Bright Minds Assistantships

Applications are currently closed. 

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 Student Affairs Geosciences.

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 September 2024 this amounts to 2951 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 Student Affairs Geosciences. 

• A global reconstruction of lost plates
• Analysis of natural and human-induced climate changes over the past 14,000 years in the Norwegian Trench
• Assessing groundwater nitrate exposure to world populations and implications for health risks
• Curation and identification of Triassic fossils from Winterswijk 
• Denitrifying bacterial mats and their carbonate precipitation capacity
• Development of a pore-network model for simulating biomineralization and biogas formation in porous media using denitrifying bacteria
• Fault structure and porosity in analogue scale models
• How hot do the ocean’s warm pools get? 
• Hydrogeology of silica gels in the subsurface
• Investigation the Mechanism of Biomineralization and Bio-Cementation in Porous Stones Induced by Paracoccus Denitrificans
• Physics-informed machine learning for subsurface reservoir dynamics modelling
• Reconstructing spatial changes in the Bahamas
• Scientific storytelling: Geo imaging for sustainability 
• Surface ocean and climate change before, during and after the K-Pg boundary
• The evolution of backfill material in a rock salt repository for radioactive waste storage
• Tipping points in past climate

• Artificial Intelligence to create maps   
• Bedforms without a fluid 
• Comparing modern to historic Equisetum biochemistry and the role of CO­2 acclimation
• Does geometry matter? 
• Drawn to Maps?
• Exploring Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven approaches to enhance land subsidence modelling and management
• Land subsidence hazard and risk analysis for the whole Netherlands
• Morphodynamics of the Meuse: following fine sediments through a gravel bed river
• River morphology classification using image recognition
• River, delta and estuary dynamics in the Metronome
• The Alps are turning green – but also on moving slopes?
• Towards automation of pollen grain detection with AI

Beyond the hype: Towards a typology and toolkit for researchers interested in walk-along interviews
Cities and infrastructural warfare
Embracing digital failure
Empowering the exchange experience? 
Environments of demobilization
Feminist approaches in Human Geography and Spatial Planning curricula in Dutch higher education
Mapping Housing Informality
Planning with mold. Exploring the role of infrastructure, housing and public health
I-CLAIM: Improving living and labour conditions of irregularised migrant households in Utrecht

• A systematic literature review on mental models of climate change
• AI-Driven Integration of Sky Imager-Based Short-Term Solar Forecasting in Building Energy Management
• Analysing and visualising data in R to explore how models are used in planning of nature-based solutions
• Are governments misinformed about the cost-benefits of investments in sustainable solutions?
• Climate Politics in a Radical Age
• Comparing modern to historic Equisetum biochemistry and the role of CO­2 acclimation
• Developing a Conceptual Framework for Participatory Visualization in Energy Decision-Making for Positive Energy Districts (PEDs)
• Diversity in mental models to collaborate on sustainability challenges
• Ecology and Belonging: Inspiring Environmentalism in an Age of Extremes
• Energy access and forced migration 
• Examining social movement strategies for social-ecological transformation when facing criminal power
• Exploring Mass-mobilisations for Sustainable Transformations
• Exploring Power Dynamics in Transformative Social Innovation 
• Exploring rebound effects in second-hand clothing consumption
• Exploring the co-creation of a transition to a circular economy
• Forest restoration to maintain rainfall under climate change
• Grassland restoration on ex-arable fields in the Netherlands
• How plant colonization strategies drive the success of biodiversity restoration measures  
• Living lab for solar PV systems, monitoring and data recording
• Living together with Wildlife: International approaches to managing human-wildlife coexistence
• Mapping for Sustainable Development
• Mapping global biocultural diversity
• Nature-based solutions incorporating groundwater flow systems in the Netherlands
• Outer space development and implications for planetary sustainability
• Public ownership of key technologies
• Remote Sensing of National Park Utrechtse Heuvelrug
• Restore bogs with drone-derived data
• The role of women in the history of energy transitions
• The transformative potential of Citizen Science for nature based solutions
• Understanding patterns of exposure to food packaging additives