Phd candidate
Hybrid
OPEN
Dr. Fabian Thomas
The German Research Foundation (DFG)-funded Research Training Group "Ecological Regime Shifts and Systemic Risk in Coupled Social-Ecological Systems" (ECORISK) addresses the systemic risks arising from crossing ecological tipping points, their consequences, and governance approaches to address them. Within the framework of three thematic clusters (Ecosystem Dynamics, Human activities and Governance), the Research Training Group brings together perspectives from institutional and behavioral economics, ecological modelling, environmental systems science, geography, geoinformatics, political science and sociology. The transformation towards a more sustainable agriculture serves as a guiding example. The Research Training Group is located at Osnabrück University, whose broad range of outstanding research attracts students and scholars from around the world to a vibrant and livable city rich in tradition and culture (visit the project website for more info).
With a starting date on October 1st, 2026, we offer a total of 10 PhD positions (m/f/d, pay grade 13 TV-L, 75%, for three years. A list of all positions is available on the project website. Application deadline April 30, 2026.
With a starting date on October 1st, 2026, we offer a total of 10 PhD positions (m/f/d, pay grade 13 TV-L, 75%, for three years. A list of all positions is available on the project website.
We would like to draw your attention to two positions at the Department of Environmental Economics, with a focus on behavioral and experimental economics:
In the subproject B3b "Participatory Interventions to Foster Cooperation in the Face of Regime Shifts and Systemic Risk" (supervised by Prof. Engel), the focus is on participatory governance arrangements and capacities to overcome collective-action challenges among heterogeneous stakeholders. Specifically, it seeks to (co-)design a suitable participatory intervention for bridging social distance/polarization and promoting collective action skills in a context of sustainable agriculture/food systems, supervise its implementation and assess its potential (through an economic experiment or another impact assessment method).
>View full position announcement
>View more details on the subproject (B3b) (here, the subproject’s poster)
>Contact for questions on the subproject (juanfelipe.ortizriomalo@uni-osnabrueck.de)
In the subproject B1b "Regime Shifts and Human Behavior in Agricultural Systems" (supervised by Dr. Thomas) an experimental and behavioral economic study on the suitability of various agri-environmental policy instruments for regulating farmer behaviour under uncertainty and systemic risk will be carried out. The subproject B1b uses a behavioral economic lens to evaluate a set of agri-environmental policy instruments both theoretically and empirically with an economic experiment. In a first step, a literature review will develop and apply a framework to assess the likely performance of different instruments in the face of regime shifts and systemic risk (i.e. their ability to e.g. induce positive and/or avoid negative shifts). This will lead to the selection of one or a few of these policy instruments to be tested by means of a lab-in-the-field experiment with German farmers.
>View full position announcement
>View more details on the subproject (B1b) (here, the subproject’s poster)
>Contact for questions on the subproject (fabian.thomas@uni-osnabrueck.de)
Barbarastraße 12
49076 Osnabrück , Allemagne
