(Postdoctoral) Researcher Rural Geography (0.8-1.0 FTE)

Updated: about 2 years ago
Deadline: 15 Feb 2022

Organisation

The University of Groningen (The Netherlands) is a research university with a global outlook and is currently in the top 100 universities worldwide on several influential ranking lists. The University creates and shares knowledge through its outstanding research, scholarship and education. With an academic tradition dating back to 1614 and a rich heritage, the University is a unique academic community with a strong sense of belonging and a culture of innovative education and research.

The Faculty of Spatial Sciences is a growing faculty with an open character that has short lines between staff and students. There are four departments: Cultural Geography, Demography, Economic Geography and Planning. The mission of the faculty is to produce research which is world-leading, distinctive, and policy-relevant to these major issues faced by contemporary society and that is communicated and communicable to the global academy and to societal stakeholders. The research theme of the Faculty of Spatial Sciences is 'Wellbeing, Innovation and Spatial Transformation'. The distinctive character of the Faculty’s research is that it explore the roles place, space, identity and culture play in the social and spatial transformation of society from a multi-methods perspective. The policy-relevant features of the Faculty’s research derive from the issues investigate. The research is built on evidence and experience, while addressing issues of perception and identity.


Job description

The Cultural Geography Department is looking for a (Postdoctoral) Researcher to help us out in several international rural geography research projects, listed below. Your tasks would be a mix of activities, such as to take an active/lead role in hands-on project management, in the gathering and analysis of data in some projects, and in (contributing to) writing policy reports and potentially academic output. You will work in a team of researchers, including Tialda Haartsen and Koen Salemink who both are involved in the different projects as project leaders, and regional, national and international collaborative partners.

Overview of research projects:

• EU Interreg project COM3 on Building Competencies for Competitive Companies. Point of departure in this project is that digitally enabled and transformed SMEs make rural areas more attractive places to live, work and invest in. Local and regional authorities need the right tools and competencies for supporting rural enterprises in their digital transformation. (see https://northsearegion.eu/com-3/ )
• ERASMUS+ project iSHRINK. This project aims to show how innovative teaching methods can be used to help island schools deliver the best education in the face of declining populations. This will have impacts not only on the schools themselves, but also on the futures of their island communities. In this project, we are responsible for developing policy recommendations on innovative education in shrinking and isolated regions in Iceland, Scotland, Spain, Netherlands and Greece. (see https://learninghubfriesland.nl/projects/ishrink/ )
• EU Interreg project CORA on COnnecting Remote Areas with digital infrastructure and services. Within the project, a model has been developed and implemented to support digitization in the most rural areas with the aim to close their digital gap. The model is built on three pillars, digital services, digital skills and digital infrastructure. (see https://northsearegion.eu/cora/ )
• STAYin(g)Rural project on understanding how and why people stay in rural areas at different life transitions, and the contributions they make to rural communities and rural quality of life. (see http://www.stayingrural.eu/ )
• The organisation of the 3rd European Rural Geographies Conference, to be held in Groningen 26-30 June 2023 (see https://www.ruralgeo2021.nl/ )
• ERASMUS+ project R YOUCULT, a project on training cultural workers for facilitating rural youth culture, in collaboration with Hanzehogeschool Groningen and Province of Groningen, and partners in Southern Denmark and Finland.


Qualifications

• preferably holds a PhD or is graduated and has at least several years of work experience in the field of human geography, demography, sociology or comparable disciplines
• has a proven research interest in and enthusiasm for rural studies
• has research experience in both quantitative research methods (analysis of survey data) and qualitative methods
• has some experience in working in international projects
• is able and willing to collaborate in a research team and to take the lead in collaborative work
• is willing and able to attend research consortia meetings abroad
• has a proactive and independent work attitude and good communicative skills, in English and preferably also in Dutch (but not needed)
• has strong planning skills, and is able to organize her/his own work activities and to meet deadlines
• is able to work at least three days per week in Groningen.


Conditions of employment

We offer you in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities:

• a salary, depending on qualifications and work experience, with a minimum of € 2,846 up to a maximum of € 4,490 (salary scale 10 ) gross per month for a full-time position
• excluding 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% year-end bonus, participation in a pension scheme for employees and excellent secondary benefits. We offer 232 holiday hours per calendar year for a full-time employment
• an appointment on a temporary basis for 16 months for 0.8 or 1.0 FTE.

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/

Start date 1 April 2022


Information

For information you can contact:

Prof. Tialda Haartsen,   [email protected]

(please do not use the email addresses above for applications)



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