PhD position: Transforming Dutch Agriculture at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM)

Job Description:

Latest job information from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) for the position of PhD position: Transforming Dutch Agriculture. If the PhD position: Transforming Dutch Agriculture vacancy in Utrecht matches your qualifications, please submit your latest application or CV directly through the updated Jobkos job portal.

Please note that applying for a job may not always be easy, as new candidates must meet certain qualifications and requirements set by the company. We hope the career opportunity at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) for the position of PhD position: Transforming Dutch Agriculture below matches your qualifications.

Do you want to engage with farmers, policymakers, and other stakeholders to find solutions to the Dutch agri‑environmental challenges? Are you eager to learn from practice and theory, and see your insights applied in a significant transition program? If this sounds intriguing, you’re in luck – we’re hiring a PhD candidate for an exciting position at Utrecht University!

Your job

Dutch agriculture is under enormous pressure to change. While the sector has been successful in producing large volumes of food over the past two generations, it struggles to meet its modern challenges: it drives biodiversity decline, contributes to climate change, puts pressure on water quality and quantity, and consumes too many scarce resources and fossil fuels. Farmers in this system struggle to earn a decent livelihood for their families and face increasing regulatory constraints and societal expectations. This situation is created by institutional, economic and political lock‑ins.

Regenerative agriculture is a new paradigm that aims to create a farming sector with positive externalities. By creating farming systems in balance with local soil, landscapes and communities, regenerative agriculture can restore healthy relations between farmer, nature and society. In the Netherlands, the National Growth Fund program ReGeNL has been launched to transform 1,000 Dutch conventional farms into regenerative farms over the next seven years.

A core ambition of our research project is to work towards better conditions to enable this transformation. Currently, governance arrangements, administrations, organisational and finance models are not designed to facilitate this transformation, even though transitions theory indicates that the pressures mentioned above should precipitate such changes. Decision makers and policymakers struggle to implement regulations and incentive structures to support farmers. Moreover, research on agency in agri‑food transitions has tended to neglect these key non‑farmer actors. Changing all this requires evidence for new institutions and business models, a mindset shift to let go of what no longer works, and novel conceptual insights. This is where you come in!

The aim of this PhD is to understand how Dutch farming can be transformed into a regenerative sector, and to co‑create solutions with local stakeholders in “living labs” to make this a reality. You will be working in a transdisciplinary team of researchers and practitioners who you will support with your insights, and who will support you in designing and carrying out your research. Specific topics include an inventory of success factors and barriers for regenerative farming business models; designing transition pathways that match diverse farm types; and a transition plan to redesign the Dutch agricultural system towards regenerative outcomes.

Your tasks

• design a research plan in line with the aims and key topics of the ReGeNL program;
• carry out desk and field research;
• engage and learn with a variety of stakeholders in the Dutch agricultural system;
• write a dissertation composed of publishable scientific work.

Job Info:

• Company: Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM)
• Position: PhD position: Transforming Dutch Agriculture
• Work Location: Utrecht
• Country: NL

How to Submit an Application:

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