"PhD Grassroots retrofitting: community empowerment in residential energy transit"

The Faculty of Spatial Sciences together with the Faculty of Science and Engineering offer a 4-year M20 (Ubbo Emmius) Program funded PhD position for a project titled “Grassroots retrofitting: Towards community empowerment and fair residential energy transition using community-based infrared thermography”.

Residential buildings are major contributors to energy consumption and environmental impacts. In the Netherlands, approximately 6 million homes built before 2005 have poor thermal performance, with energy labels of E or lower. Retrofitting these homes is critical for achieving low-carbon transitions and addressing energy poverty and equity challenges. This is particularly urgent in North-East Groningen, a region with the highest rate of energy poverty in the Netherlands.

Despite efforts, current policies and programs have struggled to achieve their goals. Top-down, market-driven approaches, which rely on financial incentives and standard information dissemination, often fail to engage marginalized communities. The majority of recent Dutch climate-policy subsidies have thus far benefitted wealthier households, exacerbating social inequality and undermining public support for the energy transition. International research echoes this concern, noting that retrofit programs frequently fail to reach those most in need. To develop equitable and effective policy tools, further research is needed on the contexts, compositions, and mechanisms of retrofits, as well as a deeper understanding of the barriers preventing vulnerable communities from taking action.

This PhD project proposes “grassroots retrofitting” - a bottom-up, data-driven approach piloted in North-East Groningen, an area where energy poverty remains a challenge and retrofitting participation remains low. Using AI-powered infrared thermography, the initiative visualizes energy inefficiencies, making heat loss tangible for homeowners and potentially increasing awareness and willingness to take action. Combined with “connection workshops”, where households interpret thermal images with researchers and receive retrofit advice from professionals, the project aims to also improve the ability of households to take action. By addressing barriers to retrofitting and subsidy access, it seeks to empower households vulnerable to energy poverty and fill critical research gaps in this area.

The project is supervised by Dr. Elen-Maarja Trell (promotor, Faculty of Spatial Sciences) and Dr. Liangliang Cheng (Faculty of Science and Engineering). The candidate will join a lively and highly international team of PhD candidates working on spatial planning, human geography, community engagement and resilience, supported by laboratory, equipment and expertise of the Dynamics and Vibration research group as well as partners from public outreach and retrofitting consultancy companies active in the Province of Groningen.

A selection of expected results of the project:

• A tested, community-driven approach combining technical/visual tools (e.g., AI-powered thermography) and social innovations (e.g., community workshops) to engage marginalized households in retrofitting actions.
• Policy recommendations for retrofit programs specifically designed to empower marginalized communities, ensuring equitable access to subsidies and resources.
• A database of neighborhood retrofit-engagement typologies, linking socio-economic and building data to identify the most effective outreach strategies and technical solutions.
• A database evaluating citizen willingness and ability to take retrofit action, providing insights for scaling the approach to other marginalized regions/neighborhoods.
• Research insights into the barriers for marginalized communities to take retrofit actions, effective ways to empower marginalized communities, evaluating the potential of visual/technological tools to raise awareness and community-workshops to increase the ability to take action.

The PhD candidate will be required to:

• Design, plan and conduct a qualitative research project, in consultation with the supervisors.
• Conduct fieldwork in North-East Groningen, develop and lead community-engagement workshops and compilation of outreach materials.
• Produce a PhD thesis, written in English, consisting of four chapters / academic papers, an introduction and discussion at the level of international scientific journals.
• Disseminate the research through publication in (leading) peer-reviewed journals, presentations at international conferences, outreach, social media but also to the involved communities and decision-makers via popular-scientific reports and other means, well-accessible to the general public.
• Collaborate with other researchers and practice partners connected to the project.
• Contribute to teaching up to 15% of the time, by supervising BSc and MSc students, and/or assisting on courses.

Organisation: The University of Groningen has an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative center of higher education offering high-quality teaching and research. Balanced study and career paths in a wide variety of disciplines encourage the 35,000 students and researchers to develop their own individual talents. Belonging to the best research universities in Europe and joining forces with prestigious partner universities and networks, we are truly an international place of knowledge.

Requirements: We are seeking to recruit a PhD candidate for a comprehensive interdisciplinary project to contribute to developing a community-based, digitally empowered approach to retrofit program design to empower marginalized communities. The project includes direct hands-on work with households, neighborhood associations, local government representatives, consultancy companies to discuss, inform about and implement retrofit solutions and explore barriers to action. Due to the strong emphasis on community-engagement, qualitative / participatory work with the communities and the aim to empower marginalized communities, excellent communication and interpersonal skills are essential for this project. In order to work with the communities, the candidate is required to be able to work and communicate in the local language (i.e. Dutch; the level of Dutch does not have to be at a native-speaker level but sufficient to engage with local communities and practitioners).

We are looking for a candidate who:

• Holds a relevant (Research) Master degree in spatial planning, spatial sciences, (human) geography or a related field such as public administration, political, social or environmental sciences (with a strong specialization on governance, community engagement, environmental management, political ecology).
• Is curiosity-driven and creative, with strong analytical and research skills, able to express (own) ideas and arguments at an academic level.
• Has experience in and affinity with qualitative research and analysis. Experience with participatory research and community-engagement activities are considered a relevant bonus.
• Has excellent communication, interpersonal and teamwork skills, and is willing to work with a diverse group of researchers and technicians, and can also work independently.
• Has a sufficient level of Dutch to communicate and work with local communities.
• Is proficient in English and meets the university’s English language requirements.
• Affinity with and knowledge of basics of AI-modelling and data analysis is welcome but not required.

Conditions of employment: Fixed-term contract: 48 months. We offer you in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities: A salary of € 3,059 gross per month in the first year, up to € 3,881 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 full-time position (1.0 FTE) for 48 months (4 years). The successful candidate will first be offered a temporary position of one year with the option of renewal for another 3 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 3 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 the Faculty of Spatial Sciences at the University of Groningen. The training program will be tailored to the candidate. The preferred starting date is 1 December 2025.