Are you interested in research to understand housing inequality, and motivated to find governance approaches which can support older adult health and wellbeing?
We are looking for a PhD candidate to take part in the research project ‘Housing Governance for Healthy Aging,' led by Principal Investigators Dr. Sarah Mawhorter and Dr. Sara Özoğul together with Prof. Louise Meijering.
Safe and suitable housing is necessary to support healthy aging, yet not all older adults can afford housing that meets their needs. While some older adults are well-off, with a stable home and accumulated financial resources (including housing wealth), others struggle to get by, living in more precarious situations. Systems to ensure older adults can access appropriate housing vary widely by country, and many countries rely increasingly on market mechanisms rather than a social safety net for later life housing provision. As many developed countries face aging populations, housing affordability crises, and fiscal challenges simultaneously, planners and policymakers need empirical evidence about the regulations, funding, and programs they can put in place to support older adult health and wellbeing.
This project investigates the role of housing governance–at the local and national levels–in supporting healthy aging, whether aging in place or transitioning to new living situations such as retirement communities or a form of assisted living. In a comparative framework, the project involves using mixed methods to analyse housing governance regimes and outcomes for older adult housing and health across countries within Europe, and states within the U.S., then to assess how these play out at the local level. The project involves three main objectives:
Your primary responsibility will be carrying out this research as part of the research team. Key responsibilities also include:
Organisation The University of Groningen has an international reputation as a dynamic and innovative centre of higher education offering high-quality teaching and research. Within the university, the Faculty of Spatial Sciences (FSS) focuses on high quality teaching and research in the fields of spatial planning, economic and cultural geography and demography. FSS is also well- embedded in a wider range of disciplines, such as social, political and technology sciences. Our vision is to spatially transform society to support wellbeing and innovation. Our mission as a faculty is to undertake and disseminate, via research and teaching, rigorous and distinctive research which helps to realize this vision. FSS employs around 100 academic staff members, over 100 PhD candidates, and serves about 1100 students. We are a cohesive Faculty committed to internationally-oriented, interdisciplinary research of high societal relevance with our new research programme Transformations, Communities, and Environments (TRACE), which encompasses socio-spatial transformations; wellbeing, equity, and resilience for people and places; and socio-spatial differences and sustainable development.
QualificationsWe are looking for a candidate with:
If you meet these criteria, we invite you to apply for this vacancy.
Organisation Conditions of employmentThe successful candidate will be offered, following the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities:
The successful candidate will preferably begin employment around June 1, 2025.
ApplicationDo you meet our qualification criteria? If yes, your application should include:
You may apply for this position until 23 February 11:59pm / before 24 February 2025 Dutch local time (CET) by means of the application form (click on "Apply" below on the advertisement on the university website). Candidates who are shortlisted may be asked to submit examples of written academic work (e.g. Master's thesis or papers) at a later stage. Initial interviews will be scheduled for March 2025.
The University of Groningen strives to be a university in which students and staff are respected and feel at home, regardless of differences in background, experiences, perspectives, and identities. We believe that working on our core values of inclusion and equality are a joint responsibility and we are constructively working on creating a socially safe environment. Diversity among students and staff members enriches academic debate and contributes to the quality of our teaching and research. We therefore invite applicants from underrepresented groups in particular to apply. For more information, see also our diversity policy webpage: https: // www. rug.nl/about-ug/policy-and- strategy/diversity-and-inclusion/
Our selection procedure follows the guidelines of the Recruitment code (NVP): https: // www. nvp-hrnetwerk.nl/nl/sollicitatiecode and European Commission's European Code of Conduct for recruitment of researchers: https: // euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/charter/code
Unsolicited marketing is not appreciated.
InformationFor information you can contact:
Please do not use the e-mail address(es) above for applications.