PhD Scholarships at The University of Groningen, a public research university in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands.
PhD
Do you want to contribute to groundbreaking research that pushes the boundaries of science? Are you looking for a PhD position in which you can turn your curiosity into concrete research results and a dissertation? In that case, the position of PhD candidate Student wellbeing through student voices at the University of Groningen (UG) might just be what you are looking for!
As a PhD candidate in the Behavioural and Social Sciences, you will have the opportunity to develop your own insights, collect data, and share your findings with both scientific colleagues and partners from professional practice worldwide. Under the guidance of a supervisor and together with a motivated team, you will work on meaningful solutions and contribute to the future of your field.
This PhD project is embedded within StudentLines , a collaborative initiative between the University of Groningen and Hanze University of Applied Sciences. StudentLines brings together student data, educational data, and stakeholder expertise to build a robust longitudinal monitoring system with societal impact. Within this context, the project focuses on developing student-centered monitoring strategies that acknowledge diverse conceptualisations of wellbeing and produce knowledge that is meaningful for students themselves
Although research on student wellbeing is proliferating, there is still limited clarity on what actually promotes wellbeing and why . Compounding this gap is the underrepresentation of students’ own voices in monitoring systems, intervention design, and institutional decision-making. Many existing practices lack standardisation, monitoring, and longitudinal evaluation, which makes it difficult to compare their effectiveness across contexts.
The project seeks to integrate multiple perspectives to:
The supervisory team consists of three supervisors: Dr Marjon Fokkens-Bruinsma (promotor, UG department of Teacher Training), Dr Nienke Renting (co-promotor, UG GION) and Dr Elanor Kamans (Professor of Applied Sciences, Hanze). The PhD candidate will meet regularly with the full supervisory team. The candidate will also participate in meetings with other PhD candidates within StudentLines and in the departments’ research meetings. The PhD candidate will be registered with the Graduate School of the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences and with the research school ICO (Interuniversity Centre for Educational Research). Both institutes offer a broad range of courses and activities aimed at supporting your professional and academic development.
Why would you want to apply for this position?
To make an impact : In this role, you will directly contribute to scientific insights that address societal issues. Your research will not only translate into publications, but also into concrete solutions, ensuring a tangible impact. Personal development : You will have the opportunity to build on your academic profile with the support of experienced scientists, to develop yourself into an expert in the field. This position offers the chance to further enhance your research and teaching competencies while providing ample opportunities for both professional and personal growth.
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PhD
The Faculty of Economics and Business offers an inspiring study and working environment for students and employees. International accreditation enables the Faculty to assess performance against the highest international standards. It also creates an exciting environment of continuous improvement. FEB’s programmes, academic staff and research do well on various excellence ranking lists.
FEBRI, the graduate school and research institute of the Faculty of Economics and Business has available one PhD position in the field of Understanding Student Engagement in Education (part of the StudentLines Project).
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PhD
Join an ambitious, multidisciplinary project at the crossroads of urban design, inclusive mobilities and interaction design where your research can shape the vision of open and accessible cities! This position is part of the NWO-funded research project BEAT (Building Equitable Accessibility Together) , which starts in January 2026.
Faculty of Spatial Sciences
9 februari 2026
€3.059 – €3.881
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PhD
In plants there is a commonly observed trade-off between growth and stress tolerance. Therefore, a highly efficient strategy to survive adverse periods is to stop growing. Regarding flooding stress, it turns out that this is restricted to species from flood prone areas, only these have mastered the art of doing nothing, and are extremely flood tolerant as a result. An important aspect of stopping to grow is to ignore signals that indicate availability of resources (e.g. sugar/energy signalling) and to shut of signals that stimulate growth (hormone signals). At the same time plants have signals that indicate stress, for flooding the gaseous hormone ethylene is important here.
This PhD project will dissect how distinct components of doing nothing (cell division, cell expansion, deposition of sugars into cell walls, maintenance costs), are regulated by the complex combination of resource, growth and stress signals. To do this end the project can make use of the contrasting behaviour between the model species Arabidopsis thaliana , that is bad at doing nothing when flooded, with the closely related Rorippa sylvestris , which excels at doing nothing when flooded. The project explores the hierarchy between resource, growth, and stress signals on control of growth cessation, builds regulatory networks using genome-scale technologies, and ultimately tests and validates hypotheses with gene-technologies.
Academically, we aim to provide novel insights into how robust and highly redundant growth regulatory networks can evolve, but also how they function to have dynamic growth rates and maintain energy balances. From a human utilitarian perspective, this proposal aims to contribute to crop improvement required to deal with an increased frequency of floods, droughts and other stresses caused by climate change.
(more info: h.van.veen@rug.nl)
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PhD
The Faculty of Economics and Business offers an inspiring study and working environment for students and employees. International accreditation enables the Faculty to assess performance against the highest international standards. It also creates an exciting environment of continuous improvement. FEB’s programmes, academic staff and research do well on various excellence ranking lists.
FEBRI, the graduate school and research institute of the Faculty of Economics and Business, has available one PhD position in the field of
Place-based economic development in Europe.
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PhD
Continual learning is a key aspect of intelligence. The ability to accumulate knowledge by incrementally learning from one’s experiences is an important skill for any agent, natural or artificial, that operates in a changing world. While humans are good continual learners, many AI algorithms—in particular deep neural networks—are not.
