PhD position: Reefwatchers project

Healthy reefs underpin coastal protection, food security and marine biodiversity, yet we still struggle to demonstrate when and how restoration efforts truly make a difference and how this information can guide real-world decisions. Are you motivated to investigate what information businesses, policymakers and investors actually need to evaluate marine biodiversity restoration? Are you eager to translate diverse stakeholder demands into clear frameworks, indicators and cost–benefit insights that enable scalable, safe and effective monitoring of reef ecosystems? Then this PhD position in the Reefwatchers project offers an exciting opportunity to make a tangible impact. The Business Management and Organisation group of Wageningen University is looking for an enthusiastic and ambitious PhD candidate to fulfil the PhD position in the NWO funded project “Reefwatchers: Safe, Efficient and Scalable Biodiversity Monitoring for Biogenic and Artificial Reefs”. The project aims to bridge the gap between biodiversity monitoring and business decision-making by developing safe, cost-effective, scalable, and standardized monitoring approaches that facilitate decision making by policy makers and business. Marine biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, threatening ecosystem services that are essential for human well-being, such as coastal protection, food provision and water quality. In response, governments and businesses increasingly invest in marine restoration and nature-based solutions, including reef restoration. However, despite these growing commitments, it remains unclear how the impacts of such restoration efforts can be consistently and credibly demonstrated. In the absence of shared frameworks, stakeholders lack clarity on what biodiversity information is needed, which indicators are meaningful for decision-making, and how monitoring efforts can be balanced against available resources. As a result, biodiversity monitoring remains fragmented, costly and difficult to scale, limiting its usefulness for guiding management, justifying investments and supporting policy and business decisions. Addressing this challenge requires a systematic understanding of stakeholder information needs and their translation into standardized, decision-relevant and cost-effective monitoring strategies.

In general, this PhD project aims to develop the socio-economic foundation needed to make biodiversity monitoring of marine ecosystems relevant, actionable and usable for decision-making by businesses, policymakers and other stakeholders. The PhD project focuses on understanding how different social-ecological system (SES) users depend on ecosystem services provided by biogenic and artificial reefs, and what information they require to govern, manage and restore these systems. To do so, you will develop a framework to map stakeholders’ information needs, an instrument to match these needs with biodiversity monitoring indicators, and a step-wise method for cost-benefit analysis under different scaling-up scenarios. You will apply a combination of policy analysis, interviews, surveys, and workshops to bridge biodiversity monitoring with socio-economic decision-making.

While the PhD project takes place within the Business Management and Organisation group, you will also be contributing to the Reefwatcher project. This project consists of marine biologists and

ecologists at Wageningen University and NIOZ, underwater robotics engineers at Delft University and Boskalis, as well as several other organisations (for-profit, non-profit, public) involved in reef restoration.

You will work here

The Business Management and Organisation group is one of the leading research and teaching groups in the fields of business management and organisation science related to sustainability transitions. You will be supervised by Dr. Jilde Garst and Prof. Dr. Ilona de Hooge (both Business Management and Organisation group), and Dr. Judith van Leeuwen (Environmental Policy group). In addition, throughout the project you may work together the other project partners from Wageningen University, NIOZ, Delft University and Boskalis, as well as several other organisations (for-profit, non-profit, public) involved in reef restoration. As a PhD candidate, you will be enrolled in the Wageningen University Graduate School (WASS). The Graduate school provides an inspiring research environment with an excellent team of supervisors, academic staff, and a mentor. You will also participate in a Doctorate Education Programme, in which you further develop your research, teaching, and interdisciplinary skills.

