– Welcome to the Network for Early career researchers in Sustainability Transitions (NEST) website and blog. NEST is an international network and community established to cater specifically to the needs of early career researchers (ECRs) and doctoral candidates in the field of sustainability transitions. Learn more about the community, upcoming events or how to get in touch!

3-year postdoc in Innovation & Sustainability Transition Studies at TIK Centre, Norway

The TIK Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture offer a 3 year fulltime postdoctoral position in the field of energy transitions. Ambitious policy goals of reaching net-zero Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by mid-century requires that transition processes increase in scope, depth, and speed. The postdoc will analyze how such goals can be achieved with a particular focus on carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS).

The position is funded by two complementary research projects. First, the project “Socio-technical drivers, opportunities and challenges for large-scale CCUS (CaptureX)” funds 1 year of the position. Second, the Norwegian Centre for Energy Transition Studies (NTRANS) funds 2 years of the postdoc position. The postdoc will be part of Research Area 2 entitled “Accelerating the Energy Transition” which is coordinated by the TIK Centre.

Most decarbonization scenarios assign a major role to rapid diffusion and scaling of CCUS. At the same time, most carbon capture technologies are rather immature, and needed infrastructure and markets for CO2 transport, storage and utilization remain underdeveloped. A new sociotechnical system for CO2 removal must be created across multiple sectors and countries for CCUS to diffuse. Such new system building is a major challenge for CCUS actors. Key topics across the projects include but are not limited to actor strategies for system building, policy missions, strategies, and mixes to support CCUS, or broader perspectives on the role of carbon removal in energy transitions. We expect that the postdoc project will involve collaborations with members of the funding research projects.

More information https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/244920/postdoctoral-fellowship-in-innovation-and-sustainability-transitions

Two fully funded PhD positions within STS/Sustainability transitions

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture, currently has two fully funded 3-year vacancies as PhD candidates within Science and Technology studies. Both positions focus on aspects related to energy and sustainability transitions and could also be of interest to scholars with other relevant backgrounds in the social sciences and humanities. Both projects are funded as part of the Norwegian centre for energy transition strategies (NTRANS).

Position 1: Tensions in transitions

From the realization that climate emissions need to be reduced quickly, accelerating energy transitions has become a key focus amongst policy makers and innovators. This PhD project will study the factors driving acceleration, with a focus on the social consequences and justice implications of increased speed. This implies exploring the opportunities and challenges that come with accelerating the transition, including how speed influences public participation, knowledge production processes like environmental and biodiversity assessments, and technology adoption. Ultimately, the aim is to gain a better understanding of the complexities involved in accelerating the transition to sustainable energy production and use in Norway.

PhD Position at Utrecht University on the Circular Economy of Green Hydrogen Production

We are seeking a highly motivated and talented PhD candidate to join our research team at the Faculty of Geosciences. The successful candidate will work on an interdisciplinary project that integrates innovation systems, transition studies and the circular economy with material and chemical engineering sciences with the goal to foster a fully circular green hydrogen economy.

This interdisciplinary PhD research project will assess, develop and help to understand the drivers of, and barriers to, the creation of sustainable and circular electrolyzers needed for green hydrogen production. The project will explore the challenges and opportunities of producing, consuming, and recycling practices, with a focus on reducing the use of primary and critical materials by ensuring full recycling and repurposing of components. The ultimate goal of the research is to provide concrete advice to stakeholders (government, European Commission, industry) on how to stimulate circular economy practices for a sustainable and circular energy transition.

The PhD candidate will collaborate with energy, material and innovation scientists at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development (Faculty of Geosciences).

