PhD Position on the policy design of smart grid implementation trajectories in municipalities

University of Twente

Location: Enschede

Function types: PhD positions

Scientific fields: Economics, Law, Behaviour and Society

Hours: 38.0 hours per week

Salary: € 2083 - € 2664

Education: University Graduate

Job number: 647143
PhD Position on the policy design of smart grid implementation trajectories in municipalities

Job description
We are seeking a PhD candidate (4 year terms) to join in a NWO-funded project on the development of advanced policy design tools for smart grid implementation trajectories in municipalities.

The project is part of a joint multidisciplinary research program on smart rules for smart grids (SmaRds) between the University of Twente (Public Administration) and the University of Groningen (Law). The program aims to create an integrated regime that addresses two behavioural uncertainties that impede smart grid developments: the legal design of emerging organisational settings in Smart Grids configurations and the policy design of Smart Grids implementation trajectories in municipalities. The transition to a Smart Energy System (SES) requires an innovative legal and organisational regime when local energy systems are designed, maintained or adapted. We expect SES deployment to have a bottom-up character, in view of 1: the continued popularity of local energy initiatives in the Netherlands and 2: the potential of energy efficiency gains of neighbourhood renovation projects in residential areas in combination with smart grid deployment. Local authorities are responsible for physical planning and area development, but there is no clear knowledge based regime on these responsibilities in combination with smart grid design and implementation. The program fills this gap by developing and testing the legal design for smart grid deployment in real life situations (the law oriented Groningen project) in combination with the policy design for construction and renovation at the local level, ( the public administration oriented Twente project) as an integrated package.

Requirements
You should ideally have :

a master’s degree in Public Administration, (Public) Law, Policy Science, Political Science, Sociology, Economics, Science & Technology or Transition Studies;
strong research skills in both qualitative and quantitative research methods;
affinity with multidisciplinary research;
knowledge in the field of smart energy systems and technologies is an advantage;
fluency in Dutch and English. Knowledge of the Dutch language (written and spoken) is required because of the communication with the local authorities in The Netherlands.

Conditions of employment
As a PhD candidate you will be appointed in a full-time position for a period of four years, at the end of which you must have completed your PhD thesis. The gross monthly salary for a PhD increases from € 2.083,- in the first year to € 2.664,- in the final year (in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities). In addition, the University of Twente offers additional attractive employment conditions.

The PhD candidate will join the CSTM department at the School of Management and Governance of the University of Twente, which offers a multidisciplinary inspiring environment. The PhD candidate will also closely collaborate with the project partner of legal scientist at the University of Groningen and representatives of local energy initiatives in Gelderland and Overijssel as well as with municipalities in both provinces.

Application and information
To apply for this position, please use the link below and include your cover letter, resume and list of publications (if applicable) before April 15th, 2014. For more information on this position please contact Dr. Maarten Arentsen e-mail: m.j.arentsen@utwente.nl, telephone: +31 53 489 5772/+31 6 456 960 84 web: http://www.utwente.nl/mb/cstm/staff/cv/arentsen/

Organisation
The University of Twente. We stand for life sciences and technology. High tech and human touch. Education and research that matter. New technology which drives change, innovation and progress in society. The University of Twente is the only campus university in the Netherlands; divided over six faculties we provide more than fifty educational programmes. The University of Twente has a strong focus on personal development and talented researchers are given scope for carrying out pioneering research.

The School of Management and Governance (SMG) strives to hold a leading position in the field of business and social sciences and to do joint education and research with the technical schools of the University of Twente. The school focuses on management, governance, innovation, technology and entrepreneurship. In all these fields, the school provides bachelor, master and professional development programmes. In addition, scientific and applied research is carried out in various branches, such as health care, higher education, banking, and services business. Research is accommodated within the university research institutes: The Institute for Governance Studies (IGS), and the Centre for Telematics and Information Technology (CTIT). The school has approximately 350 staff and 2,200 students.