PhD Position: Environmental Assessment of Green Hydrogen

1. Introduction

Do you want to contribute to greening our energy system? Do you enjoy environmental assessment and thinking in systems? If yes, then join our environmental science group for a 4-year PhD position focused on quantifying the climate impacts and benefits of green hydrogen. You will become part of a dynamic interdisciplinary team of researchers and a broader academic-industrial consortium to help develop a responsible and sustainable green hydrogen economy.

2. Job description

This PhD position is part of the Hy-SUCCES (Social, User aCCeptable, Economically Sustainable Systems for hydrogen) project within the NWO Groenvermogen NL programme. The project involves a broad consortium of universities, research institutes and industrial partners. It aims to analyse the socioeconomic and environmental factors that influence the role of hydrogen in a sustainable energy system, and to remove barriers and put enabling factors in place to deploy hydrogen at the desired scale.

Your research at Radboud University will contribute to these aims by looking at the environmental impacts of green hydrogen production and use, both in the Netherlands and globally. You will use prospective life-cycle assessment to determine climate footprints, accounting for all emissions of the production, transport, and various end-uses. The prospective element allows assessment of technologies that are still in development (e.g. electrolysers, transport modes). You will consider different hydrogen end-uses and look at climate-optimal ways of using hydrogen. Furthermore, using scenarios, model-outcomes and learning curves of consortium partners you will evaluate the climate benefits and wider environmental impacts of green hydrogen when scaled up by 2030 and 2050.

Aside from generic skills such as writing, presenting and solid scientific teamwork, this position will enable you to (further) develop your skills in environmental assessment, life-cycle assessment, systems thinking, modelling and coding. You will work on a set of technologies that is expected to play a key role in transitioning away from fossil fuels and mitigating climate change. And since it is currently insufficiently clear what the environmental impacts of hydrogen technologies are, you will help answer a crucial question: how to assess and ensure that green hydrogen is  truly green.

You will collaborate with an interdisciplinary team of experts at the academic forefront of environmental assessment of new technologies and their system-level consequences. You will generate results with direct sustainability impacts on society through cooperation with consortium partners. You will have opportunities to take various courses, and you will contribute about 10% of your working time to our teaching activities on environmental sustainability.

Would you like to learn more about what it’s like to pursue a PhD at Radboud University? Visit the page about working as a PhD candidate.

3. Profile

• You hold an MSc degree in environmental science, energy science, environmental engineering, industrial ecology, or one of the natural sciences.
• You have experience with life-cycle assessment.
• You have experience with integrated environmental assessment and/or systems thinking.
• You have an excellent command of written and spoken English.
• You enjoy collaborative research with societal impact.

4. We are

The mission of the Environmental Science Department is to provide high-quality scientific knowledge that can help the world move towards greater sustainability. To achieve this, we aim to understand, project and address the impact of anthropogenic pressures on ecosystems and humans from the landscape to the global scale. This enables us to explore and develop wide-ranging sustainable solutions for the environmental challenges the world faces today.

The Environmental Science group is embedded in the Radboud Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences (RIBES), which aims to perform world leading research to understand the response of the natural environment to human impact. This curiosity-driven, fundamental research is cross-linked with innovative applications in both industry and society with a focus on mitigating ecosystem degradation and finding solutions to restore the natural environment. In addition to developing world-class research, the institute is dedicated to first-rate education in its Biology BSc, MSc and international PhD programmes.

5. We offer

• We will give you a temporary employment contract (1.0 FTE) of 1,5 years, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, your contract will be extended by 2.5 years (4-year contract).     
• You will receive a starting salary of €2,901 gross per month based on a 38-hour working week, which will increase to €3,707 in the fourth year (salary scale P).
• You will receive extra days off. With full-time employment, you can choose between 30 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the statutory 20. 

6. Practical information and applying

You can apply only via the button below. Address your letter of application to Steef Hanssen. In the application form, you will find which documents you need to include with your application.

The first interviews will take place on Monday 24 March. You will preferably start your employment on as soon as possible.

We can imagine you're curious about our application procedure. It describes what you can expect during the application procedure and how we handle your personal data and internal and external candidates.