The Faculty of Spatial Sciences is looking to hire a versatile assistant professor in Economic Geography and Regional Studies to strengthen its educational and research team. In this position, you will contribute to teaching, research and coordination tasks in the faculty. Specifically, we envision you to take on the role of coordinator of the Master’s programme in Economic Geography and be the lead lecturer in our Bachelor’s course on Economic Geography. You will also contribute to our Research Master’s programme in Regional Studies. This programme has recently been expanded with an Erasmus Mundus programme on Islands and Sustainability. As a rule, assistant professors spend 60% of their time on educational and organizational tasks.

With regard to research (40% of your time), we strive to strengthen our research profile which revolves around issues of socio-spatial inequalities, transport geography and mobility, well-being and happiness, regional labour market dynamics including the regional impacts of entrepreneurship and issues of nature, landscape and sustainability in regional economic change. Your research should fit within the Faculty’s research agenda “towards Well-being, Innovation and Spatial Transformation”.

As part of the job, we offer ample opportunities for personal development. This includes the possibility to obtain a university teaching qualification.

Our ideal candidate has:

• a PhD degree in the field of economic geography, transport geography, regional science, applied economics or in another social science with a specialization in one of the research themes in the department
• proven experience in applying quantitative and/or qualitative research methods
• publications in international peer-reviewed academic journals in the field of economic geography, transport geography, regional science or related
• experience in various teaching approaches; awareness of and willingness to use the latest innovations in teaching techniques
• a university teaching qualification or the willingness to acquire this qualification
• a network of connections in the field of economic geography, transport geography, regional science or related and the ability to develop and maintain university–practice networks, including a willingness to participate in external projects, events and presentations
• the ambition to share ideas with, give energy to and invest in colleagues and students
• a willingness to participate in appropriate faculty committees and/or other management tasks
• the motivation to work in an interdisciplinary team that uses qualitative as well as quantitative methods
• fluency in English.

Fixed-term contract: 12 months.

We offer you following the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities:

• a salary, depending on qualifications and work experience, with a minimum of € 3,974 to a maximum of € 5,439 (salary scale 11) gross per month for a full-time position
• on top of that income, an 8% holiday allowance and an annual bonus of 8.3%
• an appointment for a period of 1 year with the prospect of a permanent position after a positive evaluation.

For more detailed information about working conditions and working for the University of Groningen, please check: https://www.rug.nl/about-us/work-with-us/

Starting date: 1 October 2022

Faculty of Spatial Sciences

The Faculty of Spatial Sciences is a mid-sized faculty with approximately 100 members of staff, 100 PhD researchers and around 1.000 undergraduate students. We focus on high quality teaching and research in the fields of human and economic geography, demography, and spatial planning. With our collective research theme 'towards Wellbeing, Innovation and Spatial Transformation' (tWIST), it is our mission to produce research that is world-leading, distinctive, and policy-relevant. With two Bachelor and eight Master programmes, we provide a wide range of courses in the fields of geography and spatial sciences.

The Department of Economic Geography, in which the position will be based, is one of the four departments in the faculty and it offers an open and friendly academic environment with an international staff. The department has about 20 members of staff and 25 PhD researchers. The University of Groningen has a very strong reputation as one of the main centers in regional science globally. In terms of teaching, the department of Economic Geography contributes to the Bachelor Human Geography and Planning and it is responsible for the Master’s programme in Economic Geography, which includes the track 'Regional Competitiveness and Trade', and the master of Real Estate Studies. Our research is directed towards issues related to regional labour markets, migration, entrepreneurship, happiness, socio-spatial inequalities and real estate applying quantitative, qualitative and mixed research methods.