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We are looking for a PhD candidate with a background in Innovation Management, Industrial Engineering, Agro-ecology and/or Agribusiness Development interested in design science research and stakeholder analysis at the interface of sustainability, system-thinking, and agrifood.
Department(s)
Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences
Reference number
V39.4814
Organization
Eindhoven University of Technology is one of the world’s leading research universities (ranked by the Times Higher Education Supplement) and is particularly well known for its joint research with industry (ranked number one worldwide by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies). The Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences (IE&IS) of Eindhoven University of Technology is one of the longest-established engineering schools in Europe, with a strong presence in the international research and education community. The graduate program (MSc and PhD) in Industrial Engineering attracts top-level students from all over the world.
Group
The PhD candidate will be located in the Innovation, Technology Entrepreneurship & Marketing (ITEM) group. The group is part of the School of Industrial Engineering of the department IE&IS. The ITEM group consists of about 25 FTE faculty members and 20 FTE PhD students who participate in and contribute to the research, education and service program of the ITEM group. This program is one of the leading programs in the world and emphasizes means for measuring and improving the process of conceiving, developing, and launching new products and businesses, and also managing these products and businesses post-launch. More information about the group can be found at: https://www.tue.nl/en/research/research-groups/industrial-engineering/innovation-technology-entrepr-marketing/
Short description of the PhD Project
The PhD candidate will be part of the H2020 Code Re-Farm consortium funded by the European Commission that aims to support farmers engaged in livestock production to reframe farming systems based on consumer-driven demands. The consortium consists of a multi-disciplinary team with animal science, chemistry, food science, microelectronics, industrial engineering, social science, and agriculture backgrounds. Each discipline studies different aspects related to reframing the farming system linked to extensive husbandry, food quality, and business models. You will be specifically focusing on exploring alternative business models and ecosystem business management practices in the poultry sector, and will be collaborating with the Poultry Expertise Center/AERES in The Netherlands and Cyprus Research and Innovation Center (CyRIC) in Cyprus.
Within the larger consortium your task will be to explore potential strategies to reframe the poultry farming system. Such reframing requires (1) conducting an analysis of the current situation and relevant future trends in poultry value chains, (2) designing use cases for alternative business models for value creation and business ecosystem management, and (3) testing the new business models. To design new business models for extensive livestock production systems (ELPS) that fit sustainable, consumer-driven business, you will need to engage in value chain and stakeholder analysis. You will apply a variety of research methods, including interviewing, focus groups, workshops and surveys, to explore and design detailed scenarios for propositions of new business models, that describe the new value chain, stakeholders, and relevant interactions. A selection of viable and sustainable use cases for application in the farm-to-fork value chain will be made.
The PhD candidate will benefit from the strong industry relationships of the consortium, and the use cases specified. These will facilitate interviews and access to data, and will help ensure the practical relevance of the research. In addition, you will also have the opportunity to interact closely with other PhDs working on different aspects of poultry and goat farming.
Job description
You, as a successful applicant, will perform the research project outlined above as part of a small team at TU/e, and collaborate also with a postdoc and supervisors in this workpackage. The research will be concluded with a PhD thesis. A small teaching load may part of the job.
Additional Information
Do you recognize yourself in this profile and would you like to know more? Please contact dr. Arjan Markus (a.markus[at]tue.nl ) or dr.ir. Rianne Valkenburg (a.c.valkenburg[at]tue.nl ).
For information about terms of employment, please contact Susan Opgenoorth, personnel officer (hrservices.ieis[at]tue.nl). Further information about the Eindhoven University of Technology can be found at www.tue.nl .
Application
We invite you to submit a complete application by using the 'apply now'-button on this page.
The application should include a:
If you are interested, we invite you to apply as soon as possible. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. You can send us your application through the online job portal of the TU/e. We do not accept applications sent by e-mail. You can only upload a maximum of 5 documents of 2 Mb each. If you have more than 5 documents, you will need to combine them.
We look forward to your application and will screen it as soon as we have received it. Screening will continue until the position has been filled.
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