"PhD: Collaborative Innovation and Implementation in the Energy Transition"

The KIN Center for Digital Innovation at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam invites applications for a fully funded, four-year PhD position on collaborative innovation and implementation in the energy transition.

The energy transition increasingly depends on effective collaboration among diverse actors—citizens, municipalities, energy cooperatives, grid operators, start-ups, and digital-platform providers. While technological solutions are progressing rapidly, the social, organizational, and data-governance mechanisms that enable these solutions to take root in practice are less well understood. This PhD project will address that gap.

Depending on your background and research interests, your dissertation will be anchored in one of two complementary domains (the specific focus will be finalized during the recruitment process):

• Responsible adoption of renovation data infrastructures You will study how digital renovation passports and related data infrastructures are adopted and used in practice. You will explore how trust, empowerment, transparency, and stakeholder values shape data sharing and decision-making across homeowners, municipalities, contractors, and platform providers. Building on these insights, your research will contribute to understanding how renovation data can be governed and scaled responsibly, and how actionable guidance can support policymakers and ecosystem partners.
• Citizen innovation and learning networks for renewable energy transitions You will study collaboration for the energy transition on different levels. First, you will examine how citizen energy communities develop capabilities to align energy consumption with local renewable production—focusing on how collaborative governance, energy-data commons, and digital platforms enable participation, coordination, and behavioral change. Second, you will connect insights on these decentralized models with challenges that centralized grid operators face in managing the energy transition. Specifically, you might study how they develop joint visions for the energy transition, form ecosystems, source new technologies, and learn from different partners.

You will be embedded in the KIN Center for Digital Innovation, an internationally recognized research group studying how digital technologies transform innovation, collaboration, and organizing. KIN offers an outstanding research environment with strong connections to industry and policy partners, access to field sites through national consortia, and a vibrant community of scholars working at the intersection of organization studies, innovation, and information systems.

Supervision will be provided by Prof. Philipp Tuertscher, Dr. Katharina Cepa, Dr. Lukas Falcke, and Dr. Damla Diriker (final composition to be confirmed at appointment). You will also take part in the ABRI PhD Program, which offers advanced training in research methods, theory development, and academic writing.

This PhD is an excellent springboard for research-intensive careers—in academia, public research institutes, or mission-driven organizations—while leaving room for your plans to evolve over time.

The preferred starting date for the position is March 1, 2026.

Your duties

• Design and carry out a coherent dissertation project within one of the two domains, from problem framing to publication.
• Conduct high-quality empirical research in real-world field settings such as municipalities, energy communities, or grid-operator networks. Use qualitative methods (interviews, observations, workshops, document analysis) and—where appropriate—complement them with mixed-method approaches (e.g., surveys, network or trace-data analysis).
• Engage with consortium and practice partners to co-create insights, organize workshops, and contribute to deliverables such as design principles, playbooks, and policy guidelines.
• Develop theoretical contributions on digital infrastructures, collaborative innovation, and the social dynamics of implementing data-driven sustainability solutions.
• Publish in leading international journals and present your work at top academic conferences.
• Contribute to the KIN Center’s community, share your work in seminars, and support a limited amount of teaching and MSc supervision.

Requirements

• Clear interest in building a strong research profile and disseminating work in international journals and conferences; your longer-term career plans can evolve during the PhD.
• A Master’s degree (Research Master / MSc) in a relevant field such as Organization Studies, Innovation Management, Information Systems, Science & Technology Studies (STS), Sociology, Public Administration, or (Behavioral/Energy) Social Science.
• Demonstrated research ability, reflected in an excellent thesis, research proposal, or prior publication experience.
• Solid qualitative-research skills (mandatory); openness to complement them with mixed methods (e.g., surveys, SNA, trace/usage data).
• Substantive interest in one of the two domains
• Ability to build trust and collaborate effectively with a wide range of stakeholders.
• Excellent written and spoken English; knowledge of Dutch is helpful for fieldwork but not required.
• A team-oriented, proactive, and reflective mindset with a commitment to open and responsible research practices.

Conditions of employment

Fixed-term contract: 1 year.

A challenging position in a socially engaged organisation. At VU Amsterdam, you contribute to education, research and service for a better world. And that is valuable. So in return for your efforts, we offer you:

• a salary of € 3.059,- (PhD) and maximum € 3.881,- (PhD) gross per month in the fourth year, for a full-time employment
• an employment contract of initially 1 year. If there is sufficient perspective, this will be extended to a total of 4 years.
• We also offer you attractive fringe benefits and arrangements. Some examples:
• A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• solid pension scheme (ABP)
• a wide range of sports facilities which staff may use at a modest charge
• contribution to commuting expenses