PhD Position VSS4FOOD&FIBER project - Agricultural and Development Economics

Are you finishing or have you completed a Master’s in Bioscience Engineering or in Agricultural, Development or another applied field of Economics? Are you excited about scientific research – or even just curious? Are you concerned about the sustainability and ethics of our global food and fiber system and eager to help push them in a better direction? Has doing a PhD ever crossed your mind? If so, consider our offer for one of the three vacant PhD positions in the project ‘Design, Implementation, and Impact of Voluntary Sustainability Standards in Global Food and Fiber Systems (VSS4Food&Fiber)’ financed by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO – Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek).VSS4Food&Fiber is a collaborative and interdisciplinary research project coordinated by Prof. dr. Ir. M. Maertens at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Dr. A. Marx at the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies at KU Leuven. The overall objective of the project is to enhance our understanding of the design, implementation and impact of voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) and their effectiveness as market- and trade-based sustainability tools in global agrifood and fiber systems. The project focuses on eight tropical commodities (coffee, cocoa, tea, palm oil, soybean, banana, sugarcane, and cotton), and on the most important VSS in these sectors (Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, GlobalGAP, and RSPO – among others). These eight sectors are important in South-North trade and for the export earnings of low- and middle-income countries but face pressing sustainability challenges, for example related to deforestation, biodiversity loss, poverty, and child labor. In the VSS4Food&Fiber project, we will compile unique data from a large set of countries and use quantitative and interdisciplinary methods to investigate the socio-economic and environmental sustainability effects of VSS at country- and regional-level, and how these effects are shaped by the design and governance of VSS and by their implementation through certification schemes. We will engage with diverse stakeholders, including VSS organizations, food and textile companies, civil society organizations and international institutes, about our research and findings. Are you eager to contribute to this?The project will build on a previous project, VSS4Food&Wood, that focused on VSS in wood and selected agrifood sectors. If you are curious to learn about this project, you can consult our below-mentioned project website.In the framework of this new project, we seek to recruit three full-time doctoral researchers. For one of these three positions we seek to hire someone with a background in Bioscience Engineering (with specialization in Economics), Agricultural Economics, Development Economics, Labor Economics or another applied field of Economics. In this position, you are expected to contribute to compiling country- and regional-level databases in cooperation with other doctoral and post-doctoral researchers in the project. You will exploit these databases in macro- and regional-level econometric analyses on the trade and development impacts of VSS, with a specific emphasis on export growth, child labor, working conditions, and farm productivity. You will interpret and discuss your research findings with the project team, and will engage in multidisciplinary research to integrate and synthesize findings on different sustainability outcomes and governance aspects of VSS. You will edit research articles and present your research at national and international conferences. The position requires interdisciplinary teamwork with other doctoral and post-doctoral researchers as well as independent and creative thinking that contributes to the advancement of the project and the research field. The position involves consultation with relevant stakeholders and participation in policy dialogue with public sector, private sector, and civil society actors through workshops and webinars. You are expected to deliver inspiring contributions to the development of research dissemination and valorisation material. You will work at the Division of Bio-economics, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Bio-science Engineering, KU Leuven under the supervision of Prof. dr. Ir. Miet Maertens, and in close collaboration with the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and under the co-supervision of Dr. Axel Marx. You will conduct a PhD at the Arenberg Doctoral School (ADS). You can find more information on the ADS PhD program on the below-mentioned website of Arenberg Doctoral School.The Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, within the Science and Technology Group at KU Leuven, is a department with 38 full-time professors, about 240 researchers and 24 full-time administrative and technical staff.The main mission of the Department is to conduct high quality scientific research on the functioning of geo- and ecosystems at different temporal and spatial scales, including human-environment interactions and the sustainable management of natural resources. The members of the Department provide high quality education in the fields of bioengineering, geography, geology and tourism. The Department aims to play a major role in societal issues such as environmental pollution, food production, climate change, forest, green and nature management, soil and water management, subsoil exploitation, urban and rural issues, development cooperation and tourism.

• We offer a competitive full-time PhD scholarship for 1 year (renewable for another 3 years) in accordance with KU Leuven's doctoral salary scale.
• KU Leuven offers additional benefits in terms of health insurance, public transport at reduced rates, free bicycle use, access to university sports facilities, childcare opportunities – among others. You can find more information on working conditions at KU Leuven on the below-mentioned website.
• KU Leuven offers opportunities to follow academic, skills and career training courses.
• We offer a dynamic and multicultural work environment.
• The PhD position offers the opportunity to participate in a collaborative and interdisciplinary research project, and to participate in high-level policy dialogue with the public sector, private sector, and civil society actors.