Postdoc in Urban Greening Without Borders

**Introduction**:
The Erasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences is intensifying research in the fields of urban greening and sustainability initiatives, which are core pillar themes within research, education and impact/engagement. Are you a social scientist with a PhD degree, come join our school as a postdoctoral researcher. At Erasmus University Rotterdam we offer interdisciplinary and engagement-driven research and education in a dynamic and inspiring working environment.

**Job description**:
As a postdoc researcher will be contributing to the Europeand project, research and engagement/impact in the area of urban greening and sustainability initiatives, with the city of Rotterdam, district Oud Mathenesse as a special target area. Like cities across Europe, Rotterdam is facing significant environmental challenges. As a port city, Rotterdam has numerous, linked water challenges: a decrease in soil sealing, rising water levels, a year-on-year increase in rainfall, all of which have resulted in significant risks and impacts, like a continual decline in the quantity and variety of native flora and fauna in urban surroundings.

Rotterdam aspires to develop more and more effective green space to address and cope with environmental challenges. Furthermore, from the population perspective, residents in numerous districts are underserved by public green space and there an increasing need for such space due to an expanding population. However, with 60% of land being privately owned, the ability of traditional public greening approaches to generate sufficient impact is limited. The greening approach needs to go beyond traditional policy approaches, and needs to be more collaborative and inclusive, opening opportunity for participation and community initiatives by (groups of) residensts and private owners Thus, the project “Greening Without Borders” takes an integrative, holistic and neighborhood approach, focusing on both the public-private land challenge and the need for a fully integrated solution that addresses the interlinked environmental, social and economic factors at play.

The postdoctoral research is embedded in the European project “Greening without Borders” and will be specicailly focused on monitoring the whole research project regarding the social, economic and environment approach and impact of the project in the neigborhood Oud Mathenesse, city Rotterdam. The project will be designed and implementated in close collaboration with residents of the neighborhood and the city government of Rotterdam. The collaborative aspect will therefore also be an important part of the monitoring.

The core tasks of the postdoc researcher include:

- Participating in the European Project “Greening without Borders” from a social and behavorial sciences perspective, with close attention to inclusion of (social, economic, environmental) values of the residents and other stakeholders.
- Monitoring of the social, economic and environmental values and aspects to developing greening ambitions and initiatives for the neighbourhood.
- Participating in teaching in one or more of our programs at Bachelor’s and Master’s level at the department of public administration and sociology (DPAS). Teaching involves individual supervision of research internships and theses and workgroups.
- Participating in the research programs of the school as well in the team of Governance & Pluralism in the department.
- Publishing research findings in (high impact) international scientific journals.
- Contributing to and developing further the collaboration with actors in the city and region of Rotterdam.

**Job requirements**:
The following job requirements apply:

- A PhD degree in a relevant discipline (Public Administration, Sociology, Social Psychology, or related).
- Preferably experience with both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
- Experience with and committed to engaged, impact-driven research, especially community-driven research and action research.
- Experience with project and program monitoring and evaluation.
- Familiar with the literature on program evaluation and monitoring tools, urban greening, community-based research approach and urban governance.
- Ability to, and preferably experience with, acquire external research funding.
- Motivated to contribute to open and responsivle science.
- Excellent communication skills, team player, development-oriented.
- Experience with interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research.
- Excellent proficiency in Dutch and English (both at least at level C1 of the Common European Framework).

**Employment conditions and benefits**:
We offer you an internationally oriented and varied job in an enthusiastic team, with excellent working conditions in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU).

The start date of this position is 1 December 2024 (but can also be a bit later) and you will be based at Campus Woudestein, Erasmus S