PhD Position: SPINES Project - Shared Pathways for Cross-Sectoral Long-Term Strategies

1. Introduction

Are you interested in helping to realise long-term sustainable futures and solve short-term challenges? Do you have a keen analytical eye as well as the social skills to connect people? Are you ready to challenge and develop yourself in a cross-sector collaboration with infrastructure providers and societal partners? Then the PhD position on ’Shared Pathways for Cross-Sectoral Long-Term Strategies’ is just the thing for you.

2. Job description

Radboud University is looking for a PhD candidate to work on ‘Shared Pathways for Cross-Sectoral Long-Term Strategies’. The position is part of the NWO-NG INFRA-funded SPINES project. The SPINES project is a collaboration between Radboud University, the University of Twente, University of Groningen, Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, the main infrastructure providers in the Netherlands (Rijkswaterstaat, ProRail, Vitens, Alliander, Port of Rotterdam and Schiphol Amsterdam Airport), and various societal partners.

Vision making and long-term planning often happen in silos leading to misalignment of infrastructure organisations’ future strategies. Apart from this creating problems given the scarcity in capacity of infrastructure, people and space, this leads to strategies or decisions that conflict and might not be the best for a sustainable, broad welfare society. Moreover, vision making often happens without explicitly focusing on current short-term demands and conflicting aims/values of the actors involved. This misalignment between infrastructure organisations’ aims in the short- and long-term results in non-durable decisions.

As a PhD candidate, you will develop novel cross-sectoral collaborative governance approaches to co-create dynamic adaptive pathways for several cases in the Netherlands. Such pathways create impact through the iterative co-development of a shared transformative long-term vision and its translation into current short-term demands. As part of this, you will:

1. Help us understand and compare the long-term visions of different infrastructure organisations and co-develop an aligned and shared vision in the form of adaptive pathways for each infrastructure organisation. These cross-sectoral pathways take into account what happens now and in relation to short-term demands and challenges.
2. Support infrastructure organisations with strategies on how to select pathways/decision-making, together with other infrastructure organisations.

For more information on this PhD position, please consult Sander Lenferink.

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 should hold a Master's degree in spatial planning, urban and regional studies, policy and systems analysis, strategy and decision-making, infrastructure management and operations, or a related field.
• You have a strong interest in visioning and strategy, complex problem-solving, and decision support.
• You have demonstrable strong analytical and methodological skills, and the ability to conduct participatory and action-oriented research.
• You have knowledge of, and preferably research experience with, facilitated group decision-making.
• You have an excellent command of written and spoken English. There is a strong preference for candidates that also are able to speak Dutch (or have a demonstrated willingness to learn this language).
• You have the ability to work independently and in a team (i.e. a willingness to interact intensively with your academic colleagues and societal partners).
• You have demonstrable experience and skills related to working with people in the field of spatial planning and/or infrastructure management and operations.

4. We are

The Nijmegen School of Management (NSM) enables students, institutions and companies, societal actors and governments to play their part in a transformation towards sustainable societies. In doing so, the faculty is committed to Radboud University's mission of contributing to a healthy, free world with equal opportunities for all.

In the context of our 'Responsible governance for sustainable societies' mission, we address scientific and societal challenges from a good governance perspective. Our work focuses on the topics Beyond Economy, Climate, Inclusivity, Safety, and Democracy. By building, questioning and extending the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), we acknowledge their interrelatedness and focus on a number of grand challenges within society. We contribute to innovation and sustainable growth on topics such as inequality, gender, decent work and poverty. Furthermore, we address environmental and climate challenges, seeking to contribute towards resolving them.

At the Nijmegen School of Management, academic research and teaching are carried out in challenging educational programmes. These programmes are offered in the areas of Business Administration; Economics and Business Economics; Geography, Planning and Environment; Political Science; and Public Administration. Academic research takes place within the Institute for Management Research (IMR). Research is carried out within the above-mentioned domains and in interdisciplinary research groups: the Hotspots. The Nijmegen School of Management currently has 400 FTE staff and around 5,000 students.

The intended thesis supervisors are Dr S. Lenferink and Dr H. Kooij. This PhD project will be conducted at Spatial Planning, Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Institute of Management Research, Radboud University. The project will be conducted in close collaboration with the academic and societal partners, also those involved in the other SPINES PhD projects on (a) ‘Infrastructure Managers as Institutional Entrepreneurs’ (University of Groningen), and (b) ‘Modelling Shared Pathways and Tipping Dynamics’ (University of Twente).

The project is embedded within the Institute of Management Research of NSM in the context of other infrastructure strategy and management studies. You will become a member of the Graduate School, and will be expected to attend relevant courses and activities and engage in some minor teaching activities.

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 €3,059 gross per month based on a 38-hour working week, which will increase to €€3,881 from the fourth year onwards (salary scale P).
• You will receive an 8% holiday allowance and an 8,3% end-of-year bonus. 
• We offer Dual Career Coaching. The Dual Career Coaching assists your partner via support, tools, and resources to improve their chances of independently finding employment in the Netherlands. 
• 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 Sander Lenferink. In the application form, you will find which documents you need to include with your application.

The first interviews will take place (early) in the week of 22 September. Any second interview will take place (late) in the week of 29 September. You will preferably start your employment on 1 November 2025.

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.