PhD position VIA PRUDENTI – Collaborative Infrastructure and Asset Management Practices

PhD @University of Twente posted 2 days ago

Job Description

Society is facing major challenges like labour and material scarcity, digitalisation and climate adaptation. These challenges have a significant impact on our built environment and the actors that operate in this field. Addressing these challenges requires a fundamental change in how public organisations operate and coordinate themselves and their relations with private parties in the construction industry.

This PhD project aims to experiment with unique shared service centres to coordinate and conduct asset management and maintenance activities across infrastructure networks in the Netherlands. Together with our research partners from Next Generation Infrastructure network, the PhD candidate will be in the lead to develop organisational principles and action perspectives that help infrastructure agencies to collaboratively maintain our roads, bridges, waterways, electricity networks and railways.

As part of the larger NWO funded VIA PRUDENTI project, we will truly experiment with working towards a resilient and smart infrastructure sector by co-creating integrated service delivery solutions across infrastructure networks, studying how infrastructure administrators handle uncertainty and complexity across multiple organisational levels when managing their infrastructure assets.

The candidate will operate at the intersection of various academic disciplines (construction management, operations research, digitalisation & innovation management, purchasing & supply chain management, organizational studies) and actively engage with Dutch (semi) public infrastructure organisations and gain unique experience in different professional settings in the Netherlands. This requires a curiosity for interdisciplinary and qualitative empirical research and a sense of urgency for turning theory into practice and practice into theory in close collaboration with the research team and their partners.

Your profile

  • You have, or will shortly acquire, a master’s degree in the field of in construction management, operations research, civil engineering & management, innovation sciences, business administration, management studies, or a related discipline.
  • Strong interest in and affinity for

(1) inter-organisational collaboration in the built environment,
(2) design science & field lab experimentation aimed at implementing digital innovations, and/or
(3) action research on strategic procurement and supply chain management issues.

  • Eager to explore new empirical research directions and flexible to adapt the research process to new developments and insights.
  • Comfortable at the interface of academia and practice, demonstrating effective communication and publication skills in both.
  • Interested in managing networks and relations with practitioners in the field of construction and infrastructure asset management.
  • You have excellent speaking and academic writing skills in English.
  • You have effective operational proficiency in Dutch (minimum C1 level).

Our offer

  • As a PhD candidate at UT, you will be appointed to a full-time position for four years, with a qualifier in the first year, within a very stimulating and exciting scientific environment.
  • Your salary and associated conditions are in accordance with the collective labour agreement for Dutch universities (CAO-NU).
  • You will receive a gross monthly salary ranging from € 2901,- during the first year, increasing to € 3707,- during the fourth year.
  • There are excellent benefits including a holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary, an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%, and a solid pension scheme.
  • A minimum of 232 leave hours in case of full-time employment based on a formal workweek of 38 hours. A full-time employment in practice means 40 hours a week, therefore resulting in 96 extra leave hours on an annual basis.
  • Free access to sports facilities on campus.
  • A family-friendly institution that offers parental leave (both paid and unpaid).
  • You will have a training programme as part of the Twente Graduate School where you and your supervisors will determine a plan for a suitable education and supervision.
  • We encourage a high degree of responsibility and independence while collaborating with close colleagues, researchers and industry practitioners.

Information and application

Are you interested in this position? Please send your application via the ‘Apply now’ button below before 15 September 2025, and include:

  • A cover letter (maximum 2 pages A4), emphasizing your specific interest, qualifications, motivations to apply for this position.
  • A Curriculum Vitae, including a list of all courses attended and grades obtained, and, if applicable, a list of publications and references.
  • Contact information of two scientific staff members (one of whom could be the supervisor of your MSc thesis/final project) who we may contact for references.

For more information regarding the topic of position, you are welcome to contact Leentje Volker (l.volker@utwente.nl).

Date of first round interviews:
Monday 6 October 2025 / Wednesday 8 October 2025.

Date of second round interviews:
Friday 31 October 2025

Apply now
design science & field lab experimentation aimed at implementing digital innovations,

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