Update: 2 PhD Positions in Behavioral Economics & Sustainable Agriculture at Osnabrück University

[Marieke]

Dear ESA,

! Now with updated links !

I would like to draw your attention to a set of exciting PhD opportunities within our DFG-funded Research Training Group “Ecological Regime Shifts and Systemic Risk in Coupled Social-Ecological Systems” (ECORISK) at Osnabrück University. Great opportunities to join a fantastic team of colleagues 🙂 Please share among your networks! 

Application deadline: 30.04.2026

Please find more info about the project here: https://www.uni-osnabrueck.de/ecorisk

1. PhD: "Participatory Interventions to Foster Cooperation in the Face of Regime Shifts and Systemic Risk": focuses 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). https://www.uni-osnabrueck.de/en/university/working-at-osnabrueck-university/job-vacancies/46-fb-9-research-assistant-phd-candidate-mfd-dfg-funded-research-training-group-ecorisk-b3b 

2. PhD: "Regime Shifts and Human Behavior in Agricultural Systems": 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. https://www.uni-osnabrueck.de/en/university/working-at-osnabrueck-university/job-vacancies/47-fb-9-research-assistant-phd-candidate-mfd-dfg-funded-research-training-group-ecorisk-b1b 

Best wishes

Marieke Baaken

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Dr. Marieke Baaken
Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Department of Environmental Economics
Institute of Environmental Systems Research
Behavioral Economics for the Environment
School of Business Administration and Economics

Osnabrück University
Barbarastr. 12, 66/E24
49076 Osnabrück, Germany
Phone: +49 541 969 2424