We are looking for a highly motivated PhD candidate to study the topic of continual learning, with the aim of developing a deeper conceptual and theoretical understanding of its computational principles. For this PhD position, the intention is to approach continual learning mainly from a deep learning perspective. Depending on the interests of the selected candidate, there is also the opportunity to be involved in (international) collaborations investigating continual learning in the brain.
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PhD
The Economic Geography Department of the Faculty of Spatial Sciences at the University of Groningen is seeking two PhD candidates within the project Talent in the Region (Talent in de Regio ). These positions contribute to our expanding research programme on regional labour market dynamics and address two key questions about the labour market in the (Northern) Netherlands:
How can regions ensure that workers develop and maintain the right skills in an increasingly flexible labour market, and how do skill mismatches differ between urban and rural areas? How does technological change, such as the adoption of (generative) AI, affect regional labour demand and the labour market prospects of young people entering the labour market?
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PhD
The Economic Geography Department of the Faculty of Spatial Sciences at the University of Groningen is looking for a PhD researcher on the topic ‘AI and the new geography of work ’, a project which is funded by a Starting Grant from the Faculty of Spatial Sciences.
PhD
Nowadays, most low-grade organic waste is usually incinerated or converted into low-value products. This results in the loss of valuable raw materials, contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, environmental pollution, and is simply inefficient from any point of view. Within the large consortium ABEL (Ab-initio Biowaste Loop) funded by the Dutch Research Council, we have a PhD student position focused on developing innovative technologies for upcycling this waste into high-performance advanced materials. In collaboration with a post-doctoral researcher, the PhD student will explore how bio-polymer mono-materials made from organic waste can be used to create advanced materials with extended mechanical and/or dynamic functionalities. Based on a known catalytic process, the PhD student will develop numerical models to reproduce the mechanics of bio-based polymers and then apply the principles of metamaterials to activate application-beneficial functionalities, which will make them attractive for industrial needs and, particularly, construction applications.
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PhD
Sex determination mechanisms are very diverse and undergo rapid evolutionary change, whereas the end product is always the two sexes, females and males. This PhD project aims to elucidate the genetic regulation of sex determination in black soldier fly (BSF), the major production insect in the food and feed industry.
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PhD
Are you interested in participatory planning, community development, and creating tools that empower local communities to shape sustainable futures? In that case this PhD position at the Department of Spatial Planning and Environment at the University of Groningen might just be what you are looking for. This PhD position is embedded in the national NWO-NWA project ECCO: Empower citizen Collectives in Societal Transitions: https://www.collectievekracht.eu/ecco/default.aspx
How can citizen collectives collaborate with stakeholders based on their sense of place, to foster place-based sustainability transitions? You will investigate personal values, sense of place, and community perceptions to help citizen collectives develop joint narratives. Such narratives can foster inclusive partnerships and agendas for sustainable development in urban-rural settings.
As a PhD candidate, you will have the opportunity to develop your own research questions, collect data, and share your findings with both scientific colleagues and partners from professional practice worldwide. Under the supervision and guidance of prof. Ina Horlings, dr. Gwenda van der Vaart and dr. Geertje Slingerland, and in collaboration with a motivated team of multidisciplinary researchers and societal partners within the ECCO project, you will develop a tool to map Sense of Place. This innovative tool integrates personal values with perceived place assets, helping communities to visualize what they care about and build shared visions for their future.
Faculty of Spatial Sciences
15 februari 2026
€3.059 – €3.881
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PhD
Are you interested in just and sustainable transitions, group processes and collective action? Are you looking for a PhD position with both scientific and societal impact? In that case this PhD position at the Environmental Psychology research group at the University of Groningen might just be what you are looking for. This PhD position is embedded in the national NWO-NWA project ECCO: Empower citizen Collectives in Societal Transitions: https://www.collectievekracht.eu/ecco/default.aspx),
Can citizen collectives such as community energy or climate initiatives drive just and sustainable transitions by motivating not only participants but also non-participants? Your research will investigate how citizen collectives (CCs) influence motivations, shared identities, and behaviours of both involved and uninvolved individuals, examining whether these initiatives inadvertently create polarisation or successfully foster inclusive engagement.
As a PhD candidate, you will have the opportunity to develop your own research questions, collect data, and share your findings with both scientific colleagues and partners from professional practice worldwide. Under the supervision and guidance of Prof. Lise Jans and Prof. Ellen van der Werff, and in collaboration with a motivated team of multidisciplinary researchers and societal partners within the ECCO project, you will work on furthering understanding on the motivational influence of citizen collectives in advancing sustainable transitions.
You will conduct a groundbreaking longitudinal field experiment with a network of CCs, tracking 40+ communities where new CCs will be initiated. Using surveys and experimental methods, you will assess changes in motivations, shared identity, and polarization over time among people who participate in these CCs and those who do not. You will compare different CC setups and their effects on diverse populations. You will develop the “Motivation Mapper” tool for CCs to assess and track their motivational impact.
PhD
For the National Growth Fund (NGF) project “Groeien met Groen Staal” (GGS), a PhD position for the period of 4 years is available in the context of modelling green steel mechanics from the atomic scale. In this project, the University of Groningen will investigate atomic-scale mechanism of martensitic, bainitic and ferritic atomic-scale interface motion for multi-component alloy systems that are relevant for the new green steels compositions, including impurities and tramp elements. These models should inform higher-scale (microstructural) models of microstructure formation for green steels.
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PhD
Are you a (nearly) graduated law student with an interest in scientific research? If so, this position could be a great opportunity for you!
We are looking for an enthusiastic PhD student who wants to do research within the topic of legal pluralism and corruption in Central Asia.
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