Dear colleagues,

I would like to kindly draw your attention to the following job offer for a researcher at praedoc level (PhD candidate) at my new chair at the Julius-Maximilians-University of Wuerzburg, Germany (starting 1 January 2024). Please let it circulate in your professional networks. Thank you very much.

With kind regards
Sonja Grimm

The research team of Prof. Dr Sonja Grimm, Chair of International Relations and European Studies,  Institute of Political Science and Sociology, Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg, Germany  seeks to hire for the period from 1 January 2024 until 30 September 2025 (conditional upon the approval of the EU) a researcher (PhD candidate/prae-doc level) (m/f/x) (salary scale TV-L 13, 65% of a full employment)

We seek to hire a researcher at PhD candidate/prae-doc level who will be assigned three tasks: to contribute to the international collaborative research project EMBRACE that is funded by the European Commission within the Horizon-Europe research framework [https://embrace-democracy.eu], to teach in the Department’s Bachelor program, and to work on a PhD thesis that is related to the Chair’s areas of expertise. As member of EMBRACE, the Würzburg team in close cooperation with a team located at Stockholm University investigates the effects of EU democracy promotion on levels of democracy and conflict in the European neighbourhood. Teaching includes the requirement to give undergraduate courses on current matters of European integration and the role that the European Union plays in the world and to supervise BA thesis writing. The planned PhD thesis should be an innovative individual research project that is well connected to EMBRACE’s research questions and the Chair’s main foci of research [more about the Chair can be found on its institutional website].

We are looking for a highly reliable young scholar with interest in European integration, the European neighbourhood, democratization, democracy promotion, regime transformation and/or conflict management. The core responsibility of the researcher will be to collect, systematize, analyze and display data on EU democracy promotion and its effects on levels of democracy in the European neighbourhood and to publish the results in international academic journals. Given the international character of the project, the project language is English. Teaching can be either in English or in German. The PhD thesis should be written in English.

Job profile: What you will do

• Data collection, coding, analysis (using Excel, STATA and/or R)
• Research report and journal article writing
• Project management
• Teaching in the BA program of the department (equivalent of 2,5 SWS per term)
• Conduct research for your own PhD project

Your profile and essential qualifications; What you offer

• You have recently completed your MA degree in political science, sociology, economics or a related discipline that fits to the Chair’s areas of expertise and the EMBRACE project.
• You have experience in quantitative research methods including data collection, and analysis (e.g. with Excel; STATA, R, SPSS, Python or the like).
• You can work academically in English; proficiency in German and/or another language spoken in Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans or the Mediterranean is an asset.
• You are a reliable and independently working team player.
• You are willing to improve your capacities in data coding, data analysis, project management, publishing and teaching.
• You are willing to complete your PhD project also beyond the termination of EMBRACE; a prolongation of the contract might be possible (conditional upon approval of further funding).

The Chair and the Project: What we offer

• Integration into an international, dynamic and highly motivated Chair team and into an exiting international collaborative research project with 14 institutional partners located within the EU and its neighbourhood.
• Research and management experience in Chair and research project work.
• Methodological training and practice.
• Teaching experience.
• Continuous and encouraging supervision of your PhD thesis.
• Support in academic networking and presenting at international conferences.
• Support in getting published.

Application

Your application should include a cover letter explaining how you fulfil the above criteria, a CV, a transcript of your Master degree records, a list of publications (if applicable), a description of your planned PhD project (max. 2 pages), certificates, up to two references (no letters please, contact details are sufficient), and your Master thesis. Please make sure that your referees can be contacted shortly after the submission deadline. Please hand in your complete application compiled into one PDF (no more than 10 MB), latest by 20 November 2023 to Prof Dr Sonja Grimm via Email [sonja.grimm@uni-wuerzburg.de]. Questions as regards the position can be addressed to Sonja Grimm via the same email address. Job interviews will be scheduled shortly after the submission deadline.

The University of Würzburg is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or age. The JMU aims to reduce the underrepresentation of women and therefore explicitly encourages qualified women to apply. Severely handicapped applicants will be given preferential consideration in the case of broadly equal suitability, ability and professional achievements.

