Are you working in or with a regulatory authority — or otherwise deeply engaged with questions of regulatory decision-making, communication, or public trust and regulatory legitimacy — and curious about pursuing a PhD alongside your current role? The Regulatory Behavior Lab at VU Amsterdam, led by Dr. Dovilė Rimkutė, welcomes applications from external PhD candidates who want to combine rigorous academic research with their existing professional experience.

About the lab
The Regulatory Behavior Lab studies how regulation actually works in practice — the judgment and discretionary decisions regulators make in contested environments, how regulatory communication shapes legitimacy and organizational reputation, and how public evaluation influences compliance and contestation. The lab works across policy domains including environmental protection, financial supervision, public health, and consumer safety, and across local, national, and international regulatory authorities, drawing on public administration, political science, psychology, and behavioral science.

The position
Unlike our funded internal PhD positions, this is an external (unpaid) PhD trajectory: the university does not provide a salary, and the candidate's own time — typically supported through an arrangement with their employer — funds the research. The topic itself is broadly defined: rather than being tied to a single funded project, it can be shaped around any of the lab's core research themes above, developed together with you and your professional context. This makes it particularly well suited to candidates already working inside or closely with a regulatory body, who want to turn practical questions from their own work into a rigorous academic research trajectory.

Beyond the thesis itself, joining the Regulatory Behavior Lab offers external PhD candidates a uniquely supportive environment. You would work alongside an established team — internal PhD candidates,  postdocs , and the PI — that meets regularly, provides structured feedback, and shares expertise in research design, methods, and academic writing. Our team-science approach ensures that external candidates receive the same level of guidance and rigour as fully embedded PhDs, while keeping the research closely connected to questions that matter in practice.

How funding typically works
Because external PhD positions are not paid by the university, the candidate's time needs to be supported in another way. The most common and successful model is for the candidate's employer to allow one or two days per week of paid work time to be dedicated to the thesis, with the remaining research conducted alongside their regular role. For an employer, this kind of arrangement can be a meaningful investment: it builds expertise from within the organization, strengthens the evidence base for its work, and supports the long-term development of motivated staff.

Your profile

• A (research) master's degree in public administration, political science, (political/social/cognitive) psychology, or a closely related field
• A current or recent role within, or close to, a regulatory authority, agency, or related organization, ideally with some capacity (formal or to be arranged) to dedicate part of your working time to the PhD
• Genuine interest in one or more of the lab's research themes, and a willingness to shape a dissertation topic around it
• Willingness to develop skills in rigorous empirical research — quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods, depending on the topic
• Strong academic writing skills in English
• Autonomous, diligent, and able to sustain a long-term research project alongside professional responsibilities
• Ability to collaborate across disciplines and communicate clearly with both academic and practitioner audiences

We recognize that external candidates bring a different kind of profile than typical fresh master's graduates, and we welcome that — practical experience inside a regulatory context is an asset, not a gap to compensate for.

Enrollment
As with our internal PhD candidates, formal admission to VU's Graduate School of Social Sciences (VU-GSSS) is part of the process for external PhD candidates as well.  Please check the VU-GSSS website to familiarize yourself with the requirements: 

Please also note and PhD fees apply for external PhD candidates.

Interested?
If you recognize yourself in this profile — or if you work for or with an organization that might be interested in sponsoring this kind of arrangement — please get in touch with Dr. Dovilė Rimkutė (d.rimkute@vu.nl). Please send the following documents (see below) which we will assess and get back to you to arrange a brief informal meeting about a possible topic, format, and timeline before submitting a formal application.

• A short (2-5 pages) expression of interest outlining your background and a possible research direction connected to the lab's themes
• Your CV
• Whether (and how) your current employer might support dedicated research time

We look forward to exploring what a collaboration could look like.