Utrecht University, Faculty of Geosciences, Department of Earth Sciences

Utrecht University’s Faculty of Geosciences studies the Earth: from the Earth’s core to its surface, including man’s spatial and material utilisation of the Earth – always with a focus on sustainability and innovation. With a population of 3,400 students (BSc and MSc) and 720 staff, the Faculty is a strong and challenging organisation. The Faculty is organised in four Departments: Earth Sciences, Physical Geography, Sustainable Development, and Human Geography & Spatial Planning.

The Department of Earth Sciences conducts teaching and research across the full range of the solid Earth and environmental Earth sciences, with activities in almost all areas of geology, geochemistry, geophysics, biogeology and hydrogeology. Our key research themes are Earth & Planetary Processes, Sustainable Use of the Subsurface, Planetary Health & Environment, and Climate & Life.The department hosts a highly international tenured staff of over 50 scientists and more than 110 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. We house or have access to a wide variety of world-class laboratories, among which are UU’s Electron Microscopy Centre, the Geolab, and the Earth Simulation Lab. We also have excellent High- Performance Computing facilities.

About Utrecht
Utrecht is the fourth largest city in the Netherlands with a population of nearly 360,000 and forms a hub in the middle of the country. Its historical city centre and its modern central station can easily be reached from our campus in Utrecht Science Park by public transport or by a 15-minute bicycle ride. Utrecht boasts beautiful canals with extraordinary wharf cellars housing cafés and terraces by the water, as well as a broad variety of shops and boutiques.

Homepage: https://www.uu.nl/geo/aw

Join the Department of Earth Sciences as a PhD candidate and work on the project Benthic microalgae and blue carbon: Investigating the role of microphytobenthos in the retention of seagrass-derived organic matter.

Your job
Blue carbon is the carbon captured by the world’s oceans and coastal ecosystems. Seagrass meadows are productive coastal ecosystems with the potential to store substantial quantities of organic carbon in sediments. While detrital inputs and belowground biomass are considered the primary sources of sedimentary carbon stocks in seagrass meadows, less is known about the exudation of dissolved (DOM) and particulate organic matter (POM) by seagrasses and to what degree this contributes to carbon burial in these systems.

This project will examine the role of microphytobenthos (MPB) in facilitating the retention and transformation of seagrass-exuded DOM and POM into mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM), a process which can facilitate long-term carbon storage. Thus, MPB may enhance MAOM formation via modifications to sedimentary redox reactions and sediment stabilisation, providing microenvironments favorable for organic matter preservation.

A personalised training programme will be set up, reflecting your training needs and career objectives. About 20% of your time will be dedicated to this training component, which includes following courses/workshops as well as training on the job in assisting in the Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes of the department at Utrecht University.

Your qualities
You are motivated about the research, take initiative to develop ideas, self-driven and can work independently and with a team. You hold a Master’s degree in Earth Sciences, Environmental Science, Marine Sciences or a related discipline by the time the position starts. Furthermore, you have:

• experience conducting experiments and performing analytical sample processing (lab work);
• a theoretical background in marine environmental physiology and biogeochemistry;
• willingness to experiment with new data collection;
• excellent communication skills.

Due to the international character of our research, good command of spoken and written English is essential. We highly encourage applicants from all members of our community and of diverse backgrounds to join us.

Terms of employment
You will be offered a full-time PhD position, initially for one year with extension to four years in total upon a successful assessment in the first year, and with the specific intent that it results in a doctorate within this period. The gross monthly salary starts with € 2,901 in the first year and increases to € 3,707 in the fourth year of employment with a full-time appointment. Salaries are supplemented with a holiday bonus of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 8,3% per year. A pension scheme, partially paid parental leave, and flexible employment conditions are based on the Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities.

In addition to the collective employment conditions, Utrecht University has a number of schemes and facilities of its own for employees. These include agreements on professional development, leave arrangements, sports and cultural schemes, and you get discounts on software and other IT products. We also give you the opportunity to expand your terms of employment through the Employment Conditions Selection Model. This is how we encourage you to grow. For more information, please visit Working at Utrecht University.

For informal questions (not for application), contact Dr Cale Miller at c.a.miller@uu.nl.

To apply, please follow the link tot the corresponding advertisement on our own website and follow the guidelines mentioned there. We aim for a quick selection procedure after the application deadline of August 1st, 2025. The preferred starting date is December 1st, 2025.

Note that international candidates that need a visa/work permit for the Netherlands require at least four months processing time after selection and acceptance. This will be arranged with help of the International Service Desk of our university. Finding appropriate housing in or near Utrecht is your own responsibility and, unfortunately, we must warn that it is a tight market at the moment. In case of general questions about working and living in The Netherlands, please consult the Dutch Mobility Portal.

Online screening may be part of the selection. Commercial response to this ad is not appreciated.