Do you want to bridge science and society to address the growing challenges of climate change? Do you thrive in an interdisciplinary team and enjoy co-creating solutions with stakeholders? Join us in the WELCOME project to investigate the societal impacts of compound weather events and design interactive tools to enhance public and decision-makers’ preparedness!

Your job
Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of compound weather events, where multiple extremes (e.g., droughts, floods, heatwaves) occur simultaneously or in succession, leading to cascading impacts across sectors like water, energy, and land systems. The WELCOME (Water-Energy-Land impacts of COMpound weather Events) project integrates insights and approaches from multiple disciplines to identify compound weather events, assess their impacts and explore actionable adaptation strategies and preparedness measures, using The Netherlands as a case study.

Working closely with a postdoc in climate risk assessment, your role in the project is to translate knowledge on compound weather events into actionable insights for society. To do this, you focus on stakeholder engagement, communication, and adaptation strategies. Using insights from key stakeholders, a serious game will be developed and applied to assess public and decision-makers’ preparedness for compound weather events.

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will:

1. identify key stakeholders and conduct interviews and participatory workshops with policymakers, businesses (e.g., energy operators, agencies, government), and communities to understand perceptions of compound events and adaptation needs;
2. collaborate with a team of game design experts and educators to create an interactive analog game that simulates decision-making under compound-event scenarios. The game can be used in stakeholder workshops, MSc courses (e.g., Water Science and Management), and public exhibitions;
3. use mixed-method approaches (e.g., surveys, gameplay data) to evaluate how stakeholders understand and respond to compound-event risks, informing policy and communication strategies.

Your work will directly contribute to the project’s Theory of Change by enhancing societal resilience through co-created knowledge and innovative outreach.