PhD in Socio-Economic Dynamics and System Dynamics for Nature-Inclusive Agrifood Transitions

Biodiversity restoration in agriculture and horticulture is urgently needed, but difficult to realize in practice. Farmers operate in complex systems: they are embedded in value chains, regional communities, regulatory environments, ecological landscapes, and business models that often prioritize short-term productivity and profitability. RISE addresses this challenge by developing systems-based tools and implementation pathways that help stakeholders make nature-inclusive decisions that are ecologically meaningful, economically viable, and socially supported.

RISE is an interdisciplinary project involving Eindhoven University of Technology, Wageningen University & Research, Leiden University, and Inholland University of Applied Sciences, together with a broad network of societal partners from agriculture, horticulture, regional development, water management, policy, and civil society. The project works in two regional case areas: Reusel-Zuid, focused on open-field agriculture, and Oostland Zuid-Holland, focused on greenhouse horticulture. A third region on tree-nursing will be used for validation and replication.

This PhD position is based at Eindhoven University of Technology, in the Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences, and is embedded in the Innovation, Technology Entrepreneurship & Marketing group. You will be part of a cohort of four PhD candidates who work closely together across universities and disciplines. All PhD candidates will contribute to the shared RISE work packages and will receive cross-university supervision to ensure deep integration between innovation science, system dynamics, spatial modelling, biodiversity monitoring, and ecological indicator development.

The specific focus of this PhD project is on the socio-economic dynamics of nature-inclusive agrifood transitions, with particular attention to value chains, business viability, stakeholder coordination, system dynamics, lock-ins, and rebound effects. You will study, using system dynamics modelling, by means of participative modelling and in workshop settings, how economic incentives, value-chain relations, business models, risk perceptions, and stakeholder interactions shape the feasibility of biodiversity-enhancing practices.

Your work will include:

• Mapping the economic system around farms in the regional case studies, including value chains, upstream and downstream actors, supporting actors such as financial institutions and policymakers, and the distribution of costs, benefits, risks, and responsibilities.
• Conducting interviews and fieldwork with farmers, growers, value-chain actors, regional stakeholders, and policy actors.
• Developing Causal Loop Diagrams that integrate economic, social, spatial, and ecological insights from the broader RISE research.
• Take the lead in the development of a system dynamics simulation model of nature-inclusive regional transitions.
• Designing and facilitating stakeholder workshops to validate system models, explore transition pathways, and test scenarios.
• Analyzing the business viability of nature-inclusive strategies, including incentives, barriers, lock-ins, rebound effects, and opportunities for value-chain coordination.
• Contributing to collaborative scenario development and implementation roadmaps for nature-inclusive agrifood systems.
• Supporting advisory-board meetings, public dialogue, dissemination activities, and validation of the RISE approach in a third case region.
• Publishing—sometimes also in collaboration with the other RISE PhDs—in high-quality academic papers on topics such as collaborative innovation for biodiversity restoration, system dynamics models of regional transitions, stakeholder alignment through systems modelling, and business viability of nature-inclusive transition pathways.

This position is ideal for a candidate who is comfortable working interdisciplinary, at the boundary between theory and practice: developing rigorous academic insights while engaging closely with farmers, regional stakeholders, businesses, policymakers, and researchers from other disciplines.

The PhD candidate will be embedded in a research group with ample expertise in this type of boundary-spanning research. The Innovation, Technology Entrepreneurship & Marketing group (ITEM) at TU/e has a strong track record in system dynamics, innovation systems, stakeholder engagement, and agri-food transitions. The candidate will therefore join an environment that combines methodological expertise in systems modelling with substantive knowledge of sustainability transitions, business ecosystems, and collaborative innovation in practice.