PhD in Parenting and caregiving in contaminated water landscapes

This project explores parents’ everyday experiences and future visions of raising children in an environment impacted by PFAS contamination of soils and groundwater. PFAS contamination in the environment is often studied in disciplinary siloes: it is understood from either a natural sciences or social science perspective. As a result, previous research has overlooked how PFAS function simultaneously physically and socially as well as how they leave physical and social long-term traces in parents’ lives and environments.

Current scholarship in human geography centers on toxic geographies, in which scholars have argued that the gradual exposure that residents endure is a form of structural and slow violence. They posit that toxic living environments are not necessarily invisible, but that powerful actors do not recognise the experiences of the residents who inhabit toxic spaces, especially those who are most vulnerable, such as children. In contrast, quantitative research on PFAS-contaminated areas generally focuses on mapping the status quo by measuring PFAS concentrations in soil and groundwater and comparing them to current limit values. There is little attention for the legacy effects of PFAS contamination, even though these determine the safety of drinking water resources in future and thus the precautions needed to provide and consume drinking water with safe PFAS levels in the long-term.

This PhD project will empirically connect these bodies of literature by showing how a planetary health issue (PFAS as a ‘forever chemical’ circulating through water systems and bodies) is lived and negotiated in specific households and places. We will apply a planetary health lens to disentangle the links between human and non-human interactions in polluted environments. The PhD candidate will innovatively combine qualitative social science methods with soil and water measurements and PFAS modelling, with the aim of understanding parents’ experiences and future visions, support them in dealing with PFAS water contamination, and stimulate exchange between authorities, affected communities and the general public on the topic.

The PhD candidate will conduct independent research under supervision in the Human Geography Department (Dr. Sara Brouwer at Geography & Education and Prof. Ajay Bailey at International Development Studies Section) and Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development (Dr. Stefanie Lutz at Environmental Sciences Section). This project will address the following research questions and methods:

• Stakeholder mapping: how do key stakeholders at different levels approach PFAS water contamination?
• Water quality modelling: what is the extent and time horizon of future PFAS contamination of soils and groundwater?
• Qualitative social science methods: how do parents (and caregivers) living in or near a PFAS contaminated area understand, experience, act upon and anticipate PFAS water contamination?
• Impact: how can the social and natural science results be used to effectively inform and engage key stakeholders to best support parents in dealing with PFAS water contamination and advocate for their reproductive right to raise children in healthy environments?

The case studies of PFAS water contamination are preferably in Europe or Southern Africa and will be determined in consultation with the PhD candidate. Besides societal relevance, the choice will be based on the expertise, affinity, experience and networks of the candidate and the supervisory team.

The PhD candidate will be embedded in a network of PhD candidates working on Planetary Health topics at the Faculty of Geosciences and across Utrecht University’s strategic theme on Life Sciences.

PhD on Industrial Wastewater Permits for Sustainable Water Quality

With climate change, rising demand, and pollution threatening water supplies, the BlueVantage project brings the water sector together to develop technical and governance solutions, thereby ensuring a clean water cycle for industry, ecology, and society. By working closely with water companies, innovations are tested in real-life situations.

At present, large challenges exist in meeting the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) water quality goals due to high pollutant emissions. Industrial emissions are authorized by the water manager, but water treatment at the plant is often not optimized for removal of chemical pollutants. This can lead to serious emissions of chemical pollutants to surface water and indirectly to groundwater, thus standing in the way of meeting the WFD targets and causing problems for water re-use.

In this PhD project we aim to determine and predict the influence of industrial discharge permits on the water quality in the Netherlands. In addition, we will test the efficiency of nature-based treatment solutions in the urban context for industrial wastewater treatment. By better understanding the relationship between industrial discharge permits and (urban) water quality, this project aims to contribute to the development of guidance for the permitting authorities for including (nature-based) treatment in the permitting process.

Four main steps are envisaged in this project:

1. An inventory will be made of current industrial discharge permits coupled to modelled and measured water quality data in the Rhine-Meuse rivers and regional water systems in the Netherlands;
2. Model and measure the chemical composition and toxicity of industrial effluents;
3. Provide insight into the potential of nature-based treatment technologies for industrial discharges in the urbanized context;
4. Model water quality under different permitting scenarios.

A personalised training programme will be set up, reflecting your training needs and career objectives, in the context of the UU Graduate School of Geosciences. About 20% of your time will be dedicated to this training component, which includes training on the job in assisting in the Bachelor and Master programmes of the department at Utrecht University (10% of your time).

PhD position in Mechano-catalytic conversion of plastic waste

Use your experience with catalysis, polymer science, and/or mechano-chemistry to develop new recycling technologies for plastics using mechano-catalytic milling. You will enter a relatively unexplored field of chemistry together with an expanding team of PhD students and Postdocs. You will also spend a few months with our collaborators at the Fraunhofer Institute WKI in Germany and the WAB company in Switzerland.

