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Vacancy PhD: Co-designing transformative pathways for just biodiversity and climate actions

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October 26, 2022
Deadline for applications: 27 November 2022

We are looking for PhD research in Co-designing transformative pathways for just biodiversity and climate actions

Click here for more information and to apply for the position.

Do you want to work on the grand challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss at the same time? Are you interested in how governance in those domains can respect human rights and be more inclusive ? And are you interested in contributing to a large EU funded research project (TRANSPATH) that will use inclusive deliberation with stakeholders to co-design transformative pathways and identify leverage points and interventions for triggering these transformative changes? And is the academic debate about the dynamics between dialogue/deliberation, learning, and policy change your cup of tea? Then this position is for you.

This PhD project will seek to advance the scientific understanding of deliberative processes at various governance levels in ways that enable learning and policy change. In your position as a PhD researcher you will:

  • Engage in supervised scientific research that will ultimately result in a doctoral thesis
  • Follow a tailor made course program for PhD-candidates of the Wageningen School of Social Sciences (that can include courses from other graduate schools).
  • Publish research results in peer-reviewed scientific journals, as well as through popular publications and presentations.
  • Identify and compare 'safe and just operating spaces' with respect to biodiversity, climate change and human rights for specific leverage points of transformative change based on systematic literature and policy reviews
  • Develop, test and apply methods and tools for reflexive dialogues among stakeholders at different governance levels in the EU, and analyse their contribution to individual and social learning.
  • Develop and apply co-design methods and tools in a Western European case study, using e.g. group-model building techniques (Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping and transformative pathways)
  • Analyse and synthesise resulting models and pathways to identify leverage points related to climate change and biodiversity action.