PhD Position PRE-MADONA: Digital Coordination for Mass-Scale Renovation Construction Processes

The Netherlands faces the enormous challenge of renovating and de-fossilizing 1.5m buildings and 7m homes by 2050. Existing approaches in practice are too slow and inefficient to meet these targets. The PRE-MADONA project develops a game-changing solution that incorporates data-driven methods to optimise large-scale renovation flows (Verbouwstromen). By bringing together contractors’ resources, clusters of buildings, and smart operations planning, PRE-MADONA accelerates renovations through repeated, standardized processes to ultimately save costs, time and resources.

The Challenge
As the PhD responsible for co-development of Virtual Coordination Platform for Cluster-based Renovation Workflows, you will be exploring the needs in planning and programming renovation construction activities. You co-design coordination processes and create supportive planning technologies for infrastructure and building owners and contractors - who will be jointly planning clusters renovation processes in larger urban spaces. As part of your project, you also address planning data exchange, which mean that you contribute to the development of the Renovation Digital Twin concept (led by Saxion).

Essential activities within your project will be to:

• model data standards for design of renovations, and exchange of construction planning plans
• model conceptually the interdependencies between stakeholders involved in the planning and programming of clusters of infrastructure and building renovation construction work
• evaluate (numerical or data driven) solutions for automated coordinated planning
• develop and evaluate self-learning interactive visualisation technologies (immersive reality, planning and simulation models) for joint planning assessment
• support demonstrators of the developed prototypes in the project

You will be part of a team comprising three PhD researchers who are dedicated to the PRE-MADONA project. Together, you work in a multidisciplinary project with through leaders in the domain of digitalisation and energy renovation. You will learn to conduct research independently and grow scientifically through collaboration and supervision by researchers from Saxion and Hanze Universities of Applied Science, supervisors from the Construction Management Engineering cluster at the University of Twente, and a strong network of industry partners in the Dutch construction sector.

The expected starting date for this position is January 2026.

For more information about the position, you are encouraged to contact dr. ir. Léon Olde Scholtenhuis (l.l.oldescholtenhuis@utwente.nl).

Please upload your application via the ‘Apply now’ button before September 5th, 2025.

Your application should include a cover letter of max 2 pages (emphasizing your specific interest, motivation and qualifications), a detailed CV, an academic transcript of BSc and MSc education, result of an English test (if you attended a non-English taught MSc program), a publication list (if applicable) and contact details of two referees. Since only three documents can be uploaded per application, please combine documents if needed. An interview and a scientific presentation will be part of the selection procedure.

The first selection interviews are scheduled for October 6th, 2025 preferably in person at the campus of the University of Twente. A second round may be part of the procedure. Screening is part of the selection procedure as well.

We aim for this project to start January 1st, 2026. We also welcome students to apply who expect to have finished their MSc thesis around this time.