Eligible candidates need to have:

• completed a Master University degree;
• a background in business administration or policy science with relation to business (e.g., organisation studies, business decision-making, (environmental) accounting, cross-sector governance, policy design). Other backgrounds will not be considered;
• a high level of/interest in (corporate) sustainability decision-making and environmental policy, with a focus on environmental impact measurement and sustainability standards;
• affinity with marine ecology and biodiversity;
• skills and experience with qualitative data collection (interviews, focus groups, and survey research are parts of this project, so experience with at least one of these methods is required);
• an interest in conducting quantitative choice experiments (conducting a multi-stage stakeholder survey is part of this project);
• clear scientific ambition in the conduct and publication of the research (the project is expected to result in a PhD thesis and scientific publications);
• ability to work independently as well as in a team, take initiative, and work towards results in a systematic way;
• the curiosity and motivation to address important real-world problems through rigorous and ambitious academic inquiry;
• Excellent English language skills, both written and verbal;
• an interest in student-focused teaching (10% of your position will include teaching);

For this position your command of the English language is expected to be at C1 level. Sometimes it is necessary to submit an internationally recognized Certificate of Proficiency in the English Language. More information can be found here. Fluency in the Dutch language is very welcome, as the project includes interviews and focus groups with Dutch-speaking stakeholder.

Wageningen University & Research offers excellent terms of employment. A few highlights from our Collective Labour Agreement include:

• Partially paid parental leave;
• working hours that can be discussed and arranged so that they allow for the best possible work-life balance;
• there is a strong focus on vitality and you can make use of the sports facilities available on campus for a small fee;
• a fixed year-end bonus of 8.3%;
• excellent pension scheme.

In addition to these first-rate employee benefits, you will receive a fully funded PhD position and you will be offered a course program tailored to your needs and the research team. The gross salary for the first year is € 3.059,- per month rising to € 3.881,- in the fourth year, according to the Collective Labour Agreements for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU) (scale P). This is based on a full-time working week of 38 hours. We offer a temporary contract for 18 months which will be extended for the duration of the project (4 years) if you perform well.

Wageningen University & Research offers plenty of opportunities for growth and development, with a strong internal recruitment policy and excellent training programmes.

You will work on the greenest and most innovative campus in the Netherlands, in an international and open working environment. For 20 consecutive years, we have been voted the "best university" in the Netherlands! A place to be proud of.

Wageningen University & Research is the university and research centre for life sciences. The themes we deal with are relevant to everyone around the world and Wageningen, therefore, has a large international community and a lot to offer to international employees.

Because we expect you to work and live in the Netherlands our team of advisors on Dutch immigration procedures will help you with the visa application procedures for yourself and, if applicable, for your family.

Feeling welcome also has everything to do with being well informed. We can assist you with any additional advice and information about for example helping your partner to find a job, housing, or schooling. Finally, certain categories of international staff may be eligible for a tax exemption on a part of their salary during the first five years in the Netherlands.

You can apply directly using the apply button on the vacancy page on our website which will allow us to process your personal information with your approval. Only applications submitted through our website will be considered. The following documents are required:

• your CV (including the grade for your Master’s thesis and overall grade point average (or equivalent) of your Master’s degree);
• a motivation letter showing your interest in and suitability for the position;
• a document demonstrating your writing skills (e.g. a master thesis or your research vision for this position);

No other documents are required at this stage.

This vacancy is open till 4 May 2026. The first job interviews will take place on 22 May, 2026. Second round interviews (if applicable) will take place between June 1st and June 10th, 2026. The starting date for the position is negotiable, but no later than September 1st, 2026.

​The mission of Wageningen University & Research is “To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life”. Under the banner Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen University and the specialised research institutes of the Wageningen Research Foundation have joined forces in contributing to finding solutions to important questions in the domain of healthy food and living environment. With its roughly 30 branches, 7,600 employees (6,700 fte) and 13,100 students and over 150,000 participants to WUR’s Life Long Learning, Wageningen University & Research is one of the leading organisations in its domain. The unique Wageningen approach lies in its integrated approach to issues and the collaboration between different disciplines.

Read the 5 reasons why your future colleagues enjoy working at WUR and watch the video below to get an idea of our green campus!

We will recruit for the vacancy ourselves, so no employment agencies please. However, sharing in your network is appreciated.

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