Bright Minds Assistantships

The call for applications for September 2024 is now open. The application deadline is Sunday, April 7. 

Your application should include:

• a motivation letter (max. 500 words), describing your interest in geoscientific research and detailing your current experience in the field. Please also clearly explain how you would combine the assistantship with your master's in terms of planning. You should be able to complete the assistantship within 5 months.
• your curriculum vitae.
• your selection of three preferred projects, ranked from (favourite) 1 to 3. Keep in mind that we may need  to assign you to your second or third preferred project.
• your written permission for us to use your master's application files (diploma and transcript of records) during the selection procedure.
• your student number.

Your application doesn't need to include an overview of your grades (transcript). We'll retrieve your grades from Osiris and/or your application file.

Please send your application as a single PDF file by email to Sara Koenders.

All applicants are ranked by the Student Affairs department on the basis of their grades (bachelor's, and, if applicable, master's), their interest in geoscientific research, and their planning. A shortlist is compiled and sent to the Faculty Board for assessment. Upon approval, the best-ranked students are invited to an interview with the supervisor of one of their preferred projects.

A Bright Minds Assistantship consists of 320 hours, including a certain amount of leave hours, to be completed within five months. This means that you are required to work approximately two days a week on average. Your working schedule may be flexible within these limits, depending on your availability and your supervisor's preferences. 

The Bright Minds Assistantships are subject to the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities. As a master's student, you are paid according to increment 4 of the student-assistant (SA) scale. As of August 2023 this amounts to 2846 Euro per month for a full-time position.

Please note that Bright Minds Assistantships are extracurricular (no credits are awarded) and cannot be a part of a thesis/graduation project.

If you are a non-EU student, different rules for working part-time apply. You are limited to a maximum of 16 working hours per week. Human Resources will help you request a work permit, but cannot guarantee that this request will be honoured. You should be aware that this process can take up to 12 weeks. If you're invited for an interview, make sure to discuss this with your supervisor. 

If you have any questions, please contact Sara Koenders.

• Analyzing natural and anthropogenic-induced bottom water temperature variations in the Norwegian Trench
• Assessing groundwater nitrate exposure to world populations and implications for health risks
• Constraining Northern Hemisphere glaciation and Greenland Ice Sheet sensitivity during the past ~30My
• Physics-informed machine learning for subsurface reservoir dynamics modelling
• Studying lithium geochemical behaviour in reduced environments
• Utrecht Meteorite Lab
   

• Artificial Intelligence to create maps: Can we make machine learning algorithms explicitly spatial?   
• Developing a toolbox for running and visualizing 100 m resolution global groundwater model based on PCR-GLOBWB and GLOBGM  
• Do plants grow differently on eroding soils?
• River, delta and estuary dynamics in the Metronome
• Towards high resolution (~1 km) global surface water quality modelling
• What limits the height of mountains?

• ECO-MIND - Enhancing pro-environmental behaviours and mental health through nature contact for urban youth
• Feminist approaches in human geography and spatial planning curricula in Dutch higher education
• I-CLAIM: Improving living and labour conditions of irregularised migrant households in Utrecht
• Intersectionalities of Staying Motivations
• Living queer with data: Everyday relationships with digital data in Brighton and Hove, UK

• A systematic literature review on mental models of climate change
• Adaptive wildlife management in the Netherlands
• Are governments misinformed about the cost-benefits of investments in sustainable solutions?
• Can a circular economy close the emission gap
• Coordinating research and networking activities of the Earth System Governance’s Taskforce on the Sustainable Development Goals
• De-commodifying energy: alternative and innovative energy governance
• Diversity in mental models to collaborate on sustainability challenges
• Emotions in Justice, Power and Transformative Action
• Energy poverty mapping and qualitative data collection for citizen centric solutions for sustainable energy planning in Texel
• Exploring global change effects on grassland biodiversity
• Exploring Individual Heat Stress Adaptation in Utrecht City, The Netherlands
• Exploring the co-creation of a transition to a circular economy
• Flexibility assessment for demand response: Data-driven  approaches for unlocking building energy flexibility 
• Forest restoration to maintain rainfall under climate change
• Grassland restoration on ex-arable fields in the Netherlands
• Justice, Power and Transformative action in Sustainability (JUPITA) Research & Education at Utrecht University
• Modelling hydrogen production and use in a renewable power system
• Monitoring Forest Change in Aruba with drone data
• Planning models for Nature-Based Solutions: do we even check their quality? (and if yes, how?)
• Reviving Europe’s international rail network
• Rooftop Solar PV System Optimization and Analysis at Freudenthal Building
• Tensions between Sustainability Transformations and Democracy: Learning from European Farmers’ Protests
• Understanding patterns of exposure to food packaging additives