Job offer

We are looking for a highly motivated Postdoctoral Researcher to contribute to the development and implementation of the ROUTES' monitoring and design evaluation framework, its comparative data analysis, and the ROUTES Atlas co-development. You will help design standardized metrics, indicators, and data collection protocols to assess the short-, medium-, and long-term effects of joint schoolyard-street transformations on community well-being, accessibility, safety, and social cohesion, and translate multi-site data into comparative insights and practical tools for cities and practitioners.

What you will do

In this Postdoc position, you will:

• Contribute to defining metrics and indicators across spatial (schoolyard, street, neighborhood, city) and temporal (daily, weekly, seasonal) scales, combining sensor-based data with human-centered behavioral mapping and on-site observation.
• Help develop harmonized data collection, integration, and analysis protocols ensuring consistency and interoperability across pilot sites, in line with GDPR and FAIR data principles.
• Support the implementation of multi-phase measurements (pre-intervention, during tactical implementation, post-completion) across the pilot sites, including coordinating on-site observation campaigns.
• Conduct comparative analyses of intervention impacts across pilot sites and timeframes, covering walkability, accessibility, perceived safety and cohesion, and mobility transformations.
• Contribute to translating findings into accessible formats and support the co-development of the interactive ROUTES Atlas.
• Collaborate closely with project partners and pilot cities (Bratislava, Espoo, Rotterdam, Tirana).
• Contribute to project deliverables, reports, and scientific publications.

The successful postdoctoral researcher will be based at the Department of Sustainable Design Engineering, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands), and collaborate will all partners in the ROUTES project.

• PhD in urban design, urban planning, transportation/mobility studies, geography, environmental psychology, urban data science, or a related field.
• Experience with quantitative and qualitative monitoring, evaluation, and data collection and analysis methods in urban or built-environment contexts.
• Experience with spatial data analysis, GIS, sensor-based mobility data, or behavioral mapping methods.
• Strong analytical and data-handling skills and experience with data integration across heterogeneous sources.
• Excellent written and spoken English.
• Experience with publishing in top-tier journals and conferences is an advnatage.
• Ability to work in an international, interdisciplinary consortium.
• Experience with disseminating research to a non-academic audience (e.g., practicing designers, planners, and policy makers) is an advnatage.
• Willingness to travel occasionally to European pilot sites for fieldwork coordination.

• Duration of contract is 2 years. Temporary.
• A job of 36-40 hours per week.
• Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.
• An excellent pension scheme via the ABP.
• The possibility to compile an individual employment package every year.
• Discount with health insurers on supplemental packages.
• Flexible working week.
• Every year, 232 leave hours (at 38 hours). You can also sell or buy additional leave hours via the individual choice budget.
• Plenty of opportunities for education, training and courses.
• Partially paid parental leave
• Attention for working healthy and energetically with the vitality program.

This position is part of the Horizon/New European Bauhaus EU-funded research and innovation project 'ROUTES - Reimagining Open Schoolyards and Urban Streets as Equitable Spaces,' which will launch in September 2026. About ROUTES ROUTES is a €3.5 million Horizon Europe project running for four years from September 2026 and coordinated by Delft University of Technology. It brings together 16 organizations across 8 European countries to investigate how integrated transformations of schoolyards and school streets can improve safety, social cohesion, active mobility uptake, inclusivity, and well-being across neighborhood communities. Through living laboratories in Bratislava, Espoo, Rotterdam, and Tirana, the project works with citizens, schools, and local authorities to co-design and test urban interventions, generating evidence-based tools and guidelines for wider European implementation, with Braga, Kocaeli, Lund, and Nantes participating as Observer Cities. What makes ROUTES distinctive is its focus on the combined impact of schoolyard and school street interventions. While these environments have often been studied separately, the project will investigate how integrated approaches can benefit not only school communities but entire neighborhoods. By combining expertise in urban analytics, environmental psychology, mobility, behavioral science, citizen science, and urban design, the project aims to generate new evidence for future urban policy and practice., TU Delft (Delft University of Technology) Working at TU Delft means contributing to solutions that really make a difference. For over 180 years, we have been training engineers who make an impact worldwide in companies, government bodies, or as entrepreneurs. Our alumni turn knowledge into concrete solutions for the challenges of today and tomorrow. These challenges are changing rapidly. That is why we focus on themes such as energy, climate, digitalisation, artificial intelligence (AI), and smart mobility every day. Our education and research are directly aligned with what society needs now and in the future. At TU Delft, our people make the difference. With their knowledge and curiosity, our staff provide a high-quality education and conduct pioneering research that extends beyond the campus. You will have the opportunity to take the initiative, work with others, and grow as a professional. Working at TU Delft means join an international community of professionals and students. Together, we create knowledge, innovations, and solutions that help move the world forward. Faculty Industrial Design Engineering Matching the evolution of people with the speed of the revolution of technology. This is the focus of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE). Delft designers act as a bridge between advances in technology and the needs of people, organisations and society to create products, services and systems with purpose. IDE is a leader in design research across the application areas of mobility, sustainability and health, as well as its development of design tools and methods. A 350-strong research team and over 2,000 students work together in our inspiring hall, labs and studios. In close cooperation with industry, the public sector and NGOs we rehearse possible futures in research and education to design for a complex future.