PhD Opportunities in Energy Engineering in Netherlands

This PhD project investigates how forest carbon uptake is changing worldwide under climate change and disturbance. The successful candidate will combine atmospheric CO₂ observations, Earth Observation products, and numerical models to quantify how the global forest carbon sink varies across continents and over time. The work focuses on integrating multiple data streams into an existing prototype modelling framework and extending its data assimilation capacity so it can use large Earth Observatio...

This PhD project at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) investigates efficient online optimization for time-varying systems, with a focus on safe and adaptive learning control. The research addresses a key challenge in learning-based control: how to learn a model while still guaranteeing safety, especially when the optimal decision changes over time. The project aims to develop computationally efficient methods for safe learning in time-varying optimal control problems. A central research ...

This PhD project investigates backward erosion piping (BEP) , a process that can undermine dikes when seepage flows erode sand beneath them. The research is part of the NWO-funded Digital Dikes consortium and is designed to improve how BEP progression and severity are understood and predicted. You will work on experimental and physical modelling of BEP, developing new test setups and integrating novel measurement techniques to study mechanisms that remain poorly understood. A key focus is the 3D...

This PhD project at Leiden University explores a new approach to building biocatalytic nanofactories by packaging biocatalysts inside lipid vesicles during bacterial expression. The work sits at the intersection of synthetic cells , biotechnology , and enzyme engineering, with the aim of creating ready-to-use liposome-encapsulated systems for cascade reactions. You will work on optimising and applying a technology that confines biocatalysts in vesicles while they are produced in bacteria, a stra...

Wageningen University & Research is seeking a PhD candidate to investigate how forest carbon uptake is changing worldwide under climate change and disturbance. The project examines the global carbon sink in forests and its role in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The researcher will combine atmospheric carbon dioxide observations, Earth Observation products, and numerical models to quantify forest carbon balances across continents and time scales ranging from days to decades. The wor...

This PhD project focuses on turning faecal sludge into clean cooking energy through the development and optimisation of faecal sludge briquettes (FSB) for use in Kenya and Ethiopia. The research sits within a transdisciplinary effort to support waste-to-energy innovation, resource recovery, and a just energy transition in East Africa, where dependence on firewood and charcoal contributes to deforestation, environmental degradation, climate impacts, and serious indoor air pollution. The PhD candi...

Leiden University in Leiden, The Netherlands, invites applications for a full-time PhD position on Bacterial Packaging of Biocatalytic Nanofactories . The project is embedded in the Leiden Institute of Chemistry and the Macromolecular Biochemistry group within the Faculty of Science, in the laboratory of Prof. Lars Jeuken. The research will develop and exploit a technology for packaging biocatalysts inside lipid vesicles during bacterial expression. The resulting liposome-encapsulated systems wi...

PhD Position at Delft University of Technology in Energy Data Sharing for City-Level Policy Making Using Digital Twins . This doctoral project is part of the FEDERATE NWO project and focuses on how municipalities can use better energy data sharing to support city decarbonization and sustainability policy making. The research addresses fragmented and incomplete public data and investigates new data sharing architectures between citizens, local companies, and municipalities, aligned with the new D...

PhD position available at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam within the EO-TRUST project, based at the Amsterdam Space Law & Sustainability Centre and the Amsterdam Law and Technology Institute (ALTI) in the Netherlands . The project investigates the legal and ethical dimensions of AI-enabled Earth Observation , with particular attention to how space law , AI regulation , and military law address resilience, responsibility, and the trustworthy use of satellite data. This opportunity is aimed at an amb...