Job opportunities
Postdoctoral Researcher in Blue Planet Governance at Utrecht University
Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Sustainable Development
Hours per week: 36 to 40
Application deadline: 17 July 2026
We are looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher in Blue Planet Governance to join the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University. In this role, you will examine whether and how emerging ocean-based climate and sustainability strategies can be governed in the Anthropocene, where interventions increasingly unfold amid scientific uncertainty, political contestation, institutional complexity, and ecological interdependence.
This is a three-year position supported by two externally funded research projects: the ERC-funded project ProblemShifting and the EU Horizon project MAR-CO2. Together, these projects create a common research agenda around how emerging climate and sustainability interventions can be understood, assessed, and governed in ways that account for their risks, trade-offs, and wider consequences. The research will have a strong focus on marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) as a timely and policy-relevant case, while also allowing scope to examine related technological interventions with planetary-scale implications.