In het kort
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Department
Faculty of Science and Engineering
Organisation
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, University of Groningen, V25.0328
Job description
This PhD project at GELIFES, the University of Groningen, aims to characterize underwater soundscapes of fish and marine mammals to evaluate impacts of wind farms in the North Sea. The spatial planning and use of the North Sea over the next 30 years will be fundamentally shaped by a shift away from fossil (oil and gas) to renewable (primarily wind) energy. The Dutch Climate Act established a target of ≥ 49% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030 and 95% by 2050 (compared to 1990 emission levels). Realizing this transition will require continued expansion of energy from offshore wind farms (OWFs) from an estimated 4.5 GW in 2023 to 11.5 GW by 20301 satisfying 8.5% of the nation’s total energy requirement. Albeit necessary, these OWFs will create an unprecedented human footprint in the Dutch North Sea, and the environmental effects and economic impacts to other sectors such as fisheries of current and upscaled OWF installations remain largely unknown.
NO-REGRETS (North Sea Renewable Energy: Gaining the Required Ecological Knowledge for the Transition) is a six-year (2025-2031) project funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO-NWA ORC) which examines the ecological and economic trade-offs of upscaling Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs) in the context of climate change and the ongoing food and nature transitions in the North Sea. The project has an interdisciplinary consortium of world-class expertise from eight Dutch Universities, five Research Institutes and relevant societal stakeholders that play a major role in research and management of the North Sea. The six-year program (2025-2031) advances knowledge on potential impacts of OWFs on ocean currents, suspended sediments, microscopic plankton, various life stages of fishes, seabed composition, seafloor organisms, marine mammals, and sea birds. Economic analyses explore changes in the value of marine fisheries and other ocean assets. Co-developed with stakeholders, NO-REGRETS will create tools allowing policymakers, industries and other stakeholders to gauge and optimize the ecological and bioeconomic consequences of North Sea OWF expansion.
The announced PhD position focuses on foraging and life-cycle ecology of fish and marine mammals. The PhD will work on characterization of underwater soundscapes to evaluate impacts of wind farms on the behaviour of fish and marine mammals. A main task is to work on automated identification of biological sounds using passive acoustic data. Passive acoustic monitoring will be conducted with species identification based on a neural network trained and tuned to the turbulent waters of the North Sea. Existing automated detection algorithms will be used to identify seals and porpoises. The results will be used to create seasonal acoustic presence maps, investigate differences in community composition inside and outside wind farms and identify how OFWs impact the behaviour of different species groups. The research is a cooperation between Groningen and Leiden Universities, and the position is placed at Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life-Sciences, University of Groningen.
Organisation
Founded in 1614, the University of Groningen enjoys an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative institution of higher education offering high-quality teaching and research. Flexible study programmes and academic career opportunities in a wide variety of disciplines encourage the 34,000 students and researchers alike to develop their own individual talents. As one of the best research universities in Europe, the University of Groningen has joined forces with other top universities and networks worldwide to become a truly global centre of knowledge.
Requirements
The candidate will be based in the group of Prof. Eriksson (Marine Ecology Lab.) (https://www.rug.nl/staff/b.d.h.k.eriksson/research/), for a period of 48 months (1.0 FTE).
The candidate is expected to start the latest 1 November 2025
The PhD is expected to contribute to the organization of the larger project (NO-REGRETS) in terms of fieldwork, participation in consortium meetings, and to the analysis and writing of the shared output. The candidate is expected to contribute actively to the Marine Ecology Lab. Group and the Marine Biology cluster in Groningen.
The successful candidate should have
- A Master's degree (or equivalent) in ecology or a related field.
- High motivation in pursuing academic research.
- High and demonstrated English proficiency.
- Effective communication (both written and spoken in English) and collaboration abilities.
- Willingness to participate in ship-bound expeditions.
- Demonstrable time management skills.
Conditions of employment
Contract length: 48 months.
We offer you, following the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities
- A salary of € 2,901 gross per month in the first year, up to a maximum of € 3,707 gross per month in the fourth and final year, based on a full-time position (1.0 FTE).
- A holiday allowance of 8% gross annual income and an 8.3% year-end bonus.
- A position for four years: you will get a temporary position of one year with the option of renewal for another three years; prolongation of the contract is contingent on sufficient progress in the first year to indicate that a successful completion of the PhD thesis within the next three years is to be expected.
- A PhD training programme is part of the agreement and the successful candidate will be enrolled in the Graduate School of Science and Engineering.
Job Application
Application should include - Letter of motivation. - CV (including contact information for at least two academic references). - Transcripts from your bachelor’s and master’s degree. - Proof of written English text, preferably by Master Diploma taught in English or recent English language test; and Master thesis written in English. You can submit your application until 1 July 11:59 pm Dutch local time (CET) by means of the application form (click on "Apply" below on the advertisement on the university website). Applications received before 2 July 2025 will be given full consideration; however, the position will remain open until it is filled. The last starting date is 1 November 2025. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our University. We are committed to building a diverse faculty so you are encouraged to apply. Our selection procedure follows the guidelines of the Recruitment code (NVP), http://nvp-plaza.nl/download/?id=7714 and European Commission's European Code of Conduct for recruitment of researchers, https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/code Unsolicited marketing is not appreciated.
Additional information
For additional information, please contact:
Prof. dr. ir. Britas Klemens Eriksson
[email protected]
dr. Annebelle Kok
[email protected]
In your application, please always include the job opening ID V25.0328
Extra informatie kan worden verkregen via een van de volgende links:
Britas Klemens Eriksson, research group Annebelle Kok, research group
