1-year PostDoc Operations Research

Introduction

Improved railway timetabling is key to increasing performance and efficiency of railway transport and meeting the European ambitious target to make rail the preferred mode of transport in the future. We offer a postdoc position as part of the EU-Rail project MOTIONAL, concerning the development of an aligned railway timetable planning and traffic management process. 

A railway timetable is the backbone of railway operations as it coordinates all train paths over the railway network considering infrastructure limitations. Moreover, the timetable determines largely both the passenger service quality in terms of (generalized) travel time over all origin-destination pairs, as well as the cost efficiency in terms of the required rolling stock needed to operate the timetable. In this project, you will further develop algorithm(s) for strategic railway timetabling optimizing service quality for railway passengers. The goal is to be able to compute high-quality solutions for large-scale instances, such as the Dutch national railway network.

The duration of this project is one year (12 months) and will be executed in close collaboration with Netherlands Railways (NS). In addition, you will work together with other European partners within the MOTIONAL project.

Job description

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• To develop Operations Research models and algorithms to solve strategic timetabling problems.
• To iteratively develop, test and validate the Operations Research models and algorithms above.
• To show the results of these algorithms to railway practitioners in a demonstration.
• To publish the research findings in leading international academic journals.
• To contribute to project deliverables and project meetings of the MOTIONAL project.
• The research is embedded within the Econometric Institute, Erasmus School of Economics, where you will be a member of the Operations Research subgroup. You will be co-supervised by dr. Twan Dollevoet and prof.dr. Dennis Huisman.

Job requirements

• A PhD in Operations Research, Applied Mathematics, Industrial Engineering or a related field.
• You have skills and experience with quantitative modeling, programming languages (e.g., Java or C++) and optimization tools (e.g., Cplex or Gurobi).
• You are able to work with railway practitioners.
• You have affinity with optimization models in the transportation domain.
• You have affinity with working as a team player and you are proactive in your work, involved actively in your working environment and capable of independently addressing and solving research problems.
• Excellent command of English (C1 CEFR).

Employment conditions and benefits

We offer you an internationally oriented and varied job in an enthusiastic team, with excellent working conditions in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU).

The preferred starting date is May 1st 2025, although earlier or later starting dates can be discussed. You will be based at Campus Woudestein at Erasmus School of Economics (ESE). This position is for 1 fte. The salary is dependent on your experience and knowledge and ranges from a minimum of € 4.537 to a maximum of € 6.209 gross per month (scale 11) on a fulltime basis (38 hours), in accordance with the CAO-NU.

Everything else we offer you, you can find below!

• Everything you need for a good work-life balance: the option to work from home in consultation with your manager, 41 days of paid leave with a 40 hour contract, 8% holiday pay and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus, and a significant discount on a subscription for our on-campus sports centre!
• Sustainable, inclusive and diverse work environment with an open culture, where you can be yourself and we pay attention to each other and to the world around us. Make the most of our bicycle budget, or join networks such as Young@EUR, FAME, QuEUR, or Young Erasmus Academy.
• Time and space for your development in the broadest sense: development days and a personal career budget, foreign exchange opportunities with most costs paid by EUR, and free access to our university library.
• Good pension with ABP that EUR contributes 2/3rds towards, discounts on various collective insurances with Zilveren Kruis Achmea, Loyalis, and Allianz, and compensation for travel, working from home and home internet use.
• Are you currently combining your job with parenthood, or do you want to do so in the future? EUR offers partially paid parental leave and fully paid additional birth leave for partners, and our campus features a daycare. 
• Moving to the Netherlands for your job with EUR? Then you may be eligible for the 30%-ruling if you meet the requirements of the Belastingdienst (Dutch tax agency), and with our Dual Career Programme we will also help your partner find the right job for them.

Employer

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) is an internationally oriented university with a strong social orientation in its education and research, as expressed in our mission ‘Creating positive societal impact’. EUR is home to 4.100 academics and professionals and almost 33.000 students from more than 140 countries. Everything we do, we do under the credo The Erasmian Way – Making Minds Matter. We’re global citizens, connecting, entrepreneurial, open-minded, and socially involved. These Erasmian Values function as our internal compass and create EUR’s distinctive and recognizable profile. From these values, with a broad perspective and with an eye for diversity, different backgrounds and opinions, our employees work closely together to solve societal challenges from the dynamic and cosmopolitan city of Rotterdam. Thanks to the high quality and positive societal impact of our research and education, EUR can compete with the top European universities. www.eur.nl.

Faculty / Institute / Central service

Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) is a leading school in economics in the Netherlands. It has a strong international reputation and aims to do outstanding research. Moreover, it provides excellent education at the BA., MA. and Ph.D. levels. Much research at Erasmus School of Economics is policy relevant, has social impact, and offers a strong research culture, ample research resources, and comparatively low teaching loads.
www.eur.nl/en/ese

Department

The Econometric Institute at Erasmus University Rotterdam has a strong research tradition in econometrics, statistics, data science and operations research. It is the oldest research institute in the field of econometrics in the world.

Today, the Econometric Institute offers several Bachelor and Master programmes in Econometrics and a substantial number of well-known econometricians have their roots in Rotterdam. The Econometric Institute is part of an active research community within Erasmus School of Economics - one of the largest and most successful economics schools in Europe. The Econometric Institute is also part of the research networks and graduate programmes: Tinbergen Institute and ERIM. The institute counts around 50 scientific staff and 20 PhD-students.

Additional information

More information

For questions regarding the research project please contact the project supervisor: prof. dr. Dennis Huisman huisman@ese.eur.nl

For questions regarding the application procedure please contact Manne van Riek (Operations Manager) at ei-om@ese.eur.nl

Applying

Please submit your complete application before March 1st 2025. Applications will be reviewed by the recruitment committee after this date. We look forward to receiving your application!  

Persons of all gender identities or expressions, sexual orientations, religions, ethnicities, ages, neurodiversities, functional impairments, citizenships, or any other aspect are welcome to apply and join the EUR community.