About the University of Vechta and PK 060

The University of Vechta is a small, research-focused university in northwest Germany. Its VISTRA institute brings sustainability research together across disciplines, and the PK 060 doctoral college sits inside it. The college is jointly directed by Prof. Dr. John-Oliver Engler and Prof. Dr. Jana Zscheischler. Prof. Dr. Paula Bögel and Prof. Dr. Karl Martin Born also take part.

The research question behind the college is that sustainability transitions, such as energy transitions, climate policy and the bioeconomy, create “transformation pains.” Not everyone experiences change as positive, and the justice questions this raises are “little understood, empirically researched, and reflected upon” (official call). The college studies these questions with a comparative case-study approach across individual dissertations, with particular attention to rural areas.

How it compares: a typical German PhD position is a paid university job (an employment contract with a salary and social security), and DAAD scholarships are usually open to applicants from any field. PK 060 is a foundation scholarship tied to a single theme. You receive a stipend, not a salary, and your topic must fit the college’s justice-and-transformation framework. In return you get a structured cohort, workshops in theory and methods, and a partner network that includes Leuphana University Lüneburg, the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), the Basque Centre for Climate Change, Lund University, the Copernicus Institute at Utrecht University, and the University of Vermont.

📚 Research Areas

The call lists example topics, and says the list is not exhaustive:

• Energy transition: energy affordability and new (in)equity between urban and rural areas
• Spatial justice: equitable livelihoods, social places and local resilience
• Normative uncertainty: uncertainty about the “right” ethical standard in designing just transformations
• The role of risk and uncertainty in perceived (in)justice
• Justice in socio-technical transitions, such as digitalisation and the bioeconomy
• Justice effects of nature and climate protection policies, including urban-rural and Global North–South relations
• Gender justice in transformation processes
• The role of trade unions in shaping just transformations

Ideas with a Pakistani angle that could fit (these are our suggestions, not official ones): the distributional effects of solar net-metering on rural households, climate-adaptation funding after floods and who receives it, or perceptions of justice around water allocation in irrigated agriculture, framed comparatively with German rural cases.

📄 Required Documents

1. Exposé (max. 10 pages) outlining your project and placing it within the PK 060 research programme
2. The Hans Böckler Foundation application documents listed in the online portal, usually including a CV, degree certificates and transcripts, and a motivation statement (verify on official website)
3. Language certificates: German B2 and English C1 (verify which certificates are accepted)
4. Any references or reports the portal asks for (verify on official website)

HEC note for Pakistani applicants: get your degrees and transcripts HEC-attested and have certified translations ready. Check your university and degree on anabin. German universities use it to judge whether your master’s qualifies you for doctoral admission. Attestation can take weeks, so start now.

🪜 Step-by-Step: How to Apply

1. Read the programme. Study the PK 060 page and the topic list above.
2. Write a 1–2 page project sketch. Include the research question, the justice problem, the case and the method.
3. Email both directors in advance. The call asks applicants to contact Prof. Dr. Jana Zscheischler (jana.zscheischler@uni-vechta.de) and Prof. Dr. John-Oliver Engler (john-oliver.engler@uni-vechta.de) to discuss their projects. Copy both into one short, specific email.
4. Refine your exposé using their feedback, keeping it to 10 pages or fewer. Promising applicants get help adapting it.
5. Prepare your Böckler documents and language certificates.
6. Submit only through the Hans Böckler online portal before 2 November 2026. Email applications are not accepted.
7. Academic review. Your exposé is reviewed, and results are announced in May 2027.

Questions about the process go to bewerbung@boeckler.de. Questions about the programme content go to the college postdoc, judith-maria.maruschke@uni-vechta.de.

🌍 Why Apply

Funded PhDs that take justice and social sciences seriously are rarer than STEM positions in Germany, and PK 060 gives you a ready-made cohort working on related questions. That makes publishing, co-authoring and peer support much easier than a solo PhD. The partner network (Lund, Utrecht, Vermont, BC3) gives you useful international contacts, and Hans Böckler alumni status carries weight in German policy, union and academic circles.

🔗 Official Sources

• Official call for applications (PDF, English)
• PK 060 doctoral college, University of Vechta
• Hans Böckler Foundation online application portal
• Hans Böckler doctoral scholarship information (German)