"PhD candidate for the project The Governance of Energy Hub Platforms"

Job Description

Are you interested in exploring how firms can collectively contribute to decentralized, sustainable energy systems? Are you curious about how digital platforms connect businesses with distributed energy resources to enable energy sharing, reduce grid congestion, and enhance sustainability? Are you motivated to investigate the governance arrangements that make these platforms work in practice and the factors influencing them? Are you eager to advance academic knowledge and make practical contributions to the energy transition? If so, this PhD position offers you the opportunity to investigate these questions as part of the SYNERGY project, a collaborative research project funded by NWO.

The SYNERGY project brings together a large consortium of researchers from multiple Dutch universities and knowledge institutes and several societal partners. Together, the consortium investigates the role of social dynamics in the energy transition.

Within the SYNERGY project, the PhD project will contribute to work package 2, “Decentralized energy systems and SMEs: governing energy hub platforms”. The transition to a decentralized, sustainable energy system depends on collective energy solutions involving groups of business end-users. One such solution is the energy hub, a smartly controlled, decentralized energy system established in a business park, where multiple companies coordinate the generation, storage, and consumption of renewable energy. To make this coordination possible, digital platforms play a crucial role. They connect the businesses within the hub to distributed energy resources, enabling energy sharing, reducing grid congestion, and enhancing sustainability.

The PhD project will focus on the governance models adopted for energy hub platforms. These include decision-making processes, coordination mechanisms, and the allocation of roles and risks among participating actors. The project consists of addressing the following main research questions:

• How do social dynamics internal to the energy hub influence the governance model adopted for the hub’s platform?
• How do local governments influence decisions regarding the governance of the energy hub platform?
• What is the impact of platform governance on the implementation of the energy hub?

The project’s partners will facilitate connections with energy hubs in Noord-Brabant and other regions in the Netherlands.

In this role, you will contribute to both academic knowledge and practical impact. Tasks for this PhD project include:

• Reviewing existing literature to inform research questions and theoretical frameworks;
• Executing data collection and analysis;
• Writing three high-quality research papers fit for international scientific journals (as part of a paper-based doctoral thesis);
• Co-developing decision-making tools based on your research to support stakeholders involved in energy hubs;
• Co-organizing one or more workshops that bring together academics and practitioners to discuss your findings and develop practical tools;
• Actively participating in academic conferences, consortium meetings, joint research activities and workshops;
• Leading knowledge exchange activities with academic and societal partners;
• Contributing to the activities of the university-wide Academic Collaborative Center for Climate and Energy at Tilburg University.

You will be supervised by Dr. Francesca Ciulli (Tilburg University), with co-supervision from Prof. Anna Wieczorek (Eindhoven University of Technology) and Dr. Christina Bidmon (Utrecht University).

As a PhD candidate, you will be embedded in the Department of Organization Studies at Tilburg University, where researchers examine the adaptiveness of organizations from a relational perspective, with sustainability and digitalization as key themes. In addition, you will be affiliated with the University-wide Academic Collaborative Center on Climate and Energy, which brings together researchers and societal partners to address challenges related to climate change and the energy transition. You will also regularly visit the co-supervisors’ institutions, i.e., Eindhoven University of Technology and Utrecht University.

You will have access to a wide network of academics, policymakers, and practitioners, and work in a supportive, inspiring, and collaborative research environment.

Requirements

For this position, we are looking for a researcher who:

• Has completed or is about to complete a relevant MSc. degree in Organization Studies, Management, Business Administration, Public Governance, Data Science, Transition Studies, or a related discipline;
• Is interested in questions related to inter-organizational collaboration, coordination and governance;
• Has excellent verbal and written communication skills, both in Dutch and in English at CEFR language level C2;
• Has excellent qualitative research skills and data analytical abilities;
• Is eager to learn from and collaborate with researchers and practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds;
• Is proactive, can work independently, and brings creativity and vision to their work;
• Has excellent project management and organization skills.

Knowledge in areas that are relevant to the PhD project (e.g., digitalization, energy transition, governance, inter-organizational collaboration) is an asset but not required.

Conditions of Employment

For this position we offer:

• A position based on 1 FTE (40 hours per week);
• A salary of €3,059 gross per month in the first year, up to €3,881 gross per month in the fourth year;
• This is a vacancy for a temporary position. You will initially receive a temporary contract for 12 months, followed by a new fixed-term contract of 36 months if suitable;
• Vacation pay of 8% and a year-end bonus of 8.3%;
• Over 8 weeks of vacation leave;
• Hybrid working with home working allowance and internet allowance;
• Reimbursement for sustainable commuting;
• Options model for additional leave, pension, a bicycle or personal training;
• Budget for participation to academic conferences and trainings;
• Moving allowance (subject to conditions);
• Employees from outside the Netherlands may be eligible for a tax-free allowance of 30% of their taxable wages;
• A pension with ABP;
• Training in personal development, career development, leadership, education, and research;
• A work culture in which we embrace differences, everyone is welcome and given equal opportunities;
• A vibrant campus in green surroundings that is easily accessible by public transport.