Prof Dr. Sonja Grimm

Co-Coordinator and Scientific Lead of EMBRACE, a Horizon-Europe funded research consortium, at the University of Konstanz, Germany

Professor for International Relations and European Studies at the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg, Germany (starting 1 October 2023)

https://www.politikwissenschaft.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/divisions/ib/
http://www.sonja-grimm.eu
http://www.embrace-democracy.eu
http://www.external-democracy-promotion.eu

Dear colleagues, due to a fellow leaving the project, we need to reopen a vacancy. It is an excellent opportunity with full fellowship, research expenses paid and network spanning over 4 continents, please advice any of your excellent students to apply, thank you
Abel

Cfa: PhD scholarship: Informality and innovation: building post-pandemic resilient communities in Morocco (based at: University of Latvia, EPRC Georgia and UCD Morocco)

This is part of an industrial doctorate project whose description is below. Also documents to apply are listed below in this call.

Your job in a nutshell:

1. you will be enrolled in a PhD programme under guidance of Prof Ilona Baumane-Vitolina and Dr Abel Polese, Dr Irina Guruli and Prof Kamal Labassi

2. you will be employed full time with a competitive salary calculated according to Marie Curie standards (a short description can be found here https://fastepo.com/phd-and-postdocs-salary/salary-of-phd-student-in-marie-sklodowska-curie-itn/)

3. your employment will be shared between a standard university research contract and a contract as an analyst at EPRC with data collection in Morocco

4. you will be part of a large network with 29 partners from Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. The network will meet twice a year in different locations and you will have a chance to benefit from expertise of other professionals. A list of partners and participants can be found here

https://www.presilient-dn.eu/

5. you will be expected to conduct a research on informality in Morocco while contributing to practical tasks and develop a career plan, in consultation with your supervisors, leading you to be competitive on the job market (with both research and professional experience) as soon as you defend your PhD

We will be assessing applications on a rolling basis with last day to apply the 1 of December 2023. Starting date is 1 January 2024 or as soon as possible at a later agreed date.

Applications should be emailed to presilient.dn@gmail.commailto:presilient.dn@gmail.com cc-ed to Prof Ilona Baumane-Vītoliņa: ilona.baumane@lu.lvmailto:ilona.baumane@lu.lv and abel.polese@dcu.iemailto:abel.polese@dcu.ie

An application package must include:

1. a curriculum vitae (including explicit details of country / countries of residence for the past 3 years, this is needed for eligibility purposes);

2. an application letter no longer than 500 words;

3. a short (500-1000 words) summary of your doctoral project.

4. The grades achieved in your Master’s degree (certificates will be requested if you are shortlisted)

5. Name and contact of 2-3 references who can comment on your professional qualifications and abilities (they will be contacted only if you are shortlisted)

NB if you are shortlisted, you will be encouraged to submit your documents for PhD enrolment at LU as soon as possible. Please check the required documents here:

https://www.lu.lv/en/https://www.lu.lv/en/admission/admission-procedure/doctoral-studies/

Please send all the documents together in one PDF file and use, as subject of your message, “PRESILIENT-DN-2023 Application” Morocco. Failure to do this might result in your application ending up in the wrong folder.

Description of the project

Post-pandemic resilient communities: is the informal economy a reservoir for the next generation of digitalized and green businesses in Africa, Asia and Latin America? (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-DN-01, GA 101073394)

What is an Industrial Doctorate?

An MSCA – Industrial Doctorate is a programme funded by Horizon Europe thanks to which Junior Researchers can enroll in a PhD programme while being employed 18 months by a university and 18 months by a non-academic partner (think tank, company, NGO, see list below). Successful fellows will receive a salary for three years, at the EU early Stage Researcher rate – substantially above the level of PhD scholarships in most countries (total amount depending on the country where they will be based in) and an allowance for mobility, research, family in line with EU guidelines that can be viewed here:

https://ec.europa.eu/info/https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/wp-call/2021-2022/wp-2-msca-actions_horizon-2021-2022_en.pdf

The programme is is aimed at producing PhD holders with already a strong work experience and thus already competitive on the job market.

Main objectives of the programme

If successful, you will be enrolled in a PhD programme in one of the universities below and work in a team of academic and non-academic specialists to conduct a multi-level study on informality in one of the 15 target countries (Africa, Asia, Latin America, see list below) involving a) Horizon Scanning; b) Delphi Survey; c) Construction of Case Studies to identify the sectors of the economy that have been most affected by the pandemic, the sectors that could lead economic recovery and the policies needed to make this recovery durable and sustainable in the long term; the final goal is the training of a junior expert on informality in the Global South with exposure to both academic and non-academic sector opportunities; Database, PhD thesis, scientific publications, policy publications, communication activities.

