Last application date Jul 01, 2024 00:00
Department EB21 - Department of Economics
Contract Limited duration
Degree Master's degree in economics, business economics, business engineering or a related Master of Science degree
Occupancy rate 100%
Vacancy type Research staff
The Department of Economics (Environmental Economics group) of Ghent University welcomes a candidate for a full time PhD position on sustainable consumption corridors, sufficiency, and the assessment of demand-side measures in environmental policies in the region of Flanders. The PhD student will be involved in the DEER project (Demand-side measures to Enhance well-being and foster Environmental footprint Reduction), involving academia, industry, governmental and non-governmental organizations, funded by FWO (Flanders).
To transition to a low-carbon circular economy, drastic carbon and material footprint reductions are necessary. The main strategies for these transitions have been focusing on the supply-side of the economy, for example stimulating technology development, technology improvements and efficiency gains. Demand-side measures focus on the consumption process of specific products by reducing, shifting or improving consumption. Thus far, these demand-side measures remain largely overlooked. However, according to the latest IPCC report, these demand-side measures have a very high potential to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions (40-70% in the field of housing, land transport and food). The DEER project will assess the impacts of specific demand-side measures in the field of thermal comfort and transport. For this, a specific carbon and material footprint target will be defined for these two systems to enable an absolute environmental sustainability assessment. These targets will be based on downscaled global or regional carbon and material footprint targets. The DEER project partners will quantify a minimal level of needs fulfilment for these two systems, leading towards the definition of sustainable consumption corridors. Subsequently, the costs and consumer acceptance of these measures will be studied within the project. Finally, DEER will result in specific policy recommendations on how to implement the demand-side measures in the field of thermal comfort and transport with the highest impact and the lowest cost, both from an economic as well as from a consumer behavioral point of view.
The main subobjectives of this PhD position are:
In this PhD position, you will work in close collaboration with colleagues at Ghent University in the Environmental Economics research group and with the other DEER partners in the Sustainable Systems Engineering (STEN) group of Ghent, and the Environmental Economics group and the Center for Social Sciences at Antwerp University. Furthermore, there is a diverse international advisory board (e.g., Vlaanderen Circulair, Flemish Government, VITO, Mobiel21, autodelen.net, IIASA, Bond Beter Leefmilieu, international professors from different disciplines …) to interact with. Part of the work can be done via teleworking.
The scientific findings should lead to publications in international peer reviewed journals and should be presented at international conferences.
The starting date is planned at October 1st 2024. The PhD candidate has four years to conduct his/her doctoral research that will be carried out under the supervision of prof. Brent Bleys and prof. Bart Defloor.
Candidates are expected to have a background in economics and an affinity for sustainability transitions in general, and sufficiency measures in particular. We are looking for candidates with a critical and analytical attitude and a sense of initiative.
Other profile requirements:
Additional positive points:
WHAT WE CAN OFFER YOU
Apply by sending ultimately July 1st (23:59) an email to Brent.Bleys@UGent.be as follows:
Mention in subject line: “DEER – Application name surname”.
Attach into 1 single pdf file:
Note that the maximum file size is 10 MB.
Selection procedure:
1. Preselection based on the provided documents.
2. Selection based on interviews (that will take place on July 4th or 5th)
As Ghent University maintains an equal opportunities and diversity policy, everyone is encouraged to apply for this position.
For more information about the content of this position, please contact Brent.Bleys@UGent.be.
Ghent University is one of the top 100 universities in the Dutch language area, with more than 44,000 students and 15,000 staff members.
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