PhD position: The water footprint of European food: Towards water-efficient and resilient food production and consumption pa...

Agriculture is responsible for more than 90% of global freshwater consumption and the main driver of overexploitation of finite and vulnerable freshwater resources in many parts of the world. With the demand for food growing, geopolitical dynamics affecting food trade patterns, and climate change influencing the water cycle, it is imperative to make most of every drop while building resilience in the face of shocks and scarcity. In response, Europe strives to improve water efficiency and resilience of its food systems, both on the production and the consumption side (including imports). A major limiting factor, however, is that we do not sufficiently understand how much water is consumed in the production of food and other agricultural products. And once such water footprint accounts are available, how can European and national policy makers address inefficiencies, boost resilience, and mitigate water stress--both within Europe and in countries from which it imports its food?

The position
As part of a collaborative doctoral partnership between the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the University of Twente (UT), this PhD position will bridge academic excellence with policy relevance to enhance the sustainability of water use of European consumption of food and other agricultural products within Europe and along global supply chains.

In the first two years, you will be positioned at the University of Twente in Enschede, the Netherlands and get introduced into the PhD trajectory and scientific working. You will alongside the developers of UT’s global crop water model ACEA (Mialyk et al. 2024) and improve the model’s ability to provide recurring updates of global crop water footprint accounts and automize key routines. Based on the resulting accounts, you will calculate water footprints of crop-derived products, such as food stuffs, bio-based materials, and bioenergy. Following the calculation of volumetric footprints of global food production, local consequences of water use need to be analysed. For this purpose, you will apply and enhance methods from both Water Footprint Assessment and Life Cycle Assessment perspectives (Berger et al. 2025). This may include developing approaches for matching the spatial and temporal resolution of LCA databases and impact assessment models or explore new ways to assess the impact of green water consumption.

You will spend the second part of the PhD trajectory (years 3 and 4) at the JRC in Ispra, Italy, where you will refine and test your models and methods in case studies of relevance for policy support. You will align your results and proposed methods with the European Commission’s Environmental Footprint and contribute to its continuous development and update. You will also get the chance to simulate and analyse alternative agricultural and food production scenarios in support of the transition to healthy and sustainable diets according to the most recent policy needs and developments.

Do you have the nationality of an EU Member State or a country associated to the EU Research Framework Programme list?

Or have you been a registered resident in an EU Member State since at least five years?

We are looking for an enthusiastic, professional, and ambitious colleague, with the following profile.

• You hold a Master’s degree in a field relevant to the PhD topic, such as Engineering, Environmental/Water Science, or Computer Science;
• You have experience in environmental or crop modelling;
• You have experience with water footprint assessment or life cycle assessment methodologies;
• You have strong programming and analytical skills;
• You exhibit high levels of self-motivation while also being a team player;
• You enjoy working in a multidisciplinary research setting with an international research team to achieve both scientific excellence and policy relevance;
• You can prove your excellent command of the English language and strong (professional) communication skills;
• You are willing to relocate to the Netherlands for the first two years of the PhD and then once more to Italy for the second two years.

As part of JRC’s requirements, you must have the nationality of an EU Member State or a country associated to the EU Research Framework Programme in force. See list, or you must have been a registered resident in a EU Member State since at least five years. Otherwise your application cannot be considered.

You will be employed full-time for a period of 4 years (2 years at University of Twente and 2 years at the Joint Research Center).

The University of Twente offers:

• A dynamic ecosystem with enthusiastic colleagues in which internationalization is an important part of the strategic agenda.
• A gross salary between € 2,443 per month during the first year increasing to € 3,122 per month in the second year (job profile PhD candidate);
• A holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary and 8.3% end-of-year;
• A solid pension scheme and an optional model for designing a personalize benefits packages;
• A maximum of 41 days of annual leave based on full-time employment.

The Joint Research Centre is the Commission's science and knowledge service. It provides independent, evidence-based knowledge and science, supporting EU policies to positively impact society.? ?While employed at the JRC, the salary and benefits are those of a JRC Grantholder Category 20, following the Grantholder rules