For more information about this position, see here and in case of questions contact Adriaan van der Loos (Assistant Professor) at h.z.a.vanderloos@uu.nl

Application deadline 28th of May

Postdoc position at the Global Sustainability Institute (ARU), Cambridge, UK

The Global Sustainability Institute is looking for an enthusiastic qualitative researcher to work as part of an interdisciplinary team on community/public engagement themes, specifically relating to geothermal energy in Europe, as part of the PUSH-IT project. This post is part of the €20m Piloting Underground Seasonal Heat Storage in Geothermal Reservoirs (PUSH-IT) project funded by the European Commission and UKRI. Whilst PUSH-IT’s main focus is on technical innovation, it has a strong social science element embedded throughout, giving the successful candidate an excellent opportunity to contribute their social science expertise to an interdisciplinary project. Specifically, the postholder will contribute to a dedicated stream of research on societal engagement and societal acceptability within the project. They will conduct research on citizen and stakeholder engagement with heat storage using appropriate research methods (surveys, interviews, focus groups, workshops, which will require travel to the demonstrator sites in various European locations), as well as contributing to other project tasks.

The successful candidate will have a PhD (awarded or nearing completion) or equivalent qualification/experience in Human Geography, STS, Environmental Psychology, Sociology, Environmental Studies, Political Studies or other relevant social science and be able to work independently. Essential skills include applied experience with qualitative data collection and analysis, ability to work collaboratively and in an interdisciplinary environment, and to communicate effectively with stakeholders.

Headlines:

Based in the Global Sustainability Institute (ARU), Cambridge, UK
Salary: £36,333 pro rata | position is advertised at 0.8FTE
Duration: 2.5 years fixed term
FTE negotiable e.g. to accommodate candidates nearing PhD completion
Seeking qualitative researcher with strong commitment to interdisciplinary work
Application deadline: 17^th May 2023 | Interviews online: 07^th June 2023 | Start date: negotiable, likely September 2023
Be part of the €20m European Consortium ‘Piloting Underground Seasonal Heat Storage in Geothermal Reservoirs’
Open to international applicants, for sponsorship under the UK’s Skilled Worker visa
Apply here: https://jobs.aru.ac.uk/vacancy/post-doctoral-research-fellow-push-it–523684.html

The GSI

Over the past 10 years, the GSI has built a global reputation for delivering research impact and high-quality publications across a broad range of sustainability issues. The GSI undertakes interdisciplinary, action-focussed Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research to support transformations towards sustainable and just societies. The GSI has a particular interest in research that has the potential for real-world impact, and thus has a wide portfolio of applied projects that focus on working with e.g. European Commission, UK Government, local authorities, charities and NGOs, business and industry, etc.

Related information

Further details, including how to apply can be found here: https://jobs.aru.ac.uk/vacancy/post-doctoral-research-fellow-push-it–523684.html
Informal enquiries prior to application are strongly encourage. Please get in touch with Mel Rohse melanie.rohse@aru.ac.uk

4 PhD & 1 Postdoc position at Erasmus University, Rotterdam School of Management

Building the Community Economy for Sustainability and Resilience

Are you passionate about building sustainable futures for the planet and humanity, and about understanding the roles communities can play in the process? Do you want to be a part of cutting-edge research projects that address the ways communities and citizens can expand their impact to accelerate societal transformations towards sustainability? Then these exciting research opportunities are for you!

Across the world, new bottom-up and self-governing enterprises are increasingly being set up by citizens and local communities in the fields of sustainable energy, the circular economy, shared mobility, food, care, and many others. Citizens hereby collectively govern and use resources as commons, through self-governance, according to the rules they decide upon as a group. How can such community and citizen-based enterprises scale their impact and transform society beyond markets and states? This is a critical and timely challenge, as scholars and policymakers have high expectations on the roles of communities and citizens to advance sustainability and resilience. Community and citizen-based enterprises are widely known to foster collective action locally. But what are the mechanisms through which they can achieve wider transformations to tackle urgent sustainability challenges such as climate change? What is the role of group size and heterogeneity for the resilience of – both historical and present-day – organisations and of society as a whole? These PhD and postdoc positions offer unique opportunities to delve into these fascinating topics and work together with other team members with expertise from various disciplines.

