Assistant Professor Sustainable Land Use

The successful candidate will have a responsibility to develop and implement innovative research related to sustainable land use at global to local scales with a focus on climate change adaptation and mitigation. In the first years, the research time of the tenure track candidate will be part-time funded through a collaborative project on Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture in Europe (SIPATH) to identify pathways to achieve a more sustainable agricultural land use in Europe. In later years, the tenure track candidate is supposed to develop her/his own research line through acquisition of external projects in the broader field of sustainable land use. In addition to research, the successful candidate will be teaching at Bachelor and Master levels within the field of environmental geography as well as supervising Master and Bachelor theses. Teaching and research at IVM are strongly linked, allowing for mutual cross-fertilization. While working closely with colleagues within the department, the candidate is also expected to engage in interdisciplinary research establishing collaborations with researchers from other scientific disciplines, such as economics, environmental governance, ecology, hydrology and climatology, in writing new project proposals. The research focus of the successful candidate should be complimentary to existing expertise in the department and may focus on the critical role of land use in achieving climate change mitigation and adaptation, e.g. through reforestation and agricultural transformation. The successful candidate should have excellent empirical and analytical skills, a strong record with quantitative (spatial) research methods and experience working on interdisciplinary research topics. The candidate should show academic leadership, maintain a high publication output, and raise competitive research funding.

Your duties:

• conduct and publish innovative research on sustainable land use
• initiate new research ideas and obtain external funding for these
• contribute to interdisciplinary research projects
• teach in BSc and MSc programmes; supervise BSc and MSc thesis projects
• recruit and co-supervise PhD researchers
• fulfil limited managerial duties at the department and institute level

Requirements:

• have a PhD degree and research experience in geography or land use research
• have a record of publishing research on relevant topics in high quality academic journals
• demonstrate a good understanding of and relevant experience in quantitative methods, spatial analysis and modelling in particular
• evidence of prior interdisciplinary research and collaborations
• have experience in acquiring and leading projects in the environmental geography domain
• have experience in academic teaching at bachelor and master levels

What are we offering?

A challenging position in a socially involved organization. The salary will be in accordance with university regulations for academic personnel and, depending on previous qualifications and experience, will range from a minimum of €3,637 to a maximum of €4,978 gross per month based on full-time employment (salary scale 11 in the collective labor agreement for Dutch universities).

The appointment will initially be for 5 or 6 years. After a satisfactory evaluation of the initial appointment following the Faculty tenure track criteria tenure may be granted. Additionally, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam offers excellent fringe benefits and various schemes and regulations to promote a good work/life balance, such as:

• a maximum of 41 days of annual leave based on full-time employment
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• solid pension scheme (ABP)
• contribution to commuting expenses