PhD Position SPINES: Modelling Tipping Dynamics in Infrastructure Use
Are you keen on supporting the future development of reliable but also sustainable infrastructure? Do you like simulation models to understand complex socio-technical systems? Are you ready to challenge and develop yourself in a cross-sector collaboration with infrastructure providers and societal partners? If you do so, you are our right candidate for this position.
There is an increasing demand for infrastructure services while, at the same time, infrastructure networks reach capacity thresholds. Extending and upgrading infrastructure is challenging and limited not only because of long infrastructure lifetimes coupled with high investment costs but also because of space and resource scarcity. The prevailing logic behind infrastructure investment decisions, which assumes infrastructure should serve and afford an ever-increasing demand, loses validity. Infrastructure policies can impact decision-making and infrastructure use by prioritising, shifting and reducing demand. However, demand drivers are manifold, including technology advancements, population and economic trends, and their future developments come with deep uncertainties. Infrastructure policies must account for these uncertain drivers and their dynamic interaction with changes in intended use. As part of the NWO-funded SPINES project, you will address this challenge by identifying those interplays that lead to lower infrastructure demand in the long run and reveal pathways to turning points in infrastructure use through a systemic modelling approach.
Essential activities within your project will be to:
- identify policy mechanisms that can change infrastructure affordance and lower infrastructure use
- develop an agent-based model that regards infrastructure as a socio-technical system
- reveal under which patterns of user behaviour, infrastructure performance and demand drivers the use of infrastructure will change
- develop an assessment approach to determine the benefits a lower demand can provide to infrastructure managers
You will be part of a multidisciplinary project with leaders in the domain of infrastructure governance and modelling. You will learn to conduct research independently and grow scientifically through collaboration with researchers from Radboud University, University of Groningen, and Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, supervisors from the Construction Management and Engineering cluster at the University of Twente, and a strong network of leading infrastructure providers in the Netherlands (Rijkswaterstaat, ProRail, Vitens, Alliander, Port of Rotterdam and Schiphol Amsterdam Airport).
Information and application
Are you interested in this position? Please send your application via the 'Apply now' button below before September 30th 2025, and include:
- A cover letter (maximum 2 pages A4), emphasising your specific interest, qualifications, and motivations to apply for this specific position.
- A Curriculum Vitae, including a list of all courses attended and grades obtained, and, if applicable, a list of publications and references.
- Contact information of two scientific staff members (one of whom could be the supervisor of your thesis/final project), who we may contact for references.
Date of first round interviews: Mid-October 2025
Date of second round interviews: Start of November 2025
Screening is part of the selection procedure.
For more information regarding the topic of position, you are welcome to contact Andreas Hartmann (a.hartmann@utwente.nl).
About the organisation
The Faculty of Engineering Technology (ET) engages in education and research of Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Industrial Design Engineering. We enable society and industry to innovate and create value using efficient, solid and sustainable technology. We are part of a ‘people-first' university of technology, taking our place as an internationally leading center for smart production, processes and devices in five domains: Health Technology, Maintenance, Smart Regions, Smart Industry and Sustainable Resources. Our faculty is home to about 2,900 Bachelor's and Master's students, 550 employees and 150 PhD candidates. Our educational and research programmes are closely connected with UT research institutes Mesa+ Institute, TechMed Center and Digital Society Institute.
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