Phd Esg-based Decision-making for Customer Portfolio Management

**Key takeaways**:
- Hours
- 38 hr.- Salary indication- Salary gross/monthly
based on full-time- € 2,901 - € 3,707- Deadline
- 30 Jun 2025

Insurance companies play a key role in financial markets—not by generating direct monetary value, but by underwriting and managing risk. Through the design and management of insurance portfolios, they help shape value creation and carry a growing responsibility to consider Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors. As regulatory, societal, and market pressures mount, insurers face a clear need to integrate ESG considerations into their decision-making processes—not just in risk selection, but also in pricing, underwriting, and portfolio optimization.

Despite the growing relevance of ESG in insurance, there is no widely adopted, data-driven framework that integrates ESG metrics into customer portfolio decision-making. Current practices are typically qualitative and ad hoc, which limits comparability and transparency across clients, especially in commercial insurance contexts. This PhD project aims to develop a structured and scalable decision framework that leverages AI to incorporate measurable ESG indicators alongside traditional financial risk factors. The envisioned framework will be dynamic, allowing ESG factors to be weighted and adjusted in response to evolving business priorities or regulatory demands, and will offer explainability to support both operational use and strategic planning.

On the customer side, the research will focus on how ESG indicators can be meaningfully embedded into portfolio assessments and risk models. For instance, should a construction firm that actively reduces its environmental impact be treated more favourably than one with a higher emissions profile, even if both present similar financial risk? Addressing such multi-criteria decision-making scenarios is key for ensuring that insurance offerings not only reflect financial performance but also incentivize sustainable practices among commercial clients.

At the same time, ESG decision-making also applies internally within insurance companies. For example, migrating to cloud-based infrastructure for storing insurance policies can enhance operational efficiency, yet it also increases energy consumption in data centers—elevating the company's carbon footprint through electricity usage and data redundancy. By developing a structured, quantitative, and scalable ESG framework, this project will support insurance companies in evaluating both external and internal ESG trade-offs, enabling a shift from intuition-based decisions to transparent, evidence-based sustainability strategies.

The desired start date for this position is 1 September 2025.



**Your profile**:

- You have a master's degree in Engineering, Finance, Econometrics, Data Science, Business Analytics, Sustainability, Risk Management, or a related field;
- You have interest in sustainability, social impact, and the role of accounting in measuring this impact;
- You have experience and/or willing to learn quantitative modelling, risk assessment, and ESG evaluation;
- Experience with data-driven decision-making tools and frameworks is an asset;
- Proficiency in data analysis tools (e.g., python, R, SQL, Power BI or similar);
- You are an excellent team-player in an enthusiastic group of scientists and practitioners from different backgrounds;
- You are fluent in English, preferable also in Dutch.

**Our offer**:
A full-time, 4-year PhD position is available. We offer excellent mentorship in a stimulating research environment with excellent facilities. Additionally, we provide a personal development program within the Twente Graduate School, following the terms of employment outlined in the Dutch Collective Labour Agreement for Universities (CAO).
- Gross monthly salary of € 2.901 in the first year, increasing each year up to € 3.707 in the fourth year;
- Excellent benefits including a holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary, an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%, and a solid pension scheme;
- 29 holidays per year in case of full-time employment;
- A training programme as part of the Twente Graduate School where you and your supervisors will determine a plan for a suitable education and supervision;
- A green campus with free access to sports facilities and an international scientific community;
- A family-friendly institution;
- As an employee at the UT, you will receive a full status, which includes pension, health care benefits, and good secondary conditions. This is all covered under our collective labour agreement CAO-NU for Dutch universities.

**Required Documents**

2. A Curriculum Vitae, including a list of all courses attended and grades obtained, and, if applicable, a list of publications and references.
3. An IELTS-test, Internet TOEFL test (TOEFL-iBT), or a Cambridge CAE-C (CPE). Applicants with a non-Dutch qualification and who have not had secondary and tertiary education in English can only be admitted w