receive a reimbursement for your sports subscription. And of course, we offer a good pension plan. You are given plenty of room and responsibility to develop your talents and realise your ambitions. Therefore, we provide various training and development schemes.

The department of Geography, Planning, and Environment (GPE) seeks to provide a deep understanding of how places, from the local to the global level, are politically and materially shaped, experienced and governed, and to contribute to the development of more sustainable and equitable places. GPE's approach goes explicitly beyond a government and policy orientation, addressing the deep political and institutional nature of placemaking and spatial-environmental governance. The group seeks to contribute to more future-oriented practices and territorial images.

The Environmental Governance and Politics chair group is a social science research team that critically reflects on and contributes to sustainability transformations. We develop useful insights into such processes, which can help enable, deepen and broaden the transformation towards sustainable development. In this context, we conduct research, provide education and collaborate with societal partners. We specialise in governance issues in the fields of agriculture, animals, biodiversity, the circular economy, climate change, energy and water, and the relationships between. We focus on transdisciplinary research, integrate futures studies, and use qualitative and, in particular, comparative analyses. We mainly use discursive, institutional and practice-based theoretical perspectives.