Dear Colleagues,

I am looking to hire a PhD student, for a 4-year term (15 months trial 
period) starting in the Fall of 2023. You can find the advertisement 
attached to this message, and I pasted it below. Questions can be posed to 
me directly. Many thanks in advance for sharing!

Kind regards, Lisanne


*PhD position: ‘The Functions of Multilateral Environmental Agreements: 
Beyond Effectiveness as Implementation’*


*Deadline *4 June 2023

* Location *Heerlen, the Netherlands

 

JOB DESCRIPTION

Are you ready for the start of your academic career? Do you want to become 
part of an enthusiastic group of colleagues, who seek to push the 
boundaries of environmental knowledge and teach in the highest graded 
educational programmes in the Netherlands? Do you have the right skills to 
do cutting-edge research in an interdisciplinary setting? Then apply for a 
PhD position in the project ‘The Functions of Multilateral Environmental 
Agreements: Beyond Effectiveness as Implementation’ at the Department of 
Environmental Sciences at the Open Universiteit.

Today, we are faced with pressing global environmental problems, of which 
climate change and biodiversity loss are key. To tackle these problems, 
rule setting at the international level is of great importance. That is why 
many multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) have been put in place 
over the past 50 years. Think of the United Nations Framework Convention on 
Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Paris Agreement, and the Convention on 
Biological Diversity (CBD), for example.

However, MEAs are often criticised for not being effective enough. 
Biodiversity loss is progressing at alarming rates and climate change is 
far from under control. Still, practically all MEAs once created continue 
to exist, including the CBD and UNFCCC, and regularly new ones are added. 
It is therefore important to look beyond effectiveness and improve our 
understanding of other functions of MEAs such as facilitating learning, 
involving stakeholders, establishing order by assigning roles to actors, 
identifying emerging issues and framing them, or symbolic functions.

In this PhD project, you will scrutinise various MEAs to identify their 
functions and to answer the questions of how and why these functions came 
about. With the results of this research, you will contribute important new 
insights to the academic literature on global environmental governance. 
Moreover, you will also provide the necessary policy recommendations for 
those working in MEA secretariats or as country negotiators, stimulating 
reflection on their work, which could lead to improvements of 
organisational routines.

The project will involve conducting a (systematic) literature review, 
building a theoretical framework, studying a list of all MEAs (including 
those under negotiation) and selecting those to look at in greater detail. 
Methods to apply can be both qualitative and quantitative (e.g. case 
studies, process tracing, qualitative comparative analysis, surveys, text 
mining, etc.). 

As a PhD researcher in this project, you will be able to contribute to 
broader academic and societal debates on the role that global environmental 
governance could and should play in the various systems transitions that 
have to be realised, in terms of energy, nature, agriculture, water, 
infrastructure, health, etc. In this context, we need to know more about 
what MEAs do and don’t do and why, and that is what you can find out!

*Tasks*

The PhD candidate will:

   - engage in supervised scientific research that will ultimately result 
   in a doctoral thesis; 
   - participate in the relevant activities of the “Innovating for 
   Resilience” programme and the Department of Environmental Sciences; 
   - participate in the organisation of scientific and practice-oriented 
   events (workshops, conferences), in close collaboration with the 
   supervisors; 
   - follow a tailor-made course programme for PhD-candidates of the OU 
   Graduate School and the National Research School SENSE; 
   - publish research results in the form of conference papers, 
   contributions to peer-reviewed scientific journals, as well as through 
   popular publications and presentations. 

REQUIREMENTS

Candidates must:

   - have a Master’s degree in a relevant field: political science, 
   international relations, environmental governance, international 
   environmental law, or the like; 
   - have experience with or a strong interest in multilateral 
   environmental agreements and their effectiveness, (systematic) literature 
   review, case study research, process tracing, qualitative comparative 
   analysis, surveys, text mining; 
   - be able to demonstrate excellent scientific writing and communication 
   skills, as well as relevant collaborative and social skills; 
   - have experience working in an interdisciplinary team; 
   - be fluent in English (spoken and in writing). 

Applicants must be strongly motivated for doctoral studies, possess the 
ability to work independently and perform critical analysis and also 
possess good levels of cooperative and communicative abilities. Teaching 
experience and publications are not required but are considered an 
advantage if the candidate can demonstrate experience in these areas.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

*Fixed-term* contract: for a period of 15 months. The appointment will be 
extended to 4 years when progress and performance are good.

The salary is determined in accordance with salary scale P of Appendix A of 
the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities and amounts to € 
2.541,= gross per month upon commencement, in case of full employment.

The Open Universiteit provides good secondary benefits such as training, 
mobility, part-time employment and paid parental leave.

