Junior assistant professor in innovation studies

You will become part of the Innovation Studies group at the Copernicus Institute, a large and internationally visible research group known for its high-quality research and education. Together with your colleagues, you will contribute to the organisation of Bachelor’s courses, lead tutorials, and supervise individual students (including Bachelor’s theses and tutoring groups).

We aim to welcome you to our team before September 2026.

Assistant Professor Large-scale Water Quality and Planetary Health

Imminent and future climate change with increasing hydroclimatic extremes, combined with socio-economic developments are placing unprecedented pressure on both the quantity and quality of water resources globally. These pressures increase clean water scarcity and related threats to aquatic ecosystems, water, food and energy security, ultimately undermining planetary health. Geopolitical tensions and conflicts risk amplifying these vulnerabilities even further. To address escalating risks, it is imperative that we account for the full set of interactions between water availability, water quality, and human/ecosystem response interactions. This requires development of quantitative assessment frameworks and models to quantify these system interactions. By integrating these dynamics into future water-system pathways we can identify effective management strategies and solution options to safeguard our natural freshwater resources and improve planetary health.

The Department of Physical Geography at Utrecht University (DPG-UU) is seeking an Assistant Professor in the quantitative assessment and modelling of large-scale water quality and water resources in the context of planetary health research (focussing on ecosystem/human health). DPG-UU envisions that the candidate for this position will develop her/his own research line building on our large-scale high-resolution water quality and water resources models. The new research line combines large-scale (clean) water system understanding with integrated impact assessment of planetary health and clean water system adaptation. This interdisciplinary field will combine quantitative hydrological and water quality modelling, assessment of human and/or ecosystem health impacts and development of pathways towards healthier systems. Here you can build on modelling expertise available in Water Quality and Sustainable Water Systems group and other research groups within DPG-UU.

The candidate will develop and be involved in funding applications from national and European science agencies, and will be uniquely positioned to teach in courses on Earth Sciences, Hydrology and Planetary Health at Bachelor’s or Master’s level. You will also supervise individual Bachelor's, Master's and PhD projects.

PhD position in Spatial Planning

We hypothesize that entrenched discourses around land rent reproduce growth-oriented logics in densification projects, systematically obstructing the achievement of densification’s proclaimed sustainability goals.

Specifically, the PhD position at Utrecht University focuses on how environmental and design requirements, such as sustainability standards, material choices, and architectural competitions, are negotiated within densification projects. By revealing how discourses around land rent influence project-level governance, this research identifies leverage points for steering densification towards more sustainable trajectories and enriches the post-growth debate in spatial planning.

Under the guidance of senior members of the project, based at Utrecht University, the University of Bern, the University of Lausanne, and the TU Delft, as well as in different professional organizations, you will conduct your main research in the Netherlands and Switzerland. You will be affiliated with the Department of Human Geography & Spatial Planning at Utrecht University, and work closely together with partners at the other universities involved in REBUILD, including Prof. Jean-David Gerber at the University of Bern.

Tasks

• Analyze how densification is performed in cities, focusing on how environmental and design requirements are defined and negotiated in practice. Examine how actors legitimate their positions through discourses, and how institutional arrangements resolve, or fail to resolve, tensions between land-rent creation (economic viability), redistribution (social equity), and alignment with planetary boundaries (ecological limits).
• Conduct field research in the Netherlands and Switzerland over extended periods of time.
• Collaborate closely with colleagues and partners of the REBUILD project in Switzerland and the Netherlands; participate in project publications, research workshops, and other events; build a network with practitioners; and contribute to the project’s overall communication strategy
• Present your research at scientific conferences
• Publish results in international peer-reviewed journals
• Support and contribute to teaching activities within the department (max. 10%).

Beheerder Gebouwmanagementsystemen

Je werkt samen met je collega’s aan het dagelijks beheer van de applicaties en systemen van Gebouwen & Facilities. Je ondersteunt het primaire proces, zodat gebruikers het systeem optimaal kunnen gebruiken. Je bewaakt de continuïteit en veiligheid van het systeem.

Je volgt ontwikkelingen in gebouwautomatisering en past deze toe in adviezen en oplossingen. Je doet verbetervoorstellen en implementeert die, zodat het systeem blijft voldoen aan de veranderende eisen.

Jouw werkzaamheden

• Je inventariseert gebruikersbehoeften en vertaalt deze naar verbeteringen in gebouwmanagementsystemen. Je volgt ontwikkelingen in gebouwautomatisering en past deze toe in adviezen en oplossingen. Je geeft advies en implementeert aanpassingen en verbeteringen. Je neemt deel aan projectteams.
• Je ondersteunt gebruikers, beantwoordt vragen en legt uit hoe systemen en functionaliteiten werken. Je analyseert incidenten en problemen en zorgt voor een passende oplossing.
• Je implementeert softwarematige aanpassingen en updates en stelt testplannen op voor deze aanpassingen. In de uitvoering neem je zelf deel aan of begeleid je de benodigde tests door eindgebruikers.
• Je stelt functionele systeemdocumentatie en handleidingen op, houdt deze actueel en ontwikkelt de benodigde AO-procedures.

Managementassistent

Als managementassistent ondersteun je de coördinatoren bedrijfsvoering van de vier afdelingen van het departement Rechtsgeleerdheid. Wat ga je doen?

• Beantwoorden van vragen van medewerkers;
• Opstellen van gegevens voor overzichten en rapportages;
• Voorbereiden van het aanstellen van student assistenten;
• Voorkomende secretariële werkzaamheden die verdeeld worden onder de collega’s van het secretariaat waaronder mailafhandeling, agendabeheer, organiseren van evenementen en bijeenkomsten.