Are you interested in the impact of climate change and climate adaptation on flood risk and what this implies for insurers and other financial institutions? Are you motivated to bridge the gap between flood risk models and actuarial models that determine insurance premiums and capital requirements? We are looking for a PhD candidate who will develop more realistic flood risk models for financial applications from stress testing of a sector to pricing of individual properties. In this project, you will work on improving flood risk assessment in delta regions by, for example, explicitly incorporating dependencies between dike failures or the spatial extent of rainfall events in flood risk modelling.

Over FIRM

Flood Insurance and Risk Management (FIRM) is a five-year research programme (2026–2030), funded by TKI Deltatechnologie, Nationale-Nederlanden and contributions from more than 10 partners from academia, the financial sector, engineering consultancies and government. The central aim of FIRM is to estimate flood and water nuisance risk information as realistically as possible and to make it suitable for use in the financial sector.

FIRM consists of four substantive research pillars and a work package on knowledge transfer. This vacancy concerns a PhD position within Pillar 1. You will collaborate closely with the PhD candidates in the other pillars. You will be supervised by researchers at the University of Amsterdam and work together with experts from the field.

Wat bieden wij

• A good salary based on your experience and seniority, in accordance with the Labour agreement.
• 232 vacation hours, parental leave, partner leave, and social engagement leave.
• Financial arrangements including holiday allowance (8%) and a year-end bonus (8.3%).
• Career development opportunities through training courses and open UvA lectures.
• Support for relocating to the Netherlands with your family, including daycare and schooling options.

Taken en verantwoordelijkheden

This PhD project focuses on improving the modelling of flood risks due to failure of flood defenses in delta regions and floods because of extreme precipitation for the financial sector, including the effects of climate change and possible interventions. The project consists of:

• Improving flood risk modelling by incorporating dependencies between dike sections and the effect of emergency measures in the risk modelling.
• Developing adaptation pathways for insurers and financial institutions to reduce risk.
• Applying the research questions and testing the developed models in case studies in the Netherlands.

Wat vragen wij

• A Master’s degree in Civil Engineering, Hydrology, Actuarial Science, Econometrics, Applied Mathematics or a related field.
• Affinity with quantitative risk analysis and probabilistic modelling.
• Experience with programming (Python, R or similar) and working with large datasets.
• Ability to communicate complex technical findings to non-specialists.
• A collaborative mindset and fluency in English; proficiency in Dutch is a plus.

Solliciteren

Do you recognize yourself in the profile and are you interested in the position? We are curious to hear from you and look forward to receiving your application. Applications must be submitted via the UvA vacancy portal and should include a motivation letter, a full curriculum vitae, transcripts of degrees, and names of two academic referees. The application deadline is 17 September 2026.