Job offer

Climate science allows us to quantify the role of climate change in concrete events of extreme weather: this is called extreme event attribution. In this project, we aim to develop an expanded and integrated science of event attribution, forecast and impact, to enable effective policymaking towards preventing imminent harm and reducing risk in the next decades. The new research paradigm aims to capture not only climatic factors, but also drivers such as land-use change, groundwater depletion, changes in exposure and social vulnerability.

As a PhD candidate, your goal is to develop new modelling tools for assessing the systemic impacts emerging from the dynamics between hazards, socio-economic sectors, vulnerability and adaptation. You will also combine models with counterfactuals and scenarios of climate and of non-climate drivers, developed in stakeholder consultation. This will enhance our understanding of the link between climate, extreme weather and human actions and decisions. The work will be carried out in strong interaction with international project partners.

Your duties

• You develop new modelling tools to represent the complex systemic interactions between climate, environment, society, and human adapting behaviour
• You execute simulations under different climate and non-climate counterfactuals
• You analyse the impact of compound events
• You provide the tools and knowledge for systemic impact assessment to case study stakeholders
• You present your research at scientific conferences and publish your results in scientific journals
• You contribute to teaching and supervising in bachelor and master programs

We are looking for a motivated candidate to develop and apply complex system models with the following profile:

• You hold a MSc degree in climatology, meteorology, earth science, hydrology, computer science, environmental science, or equivalent
• You have solid scientific coding skills in Python. You are strongly motivated to acquire advanced skills in Python and in the use of high-performance computer systems
• You have affinity and preferably experience with system dynamics, earth system modelling, and statistics
• You are able to work independently, and to collaborate with other researchers in the interdisciplinary project and research group
• You have excellent written and verbal communication skills in English

A challenging position in a socially engaged organization. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

• a salary of minimum € 3.059,00 (PhD) and maximum € 3.881,00 (PhD) gross per month, on a full-time basis. This is based on UFO profile PhD candidate. The exact salary depends on your education and experience.
• a position for at least 0.8 FTE. Your employment contract will initially last 1 year. Afterwards, the intention is to extent the position for another 3-years enveloping the full PhD. 4 years of funding is secured.

We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and regulations. Some examples:

• A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• contribution to commuting expenses
• hybrid working enables a good work-life balance
• a PhD education program including training for teaching assistants and courses that are part of the SENSE graduate school

Additional comments

Are you interested in this position and do you believe that your experience will contribute to the further development of our university? In that case, we encourage you to submit your application.