Through these positions, the researchers will get the opportunity to work on key sustainability fields, including sustainable energy, the circular economy, the sharing economy, and natural resource management. The PhDs get a full-time salaried employment (not in the form of a scholarship) for 4 years without teaching obligations, with the option of a conditional 5^th year. There are however opportunities to be involved in teaching. All positions are embedded within a group of researchers focussing on the Community Economy and Institutions for Collective Action at the Business-Society-Management department of RSM, where sustainability is central to all research and cooperation with other disciplines is key (see https://collective-action.info/_ctc_main/_tea_main/ for an overview of the group at the moment). They are part of different sub-projects:

PhD 1, PhD 2, PhD 3 and the Postdoc-position are part of the new ERC Starting Grant project SCENSUS, led by Dr. Thomas Bauwens. SCENSUS stands for “Scaling the Societal Impact of Community Enterprises for Sustainability”). Click here for further information about the project or contact bauwens@rsm.nl for further information.

PhD4 is part of the NWO-VICI-project UNICA, led by Prof. Tine De Moor. UNICA stands for “Building a UNified theory for the development and resilience of Institutions for Collective Action for Europe in the past millennium”. Click herefor further information about the project or contact collective-action@rsm.nl for further information.

Please note that there will be more vacancies -for postdocs and tenure-track positions- coming up soon. If you would like to stay up-to-date on these vacancies, send a mail to collective-action@rsm.nl.

PhD position at the University of Applied Sciences & Arts of Southern Switzerland

The University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) is looking for a PhD student in the field of sustainability transitions. However, written and spoken knowledge of the Italian language is a requirement due to the fieldwork to be performed.

The full link to the application can be found here:

https://www.supsi.ch/home_en/supsi/lavora-con-noi/2022-03-10-bando954.html

Deadline: May, 4 2023.

Postdoc position at the Autonomous University of Barcelona

The research group Environmental & Climate Economics of the Institute of Environmental Science & Technology, part of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, is looking for a postdoc researcher with a strong background in assessing climate policy. He/she will contribute to an EU project aimed at improving the analysis of the social-political feasibility of ambitious climate policy. This will involve, among others, better accounting for the preferences and knowledge of voters and policymakers. The project will draw on economics, political science and psychology.

The duration of the contract will be 24-30 months, conditional on the exact starting date (the project end date is 31/12/2025). The gross salary will be €27.000 – 31.000,-, depending on experience.

Potential candidates can indicate their interest via a brief email with cv attached, directed to jeroen.bergh@uab.es.

9 PhD/Post-doc positions at the University of Barcelona

Giorgos Kallis and Jason Hickel, cc-ed, at the University of Barcelona are hiring 9 people, either postdocs or PhDs, to work under the ERC project REAL (‘A post-growth deal’).

The ERC is providing 10 million euros for an ICTA-UAB project that will study how to escape from a growth economy and ensure social welfare and planetary sustainability.

Could societies shift away from growth-oriented economics and sustain human well-being within planetary boundaries? A new international study led by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) and the University of Lausanne (UNIL) in Switzerland will address this important question thanks to a €10 million grant from the European Research Council (ERC).

Over the next 6 years, ICTA-UAB researchers Giorgos Kallis and Jason Hickel, alongside Professor Julia Steinberger from the Institute of Geography and Sustainability of the University of Lausanne (UNIL), will develop the project “A Post-Growth Deal” (REAL), which promises to advance ecological economics in radical new directions.

To reduce emissions fast enough to meet the Paris targets, and to reverse other ecological pressures, high-income economies will need to dramatically reduce their use of energy and material resources. But sufficient reductions may be difficult to achieve if countries continue to pursue economic growth – ever-increasing levels of industrial production – as a primary objective.

Scientists increasingly recognize the need to explore post-growth pathways. Recent calls for post-growth transition have been discussed in major reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN panel on biodiversity (IPBES), and the European Environment Agency. But the existing knowledge base cannot yet meet this demand. The REAL project will advance the science so that post-growth pathways can be fully described and successfully implemented.

To this end, the ERC has awarded them a €9.9 million Synergy Grant – a highly competitive grant and one of the most prestigious awards for advanced research in Europe. With this funding, scientists will join their respective expertise to explore “how dramatic reductions in energy and resource use can be achieved, while at the same time ending poverty and ensuring decent lives for all”. They aspire to propose new models of politics, policies and provisioning systems in a post-growth direction, and engage with questions of development in the global South. The goal here, explains Jason Hickel, economic anthropologist at ICTA-UAB, is “convergence between the global North and South, and within countries, to a level of resource use that is sufficient for high human development and compatible with planetary boundaries”.

