PhD Position: SPINES Project - Shared Pathways for Cross-Sectoral Long-Term Strategies

Are you interested in helping to realise long-term sustainable futures and solve short-term challenges? Do you have a keen analytical eye as well as the social skills to connect people? Are you ready to challenge and develop yourself in a cross-sector collaboration with infrastructure providers and societal partners? Then the PhD position on ’Shared Pathways for Cross-Sectoral Long-Term Strategies’ is just the thing for you.

Radboud University is looking for a PhD candidate to work on ‘Shared Pathways for Cross-Sectoral Long-Term Strategies’. The position is part of the NWO-NG INFRA-funded SPINES project. The SPINES project is a collaboration between Radboud University, the University of Twente, University of Groningen, Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, the main infrastructure providers in the Netherlands (Rijkswaterstaat, ProRail, Vitens, Alliander, Port of Rotterdam and Schiphol Amsterdam Airport), and various societal partners.

Vision making and long-term planning often happen in silos leading to misalignment of infrastructure organisations’ future strategies. Apart from this creating problems given the scarcity in capacity of infrastructure, people and space, this leads to strategies or decisions that conflict and might not be the best for a sustainable, broad welfare society. Moreover, vision making often happens without explicitly focusing on current short-term demands and conflicting aims/values of the actors involved. This misalignment between infrastructure organisations’ aims in the short- and long-term results in non-durable decisions.

As a PhD candidate, you will develop novel cross-sectoral collaborative governance approaches to co-create dynamic adaptive pathways for several cases in the Netherlands. Such pathways create impact through the iterative co-development of a shared transformative long-term vision and its translation into current short-term demands. As part of this, you will:

1. Help us understand and compare the long-term visions of different infrastructure organisations and co-develop an aligned and shared vision in the form of adaptive pathways for each infrastructure organisation. These cross-sectoral pathways take into account what happens now and in relation to short-term demands and challenges.
2. Support infrastructure organisations with strategies on how to select pathways/decision-making, together with other infrastructure organisations.

For more information on this PhD position, please consult Sander Lenferink.

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 €3,059 gross per month based on a 38-hour working week, which will increase to €€3,881 from the fourth year onwards (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.

Additional employment conditions
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.

Nijmegen School of Management
At Nijmegen School of Management, one of the seven faculties within Radboud University in the Netherlands, we have a clear aim: we enable students, institutions and companies, social actors, and governments to play their part in the transformations towards a sustainable society through high-quality scientific research and education. With more than 4,500 curious students and more than 450 dedicated employees, we form a dynamic community.

Our mission ‘Responsible governance for sustainable societies’ is driven by the ambition to make a difference in the world. At Nijmegen School of Management, we understand management as a broad concept referring to the collective and organised pursuit (responsible governance) of a better world (sustainable societies). We study and teach management at the level of public and private organisations. In this context, we examine how to balance economic, ecological, and social values in a sustainable way. This aim is in line with Radboud University's mission to contribute through teaching and research to a ‘free, healthy world with equal opportunities for all’.

At Nijmegen School of Management, academic research and teaching are carried out in following areas: Business Administration, Economics and Business Economics, Political Science, Public Administration, Human Geography, Spatial Planning, and Environment. Our approach to teaching and research is evolving from multidisciplinarity, where we study societal challenges from different disciplinary backgrounds, to interdisciplinarity (integrating disciplinary perspectives for synergy) and transdisciplinarity (involving non-academic stakeholders).

The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an important source of inspiration for our work. Our work focuses on the themes Social economy, Resilient society and Sustainable environment. At Nijmegen School of Management, we have our eyes on the world of the future, in which sustainability and responsibility are central values. Together we are creating a better world for everyone.

Radboud University
At Radboud University, we aim to make an impact through our work. We achieve this by conducting groundbreaking research, providing high-quality education, offering excellent support, and fostering collaborations within and outside the university. In doing so, we contribute indispensably to a healthy, free world with equal opportunities for all. To accomplish this, we need even more colleagues who, based on their expertise, are willing to search for answers. We advocate for an inclusive community and welcome employees with diverse backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives. Will you also contribute to making the world a little better? You have a part to play.

If you want to learn more about working at Radboud University, follow our Instagram account and read stories from our colleagues.

The Nijmegen School of Management (NSM) enables students, institutions and companies, societal actors and governments to play their part in a transformation towards sustainable societies. In doing so, the faculty is committed to Radboud University's mission of contributing to a healthy, free world with equal opportunities for all.

In the context of our 'Responsible governance for sustainable societies' mission, we address scientific and societal challenges from a good governance perspective. Our work focuses on the topics Beyond Economy, Climate, Inclusivity, Safety, and Democracy. By building, questioning and extending the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), we acknowledge their interrelatedness and focus on a number of grand challenges within society. We contribute to innovation and sustainable growth on topics such as inequality, gender, decent work and poverty. Furthermore, we address environmental and climate challenges, seeking to contribute towards resolving them.

At the Nijmegen School of Management, academic research and teaching are carried out in challenging educational programmes. These programmes are offered in the areas of Business Administration; Economics and Business Economics; Geography, Planning and Environment; Political Science; and Public Administration. Academic research takes place within the Institute for Management Research (IMR). Research is carried out within the above-mentioned domains and in interdisciplinary research groups: the Hotspots. The Nijmegen School of Management currently has 400 FTE staff and around 5,000 students.

The intended thesis supervisors are Dr S. Lenferink and Dr H. Kooij. This PhD project will be conducted at Spatial Planning, Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Institute of Management Research, Radboud University. The project will be conducted in close collaboration with the academic and societal partners, also those involved in the other SPINES PhD projects on (a) ‘Infrastructure Managers as Institutional Entrepreneurs’ (University of Groningen), and (b) ‘Modelling Shared Pathways and Tipping Dynamics’ (University of Twente).

The project is embedded within the Institute of Management Research of NSM in the context of other infrastructure strategy and management studies. You will become a member of the Graduate School, and will be expected to attend relevant courses and activities and engage in some minor teaching activities.