Short description of the project and its focus

In addition to the almost 2bln workers already active in the informal sector, World Bank and ILO estimate that the pandemic might have put at risk of precarious employment 500mln-1.5bln more. These losses, and related consequences, are not evenly distributed given that Africa, Asia and Latin America is where 93% of the world’s informal employment is located and where post-pandemic crisis is likely to hit harder (especially women, migrants and young people). Yet, the concern is global. Indeed, besides vulnerability and precariousness at individual and community levels, informality also eventually reduces state capacity and the ability of institutions to design and implement policies that properly address social, economic and environmental issues (i.e. SDGs) in a long term perspective. Accordingly, informality-related challenges have been devoted a great deal of attention and political statements. But seldom have these statements been followed by concrete instructions, guidelines or evidence-based policies to tackle informality across the world. Starting from this gap, PRESILIENT is a large network comprising 14 partners (of which 7 nonacademic) and 15 associated partners located in Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America committed to delivering the a world class cross-regional training on informality in the Global South to: measure it, address it, find viable and sustainable alternatives. By doing this, we have committed to four main objectives: O.1 train the next generation of experts on informality in the global south. O.2 carry out a research spanning 15 different countries and to produce novel data and significant theoretical advancements in the field. O.3 produce strategic intelligence that can be used to provide practical policy recommendations O.4 enable multi-directional knowledge transfer through network events, pairing of academic and non-academic partners (who will jointly supervise each fellow), secondment and task-based teamwork.

Project partners and regional focus

You can apply for one or more positions, but we would be grateful if you could state this in your application to avoid the risk of recruiting the same candidate twice. The selection process is decentralised so you need to prepare a separate application for each of the universities you want to apply to. Note that entry requirements, deadline, and procedures may differ so check what is needed in the specific announcement issued by each partner.

Practical details

Financial conditions (including salary levels) and background documents are available at

https://ec.europa.eu/info/https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/wp-call/2021-2022/wp-2-msca-actions_horizon-2021-2022_en.pdf

Your salary will be calculated according to MSCA rules and your personal + family situation. More information can be found at the financial section of the above MSCA document. If selected, you will be expected to familiarise yourself with these rules also to be aware of your formal rights and obligations towards the donor.

Eligibility: there are no nationality limitations (anyone can apply); applicants must hold a degree enabling them to enroll into doctoral studies by September 2023 (usually a MA or MSc). They cannot have more than 4 years full time research experience (or hold a doctorate already, even if they worked less than 4 years to complete it) at the time of recruitment.

Mobility requirement: applicants can be of any nationality but cannot have been resident (or have had their main activity i.e. work or study) in the country where you will be enrolled in PhD studies for more than 12 of the 36 months prior to recruitment. This means that if you spent less than 12 months in the country where you are going to start your PhD you are eligible.

NB: this is a very intensive programme. Each selected candidate will be enrolled into a PhD programme, work as junior researcher and will be seconded to the target region for data collection and gain a hands-on work experience on how research skills can be used beyond academia for the benefit of the governmental, private or international development sector. There will also be workshops of 4 to 5 days duration approximately every 6 months at which attendance is essential. Therefore a willingness and ability to undertake these international mobilities is a core requirement.

Any informal enquiries about research topics or the process (that are not already addressed in this call or in the MSCA guide for applicants, see link above), should be addressed to the relevant contact person

Applications should be emailed to presilient.dn@gmail.comand cc-ed to Prof Ilona Baumane-Vītoliņa: ilona.baumane@lu.lvmailto:ilona.baumane@lu.lv

It must include:

1. a curriculum vitae (including explicit details of country / countries of residence for the past 3 years, this is needed for eligibility purposes);

2. an application letter no longer than 500 words;

3. a short (500-1000 words) summary of your doctoral project.

4. The grades achieved in your Master’s degree (certificates will be requested if you are shortlisted)

5. Name and contact of 2-3 references who can comment on your professional qualifications and abilities (they will be contacted only if you are shortlisted)

NB if you are shortlisted, you will be encouraged to submit your documents for PhD enrolment at LU as soon as possible. Please check the required documents here:

https://www.lu.lv/en/https://www.lu.lv/en/admission/admission-procedure/doctoral-studies/

Please send all the documents together in one PDF file and use, as subject of your message, “PRESILIENT-DN-2023 Application” Morocco. Failure to do this might result in your application ending up in the wrong folder.