Are you ready for the start of your academic career? Do you want to become part of an enthusiastic group of colleagues, who seek to push the boundaries of environmental knowledge and teach in the highest graded educational programs in the Netherlands? Do you have the right skills to do cutting-edge research in an interdisciplinary setting? Then apply for a PhD-position in the project “Better tools, less conflicts. Value pluralism and social learning for better biodiversity decisions” at the Department of Environmental Sciences and the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management at the Open Universiteit. Be ready for a multi-disciplinary approach and cross-overs to chain management.
Background
The current global biodiversity crisis has a negative impact on nature’s ability to sustain human needs. Despite many initiatives designed to reverse biodiversity decline, overall progress towards improvement in the resilience of ecosystems is still weak. Sustainability & biodiversity assessment is supposed to help decision-makers make the right decisions to curb the decline of biodiversity from the global to the local level. However, existing assessments often fail to have an impact on the ground and often cannot avoid conflict between stakeholders, and assessments can sometimes even trigger such conflict. The current project is premised on the idea that assessment is ineffective because of lack of attention to the plural values of nature (e.g. instrumental, intrinsic and relational values) and to social learning processes. The processes and the conditions to develop value-inclusive and adaptive biodiversity assessments are yet poorly understood and the project seeks to ameliorate this.
Objectives
The project aims to contribute to: i. make nature valuation more inclusive, with a focus on value pluralism, ii. make nature valuation more practical (developing actionable insights on assessment tools), and iii. facilitate the integration of plural biodiversity assessment tools in existing decision making frameworks, to enhance reflexiveness and adaptability.

To achieve these objectives the project will systematically inventorize evidence and insights on biodiversity assessment tools and how these can foster learning and inclusiveness. A tentative conceptual model will be developed through systematic literature review. In addition, the project will contribute fresh empirical evidence by means of case studies, focused on perception and use of existing biodiversity assessment tools, and examining the relationships between inclusive biodiversity assessment tools, social learning and biodiversity decisions. The case studies will take place in both the Global North and South.

Finally, the project will develop a series of recommendations on how value-inclusive assessment tools can contribute to social learning in both businesses and governmental organizations. The tools will be developed and tested in collaboration with practitioners of sustainability assessment. Such practitioners will include public and private decision-makers, local communities, non-governmental actors and scientists.
Tasks
The PhD project is a collaboration between the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Management with supervisors from both Faculties. The PhD candidate will:

• engage in supervised scientific research that will ultimately result in a doctoral thesis (systematic review, database construction, comparative analysis, and case studies);
• participate in the relevant activities of the “Innovating for Resilience” Program, the two Faculties involved in the project, the Department of Environmental Sciences and the Department of Marketing & Supply Chain Management;
• participate in the organization of scientific and practice-oriented events (workshops, conferences), in close collaboration with the supervisors;
• follow a tailor-made course program for PhD-candidates of the OU Graduate School and the National Research School SENSE;
• publish research results in the form of conference papers, contributions to peer-reviewed scientific journals, as well as through popular publications and presentations.

Candidates must:

• have a Master’s degree in a relevant field: Environmental Sciences, Environmental Governance, Environmental Philosophy, Sustainability Science, Sustainability or Technology Assessment;
• have experience or interest in environmental social sciences, biodiversity governance, systematic review, data base construction, comparative analysis, stakeholder analysis, value studies and case study research;
• be able to demonstrate excellent scientific writing and communication skills, as well as relevant collaborative and social skills;
• have experience working in an interdisciplinary team;
• have the ability to conduct research in various countries (global North and South), working closely together with (non-academic) stakeholders;
• be fluent in English (spoken and in writing); and
• having knowledge of French and/or Spanish is an asset.

Fixed-term contract: 1.0 FTE position for 4 years (or 0.8 FTE for 5 years).

The PhD candidate will be appointed for a period of 12 months. The appointment will be extended to four years when progress and performance are good. The salary is € 2.434,- gross per month in the first year for a full time appointment.

The Open Universiteit provides good secondary benefits such as training, hybrid work, mobility, part-time employment and paid parental leave.

The Open Universiteit

Flexible studying anywhere in the Netherlands and (Belgium) Flanders
At the Open Universiteit (OU) in the Netherlands, students follow personalised and activating academic distance education and disciplinary research is carried out within the various fields of science. Students can complete bachelor and master programmes in seven fields of study. The characteristics of education are openness, flexibility and quality (see www.ou.nl/rankings). Much attention is paid to improving the study success of students. The OU has over 18,000 students and more than 750 employees. The OU has branches in the Netherlands and Belgium (see www.ou.nl/studiecentra). The main office is located in Heerlen. The latest technologies and educational insights are applied both in the bachelor's and master's programmes and courses and in projects and programmes with partners. Nationally and internationally, the OU plays an important role in the innovation of higher education. Education is interwoven with research, which also ensures that the current state of science is incorporated. The OU invests not only in disciplinary research in eight scientific fields, but also in research in a multidisciplinary programme: Innovating for resilience.

Faculty of Science

The faculty of Science is one of the six faculties of the OU of the Netherlands. Education, research and valorisation are the main tasks. The faculty offers academic bachelor and master programmes in the fields of Computer Science, Information Science, Environmental Sciences, and an Artificial Intelligence master programme is currently under development. The faculty’s research programme focuses on Innovating for Resilience. Further, the faculty is partner in the Center for Actionable Research of the OU (CAROU). The faculty has Ph.D.-students who conduct research on various current topics within the research programme. By focusing on research that is interwoven with education, as well as the close link with practice, work at our faculty provides many innovative and challenging opportunities for entrepreneurial researchers.
Departments
The Department of Environmental Sciences is part of the Faculty of Science. The Department embodies the commitment of the Open Universiteit to excellence in the environmental sciences, science for impact, and lifelong learning in the sustainability domain. The Department brings together people working on integrated environmental modelling, sustainability learning, and environmental governance and has about 20 team members. The research of the Department aims to contribute to the understanding of social-ecological systems, the development of solutions for environmental issues, and to the wider body of knowledge that helps societies reach their sustainability goals. This project is a collaboration with the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, which is part of the Faculty of Management. The Department works on decision making in (multiple) value chains, foot printing and stakeholders in supply chains. Both departments participate in the Innovating for Resilience program of the OU, which funds this research. There is a close link between the research and the education programs at the OU – our students are actively encouraged to get involved in our research program, and in turn, our research helps us maintain the level and currency of our education programs to the benefit of these same students.