The Research Training Group will start on 1 April 2027. Successful applicants will be offered a 4-year doctoral support contract with remuneration dependent on TV-L pay grade 13 (65%) according to the German public salary scale; employment will be either at the University of Bonn or the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences. Degrees will be obtained from the medical, mathematical-natural science, philosophical or agricultural, nutritional and engineering sciences faculties or the Promotionskolleg NRW, respectively, depending on disciplinary background and research focus. All doctoral researchers will complete the structured doctoral program, which strongly emphasizes systems thinking and transdisciplinary approaches to build meta-competencies for urban health research. Next to overarching interdisciplinary courses, specific disciplinary courses and soft-skills training make up the foundation of the program.

The RTG „Urban Future“ investigates how urban transformations in “Blue Cities“ – urban areas situated along rivers or coastlines where water is explicitly integrated into urban planning and holds a central place in societal identity – can be managed to improve public health, social equity, and ecological sustainability. The research focuses on the complex water-health-governance nexus, with a particular emphasis on cities in the Global South as living laboratories. The RTG is a joint initiative of the University of Bonn and the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, in close cooperation with international partner institutions in Ghana (KNUST, UG, UCC), Togo (UOL), Cameroon (UBUEA), Brazil (USP) and Japan (UTokyo). While partner networks provide a strong international framework, applicants are free to propose research sites in any “Blue City” worldwide.

The RTG is structured around four overarching Research Themes (RTs):
A) Urban Health Resilience,
B) Urban Disease Ecology,
C) Governance and Institutional Change, and
D) Adaptive Urban Ecosystems

View the complete job posting here: GRK 3204_1_Blue Cities_Call for Applications