EMPLOYER

*The Open Universiteit*

*Flexible studying anywhere in the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium)*
The Open Universiteit is the part-time university in the Netherlands. 
Students follow personalised and activating academic distance education and 
disciplinary research is carried out within the various fields of science. 
Students can complete bachelor and master programmes, but also shorter 
programmes. The characteristics of education are openness, flexibility and 
quality (see www.ou.nl/rankings). The Open Universiteit has over 17,000 
students and more than 750 employees. The OU has branches in the 
Netherlands and Belgium (see www.ou.nl/studiecentra). The main office is 
located in Heerlen. The latest technologies and educational insights are 
applied both in the bachelor's and master's programmes and courses and in 
projects and programmes with partners. Nationally and internationally, the 
OU plays an important role in the innovation of higher education. Education 
is interwoven with research, which also ensures that the current state of 
science is incorporated. The Open Universiteit invests not only in 
disciplinary research in nine scientific fields, but also in research in a 
multidisciplinary programme: Innovating for resilience.

FACULTY & DEPARTMENT

*Faculty of Science*

The faculty of Science is one of the six faculties of the Open 
Universiteit. Education, research and valorisation are the main tasks. The 
faculty offers academic bachelor and master programmes in the fields of 
Computer Science, Information Science and Environmental Sciences. The 
faculty’s research programme focuses on Innovating for Resilience. 
Furthermore, the faculty is partner in the Center for Actionable Research 
of the OU (CAROU). The faculty has PhD students who conduct research on 
various current topics within the research programme. As a result of the 
interdisciplinary focus on education and research, as well as the close 
link with practice, work at our faculty provides many innovative and 
challenging opportunities for entrepreneurial researchers.

*Department of Environmental Sciences*
The Department of Environmental Sciences is part of the Faculty of Science. 
The Department embodies the commitment of the Open Universiteit to 
excellence in the environmental sciences, science for impact, and lifelong 
learning in the sustainability domain. The Department brings together 
people working on integrated environmental modelling, sustainability 
learning, and environmental governance and has about 20 team members. The 
research of the Department aims to contribute to the understanding of 
social-ecological systems, the development of solutions for environmental 
issues, and to the wider body of knowledge that helps societies reach their 
sustainability goals.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

For more information about this vacancy you can contact: Dr. Lisanne Groen, 
e-mail: lisanne.gr...@ou.nl.

NOTICE: please note that the email address mentioned above is provided for 
obtaining information about this vacancy.

For additional information about the OU and the Faculty of Science, you can 
visit our websites https://www.ou.nl/ and 
https://www.ou.nl/en/faculteit-betawetenschappen. For more information 
regarding the Department of Environmental Sciences, see: 
https://www.ou.nl/en/onderzoek-natuurwetenschappen.

 

*Ms. Lisanne Groen PhD* | Assistant Professor

*Open Universiteit | Environmental Sciences*

*Visiting address*: Valkenburgerweg 177 (MK 3.34), Heerlen

*Mail address*: Postbus 2960, 6401 DL, Heerlen, the Netherlands

*E* lisanne.gr...@ou.nl

*Publications: *Re-examining policy stability in climate adaptation through 
a lock-in perspective 
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13501763.2022.2064535> 

*The Making of ‘Environmentalism’ as an International Norm * 
<https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/5IWNKVZKKPR3BSJDSPHI/full?target=10.1080/03932729.2023.2196797>

Researchgate 
<https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fresearchgate.net%2Fprofile%2FLisanne_Groen&data=05%7C01%7Cmilan.elkerbout%40ceps.eu%7Ca057daa027a14c6e2ee908dab55fbdc8%7Ca3f6b4024be2499f865362bf541589e2%7C0%7C0%7C638021720063656789%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=eA338jIMBEVLuC6VyJdO9jHXwKh1k3us7yiFt3iDxg8%3D&reserved=0>
 – Google Scholar 
<https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com%2Fcitations%3Fuser%3DkkE3SX0AAAAJ%26hl%3Den&data=05%7C01%7Cmilan.elkerbout%40ceps.eu%7Ca057daa027a14c6e2ee908dab55fbdc8%7Ca3f6b4024be2499f865362bf541589e2%7C0%7C0%7C638021720063656789%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=gREic79A7YZ%2FvMXOldbZGmMF3AFk%2FionY3inUXMzPHc%3D&reserved=0>
 – ‘Adapt Lock-in’ 
<https://eur04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fadaptlockin.eu%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cmilan.elkerbout%40ceps.eu%7Ca057daa027a14c6e2ee908dab55fbdc8%7Ca3f6b4024be2499f865362bf541589e2%7C0%7C0%7C638021720063656789%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=xZgDf0rRTusxU45X8qBoKd7GPJvj6XFWKra%2BEyRSQ%2Fs%3D&reserved=0>

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