PhD position on Circular Construction Management & Engineering Futures
The combined energy and digital transitions are transforming the Dutch built environment at a pace the labour market struggles to match. This growing imbalance asks for rethinking traditional practices to make desired construction futures possible. Our fully funded PhD – with a ‘high-tech, human touch’ flavour – advances the twin transitions with actionable circular construction solutions!
As a PhD candidate, you will investigate how construction professionals adapt their everyday practices in a rapidly transforming built environment. The sector is undergoing fundamental change across the entire building lifecycle, from design and construction to demolition and reuse. This project rethinks the built environment as an “urban mine,” where materials needed for the energy transition, such as installations and cables, are no longer treated as waste, but recovered and recirculated to enable more circular futures.
Your research will focus on how these shifts play out in real-world practice. Instead of staying at the level of policy visions or technical potential, you will examine what designers, contractors, and demolition actors really do when confronted with reuse, digital tools, and sustainability targets. You will conduct in-depth case studies of the key practices that are currently being reshaped.
Using a combination of ethnographic observations, interviews, and document analyses, you will uncover how digital tools and emerging approaches are being used to transform construction processes. A central part of your work will be to analyse how practices evolve over time, paying attention to the interactions between tools, organisational structures, regulations, and collaboration across different actors.
You will identify, analyse, and resolve tensions that arise in this transformation - for example, between circularity ambitions and economic or practical constraints. Understanding these tensions is key to enabling meaningful change. Based on your findings, you will develop digital solutions and actionable recommendations to support the large-scale adoption of material reuse and more sustainable practices throughout the building lifecycle.
Your work will contribute directly to shaping future jobs, skills, and training pathways in the construction sector, ensuring that the workforce is equipped to deliver on the ambitions of a circular and digital built environment.
FUTURED project
This PhD position is part of the NWO-funded FUTURED project (Fostering Upskilled Talent for Urban Resilience, Energy Transition, and Digitalisation in the Built Environment). FUTURED unites seven research institutions and 20 societal partners to address the challenge of labour shortage in a changing built environment. The Netherlands faces an urgent need for qualified professionals to make its built environment more sustainable and digitally advanced. The pace of the energy and digital transitions is faster than the labour market can adjust, creating shortages and hindering attraction and retention. Current initiatives are scattered, and cooperation between education providers and employers remains insufficient. The FUTURED project integrates four work packages to equip construction actors with the scenarios, evidence and tools needed to boost the workforce in the built environment.
Information and application
Are you interested in this position? Please send your application via the 'Apply now' button below before June 8 and include:
- A cover letter (maximum 2 pages A4), emphasizing your specific interest, qualifications, motivations to apply for this position.
- A Curriculum Vitae, including a list of all courses attended and grades obtained, and, if applicable, a list of publications and references.
- An IELTS-test, Internet TOEFL test (TOEFL-iBT), or a Cambridge CAE-C (CPE). Applicants with a non-Dutch qualification and who have not had secondary and tertiary education in English can only be admitted with an IELTS-test showing a total band score of at least 6.5, internet. TOEFL test (TOEFL-iBT) showing a score of at least 90, or a Cambridge CAE-C (CPE).
For more information regarding this position, you are welcome to contact dr.ir. Marc van den Berg via m.c.vandenberg@utwente.nl. The interviews will take place on June 15.
- Screening is part of the procedure.
About the organisation
At the Faculty of Engineering Technology (ET), we work on engineering for impact: developing smart, sustainable, human-centred and technological solutions for societal challenges. We connect fundamental education, research and practice across five core domains: Asset & Maintenance engineering, Intelligent Manufacturing Systems, Personalised Health Technology, Resilience Engineering, and Sustainable Production, Energy and Resources.
We work on education and research in mechanical engineering, civil engineering and industrial design engineering. Together, we learn by making, creating, and innovating, addressing challenges in a solution-oriented way. Quality, connection and inclusivity are the foundation of our culture.
In our open community, students, researchers and staff collaborate with industrial and societal partners. This enables us to develop insights, applications and solutions that add value to society.
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