The “Post-Growth Deal” refers to the need for a new political and institutional compact between government and citizens equivalent to that of the New Deal, or the welfare state, but now geared around the security of well-being in an era of prolonged economic stagnation and unfolding climate breakdown. Creating such a “Deal”’, requires new research, new data, and new models that the REAL project intends to develop.

“It’s the first time that a project of such scale and scope is granted on the topic of post-growth”, says Giorgos Kallis, environmental scientist at ICTA-UAB. “This is a recognition and validation of the efforts many isolated researchers have made for years – against mainstream opposition, and with little institutional or financial support. It is an opportunity that carries significant responsibility”. Kallis emphasized also the importance of synergy: “Every time the three of us meet, we feel like the different pieces of a puzzle coming together. This is a truly inter-disciplinary project. We hope to set a new paradigm for how to approach questions of planetary importance“.

“This project is nothing short of revolutionary”, said Julia Steinberger, ecological economist at the University of Lausanne. “It gives us what we think is the best chance to explore the transformative ideas necessary to protect humanity from the intertwined crises of the coming decades: to reorient our economies away from risky growth dependence, and towards human flourishing.”

Call (deadline May 15^th):

https://www.uab.cat/web/el-centre-icta-uab/treballa-amb-nosaltres-1345819913877.html

Please note that we especially welcome Global South/under-represented/women applicants. We are currently looking into what institutional support is available for such applicants.

2 year post-doc position at NTNU, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture

At NTNU, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture, we have a 2-year vacancy as a postdoc within sustainability transitions research.

The position focuses on increasing the circularity of consumption within electrical and electronic products and will engage in empirical and theoretical work. The postdoc will be part of the KULTs Centre for technology and society and the research group on energy, climate and environment. The postdoc is 100% funded by the research project eLife, which seeks to understand the role of households and communities in scaling up circular consumption solutions within electronics and electrical equipment. We are interested in start-up for the post-doc during fall, 2023. The post-doc should preferably have a background in Science and Technology Studies and/or sustainability transition studies. Knowledge of transition management and circular economy will be an advantage, as will a track-record of conducting work on sustainability-related issues.

The deadline for applications is May 21^st.

PhD position in Technology and Social Change – Research School Just Transitions

Fully funded 4 year PhD position available at Linköping University, Department of Thematic Studies – Technology and Social Change.

Research and education at Tema T – Technology and Social Change, Linköping University, deals with how technology is developed and used in social contexts, as well as how technological change helps shape and is shaped by cultural, political and economic processes in society. The position is part of the graduate school “Just Transitions – Swedish Research School on Governance for Just Urban and Regional Climate Transitions“. For more information on the research school see

https://liu.se/forskning/just-transitions-forskarskola (in Swedish, including 6 more calls for PhD positions in Linköping and Gothenburg), or https://liu.se/en/research/just-transitions-research-school (in English).

The aim of the Just Transitions research school is to build knowledge and expertise on how to realise a just climate transition in a local context. Through the engagement of seven doctoral projects in municipal and regional processes, knowledge will be developed about the conditions and capabilities required for collaboration, management and governance towards a just climate transition. The PhD project at Linköping University, Tema T, is linked to Linköping Municipality, particularly the division on Environment and Urban Development, which is responsible for driving and coordinating the city’s climate work. The research will also connect to the Climate-neutral Linköping 2030 programme. The transition to a sustainable and equitable transport and mobility system is a potential focus area of the PhD research.

Relevant educational backgrounds for the announced position include social sciences, urban planning, environmental sciences or related interdisciplinary programmes. To facilitate the collaboration with the municipality basic knowledge of Swedish language is required.

For more information and application, see:

https://liu.se/jobba-pa-liu/lediga-jobb/21378

(Swedish version)

https://liu.se/en/work-at-liu/vacancies/21402

(English version)

Application deadline: 24 April 2023