This project aims to pioneer the conversion of photo-curing resins, such as breaking crosslinks to enable solubility and recycling. By unravelling the intricate interplay between mechanical forces, catalysis, and selective polymer chain cleavage, you will gain valuable insights into the fundamental mechanisms shaping the future of recycling technology. You will develop operando spectroscopic techniques to track the bond cleavage during ball milling. Embrace the array of cutting-edge spectroscopic and analytic techniques (e.g., EPR, SEC, Raman, IR, and TGA) within the Institute of Sustainable and Circular Chemistry (ISCC), and become a trailblazer in mechano-catalytic polymer recycling.

Your main tasks:

• Develop a low temperature mechano-catalytic route to enable resin recycling
• Enable selective bond cleavage
• Develop new surface activated mechano-catalysts
• Excel in a top chemistry group with state-of-the-art equipment

CIO / Directeur IT

Als CIO/ directeur ITS geef je leiding aan de directie Information & Technology Services (ITS). De directie ondersteunt het College van Bestuur bij het strategisch beleid op het gebied van informatievoorziening en digitale innovatie in onderwijs, onderzoek, bedrijfsvoering, en de campus & werkomgeving. Dat doet ITS in nauwe samenwerking met docenten, onderzoekers en andere collega’s.

Je zorgt voor een effectief en modern digitaal landschap en voor de optimale ondersteuning van onze docenten, studenten, onderzoekers en medewerkers. In de komende jaren sta je voor belangrijke uitdagingen waaronder:

• het richting geven aan de uitvoer van de digitaliseringsstrategie van de universiteit, met digitale autonomie als belangrijk speerpunt;
• het bestendigen en continu verbeteren van de agile manier van werken die recent bij ITS is geïntroduceerd;
• het continu verbeteren van de informatiebeveiliging en de toekomstige implementatie van de Cyberbeveiligingswet (Cbw);
• het optimaal ondersteunen van digitale innovatie in onderwijs, onderzoek, bedrijfsvoering en de campus & werkomgeving. Nadrukkelijk op het vlak van AI;
• de beweging binnen de onderwijssector naar meer collectieve digitale voorzieningen, in samenwerking met strategische partners, waaronder SURF, Npuls en collega-instellingen.

Je adviseert het College van Bestuur over de inrichting van het IT-landschap en de daarvoor benodigde investeringen. Ook geef je vorm aan de uitvoer van de digitaliseringsstrategie van de universiteit. Je bent integraal verantwoordelijk voor het universitaire informatiebeleid en de kwaliteit van de digitale dienstverlening. Daarnaast voer je regie op de universiteitsbrede digitale ketenprocessen.

Je vertegenwoordigt de universiteit in het sectorale CIO-beraad (CSC-wo). Je rapporteert aan de vicevoorzitter van het College van Bestuur.

De directie ITS levert de centrale digitale diensten die nodig zijn voor de Universiteit Utrecht, in afstemming met onze faculteiten en diensten. Grote lopende projecten zijn onder andere de strategievorming op het vlak van digitale autonomie en de aanbesteding en vervanging van de administratieve systemen voor inkoop, HR en financiën.

Recent is de directie ITS aangepast op basis van een agile manier van werken. De directie bestaat uit vier waardestromen: Onderwijs, Onderzoek, Bedrijfsvoering en Campus & Werkomgeving, ondersteund door de afdelingen System Teams, Expert Teams en Support. Bij ITS werken ongeveer 300 medewerkers en heeft een jaarlijkse begroting van circa 55 miljoen euro inclusief investeringen.

Het is een gedreven club met betrokken mensen, met hart voor digitalisering en gericht op de toekomst.

Postdoc: Bridging the Molecular Biology and Epidemiology of Cancer Development

At the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS) at Utrecht University, we are looking for a postdoctoral researcher who wants to help answer that question. Together with Dr Martijn Kolijn and Prof. Roel Vermeulen, you will investigate how environmental and lifestyle exposures the exposome shape cancer risk, often years before a tumour is ever found. By connecting molecular signals measured in blood long before diagnosis to the biology of the tumours that eventually appear, you will help build the evidence base for a more preventive, biology-driven approach to cancer one that could, over time, change how many lives this disease shapes.

This work sits at the intersection of molecular biology, epidemiology, and environmental health and is embedded in large international collaborations across Europe and the USA.

In this project, “Bridging the Molecular Biology and Epidemiology of Cancer Development”, you will:

• Contribute to large ongoing projects exploring cancer development, including ESCALATION, SPACETIME, DISCERN, and COVIDMETA;
• Analyse high-resolution mass spectrometry data (exogenous and endogenous metabolomics) and high-throughput targeted proteomics (Olink/SomaScan) from prospective population cohorts to characterise the internal exposome;
• Link molecular alterations observed in plasma years before cancer diagnosis to molecular signatures observed in tumour biopsies at diagnosis;
• Apply advanced statistical and machine learning methods to identify and validate environmental determinants of cancer risk;
• Link high-resolution exposome surfaces (from projects such as EXPANSE and EXPOSOME-NL) to large population cohorts;
• Integrate external (environmental) and internal (biological) exposome data to build a more complete picture of environmental contributions to cancer;
• Collaborate closely with colleagues within IRAS (Dr Martijn Kolijn and Prof. Roel Vermeulen) and at partner institutes across Europe and the USA;
• Share your findings through scientific publications and international conferences—and help translate them into insights that support cancer prevention.