PhD position in “Game-based approaches for drought resilience in the Eastern Netherlands – a valuing water perspective”

14 May 2024
Job Information

Organisation/Company

University of Twente (UT)

Research Field

Technology

Researcher Profile

First Stage Researcher (R1)

Country

Netherlands

Application Deadline

9 Jun 2024 - 21:59 (UTC)

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Not Applicable

Hours Per Week

38.0

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by an EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

The hypothesis that underlies this PhD position is that these and other questions are underdeveloped, both from a scientific point of view and towards practical implementation of measures set to build local drought resilience, and that a game-based approach can help address these questions. First, the scientific community lacks a holistic and inclusive understanding of water use’s multiple values – including stakeholders’ perspective on drought and water allocation. Second, serious gaming has proven to be suitable for engaging a variety of stakeholders to collaboratively explore possible futures and courses of action. Third, using gaming to determine future pathways that explicitly include the value of water may support strategic decision-making of stakeholders in the Twente region. Therefore, this PhD project seeks to explore the merit of game-based approaches to assess the various values that water represents, to increase drought resilience in the Eastern Netherlands.
The position
The specific focus of your PhD project is to develop a conceptual framework to express multiple values of water use, in the geographic and policy context of the Eastern Netherlands, with the aim to aid resilience assessments. You will be able to build on literature about value assessment and valuation techniques from social, economic, and environmental research domains, as well as prior knowledge developed by other PhD candidates in our group working on related questions.
You will apply your framework by developing and testing a game-based approach to elicit stakeholder perspectives on the value of water with the aim to support discussions and decisions in a multi-stakeholder context on resource allocations. The envisioned method can be categorized as a game as research tool, using games to gather data.
After having investigated the status quo, you will develop transition pathways for future water allocation in the Eastern Netherlands. These pathways should base on plausible future climate projections as well as on foreseen socio-economic developments. As a next step, you will explore to what extent these pathways match stakeholder’s values and the increase of drought resilience. You will subsequently design a serious game to support interaction with these future projections and possible actions that can be taken and evaluate the game with stakeholders both to improve the game and to assess to what extent it successfully supports stakeholders in exploring ways to improve regional drought resilience.
You will publish your findings resulting from these analyses about the present and the future in peer-reviewed scientific journals, in collaboration with your advisors and colleagues.

Requirements
Specific Requirements

We are looking for an enthusiastic, professional, and highly motivated candidate with the following profile:

• You hold a Master’s degree in a field relevant to the PhD topic, such as Environmental Sciences, Environmental Engineering, Industrial Design (Engineering) or any other transdisciplinary study connecting Environmental/Water Science, Social Sciences, and Engineering;
• You are a strong conceptual thinker with outstanding analytical skills;
• You have strong social skills and enjoy working with stakeholders;
• You are creative and have experience and/or interest in developing games for research;
• A background in one or more of the following topics is an advantage: economic, environmental, and/or societal value assessments and valuation techniques, resilience assessments, mixed-methods approaches, complex systems analysis, scenario analysis, quantitative modelling;
• 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 proficient in Dutch or willing to learn

Additional Information
Benefits

• A full-time 4-year PhD-position;
• We provide excellent mentorship and a stimulating research environment with excellent facilities;
• You are offered a professional and personal development program within the Twente Graduate School;
• A starting salary of € 2.770 gross per month in the first year and a salary of € 3.539 in the fourth year gross per month;
• A holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary and a year-end bonus of 8.3%;
• A solid pension scheme;
• Minimum of 29 holidays per year in case of fulltime employment;

Additional comments

For additional information regarding this position, you are welcome to contact dr. Lara Wöhler, [email protected] .
Please apply by uploading a motivation letter (1 page), your CV (max 3 pages without photo), a writing sample (max 1 page e.g., an Abstract of a publication or a one-page summary of your master thesis) as well as relevant certificates until 09 June 2024 using the link below.
The application must not exceed 5 pages excluding certificates. The first (online) job interview will take place end of June. We encourage Master students to apply even if they still have to graduate in the coming months.
The interviews will take place in the last week of June.

Website for additional job details

https://www.academictransfer.com/341459/

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

Universiteit Twente

Country

Netherlands

City

Enschede

Postal Code

7522NB

Street

Drienerlolaan 5

Geofield

Where to apply

Website

https://www.academictransfer.com/en/341459/phd-position-in-game-based-approache…

Contact

City

Enschede

Website

http://www.universiteittwente.nl/

Street

Drienerlolaan 5

Postal Code

7522 NB

STATUS: EXPIRED