Fully funded PhD in City Science Lab Gipuzkoa

About this position

PhD Position: Modeling intraregional population dynamics and territorial cohesion in Gipuzkoa

This PhD project aims to model, analyze, and forecast intraregional migration flows in Gipuzkoa using analytical and data-driven approaches, providing tools for long-term territorial planning and policy evaluation. It focuses on understanding how population movements evolve across space and time, and how these dynamics interact with socioeconomic and infrastructural factors shaping regional development.

Positioned at the intersection of applied mathematics, physics, economics, and data science, the project offers a unique opportunity to work in a highly interdisciplinary environment. The research will integrate semi-analytical modeling, data-driven analysis, and numerical simulations within a dynamical systems framework, in order to capture both short-term variability and long-term emergent patterns of migration processes.

This interdisciplinary approach will provide students with hands-on experience in modern quantitative methods, including computational modeling and data analysis, to develop and validate models that support evidence-based decision-making. The project also has a strong applied dimension, aiming to contribute directly to territorial planning strategies and policy design in the Basque Country.

Research Objectives

• Develop a mathematical framework for population dynamics to represent in- and out-flows of people between settlements.
• Model the bidirectional coupling between population, jobs, and housing to capture feedbacks between demographic, economic, and spatial variables.
• Represent the evolutive, time-varying mobility network and its coupling with population dynamics, to study how accessibility shapes migration patterns.
• Perform stability and phase-change analysis on simplified versions of the system to identify thresholds and potential risks in territorial development.
• Simulate alternative policy and planning scenarios to evaluate their long-term impacts on population distribution, accessibility, and regional cohesion.

Expected Contributions

• A quantitative framework linking population, jobs, housing, and mobility dynamics.
• Stability analysis to identify critical thresholds in territorial development
• Scenario evaluation framework for assessing the long-term impact of policy interventions.
• Decision-support tools for planners to promote balanced, resilient, and inclusive development in Gipuzkoa.

Research Environment

The PhD will be conducted at the City Science Lab Gipuzkoa, within a highly interdisciplinary ecosystem in collaboration with:

• MIT City Science Lab
• Department of Industrial Organization, TECNUN School of Engineering, University of Navarra
• Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Navarra
• Department of Physics and Applied Mathematics, Faculty of Sciences, University of Navarra
• MUBIL Fundazioa

Expected start time: September 2026