Postdoc societal impact of transdisciplinary research

17 Feb 2024
Job Information

Organisation/Company

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR)

Research Field

Cultural studies

Researcher Profile

Recognised Researcher (R2)

Country

Netherlands

Application Deadline

29 Feb 2024 – 22:59 (UTC)

Type of Contract

Permanent

Job Status

Not Applicable

Hours Per Week

40.0

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by an EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

Are you committed to applying your knowledge and skills to enhance the societal impact of a broad range of academic disciplines? Do you consider yourself to be a mixed-methods researcher who is not only interested in publishing papers? The Evaluating Societal Impact team is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher to assess and support the (future) road to societal impact of the Convergence. The Convergence is a collaboration between Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus MC, and TU Delft for addressing urgent and complex societal challenges of our time.

Job description
The interinstitutional, transdisciplinary, and societally relevant Convergence exemplifies the ambition of Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus MC, and TU Delft to address the urgent and complex societal challenges of our time along five themes: Resilient Delta, Health & Technology, AI, Data & Digitalisation, Pandemic & Disaster Preparedness, and Healthy Start. After a first period of developing this collaboration, the question how and to what extent the Convergence realizes its ambition becomes important.

The Convergence has a strong mission-oriented focus and unites a diversity of research practices, impact cultures and societal partners, including the City of Rotterdam and the Port of Rotterdam, making it a highly relevant context to study how transdisciplinary research and societal impact correlate and cross-fertilize. How do disciplinary interests, practical needs, university (medical center) strategic goals and shared societal challenges align? The Convergence offers a unique opportunity to investigate this question. In this project we aim to apply a plurality of context-relevant impact planning and assessment methods as an evidence-based intervention in the organization of impact-driven research – aimed at learning and improvement during the research process.

To ensure the Convergence achieves its societal impact potential, the EUR strategic program Evaluating Societal Impact (ESI) will support the Convergence in assessing and improving its societal impact and corresponding assessment approach. ESI takes steps towards appropriate impact evaluation at EUR and in initiatives in which EUR collaborates. In other words, the program enables the creation of societal impact. In doing so, we collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to create synergies, we focus on sustainable policy changes within the organisation, and we advise faculties and strategic initiatives on impact. In addition, we strongly invest in the development of easy to apply, scalable and sustainable impact enabling tools and methods. Through that we actively contribute to the transition of the EUR towards an impact driven university.

Your tasks
The successful candidate will 1) reconstruct impact ambitions and pathways of the Convergence and subsequent research; 2) assess how and why impact is realized across the Convergence and evaluating to what extent this impact meets the identified ambitions using a mixed-methods approach and 3) stimulating future societal impact by means of developing assessment instruments as well as writing a report and giving presentations.

The successful candidate will use a mixed method approach, using desk research, surveys, network analysis, interviews and focus groups to assess the Convergence’s approach to societal impact and develop assessment instruments for future use by the Convergence. Main tasks include presenting the research findings in a report, presentation, and scientific publication(s) as well. Furthermore, the successful candidate will co-supervise a junior researcher.

The successful candidate will get an appointment at the Department of Public Administration and Sociology (DPAS) within the School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB) and becomes a member of the ESI team. The team consists of people with many diverse responsibilities, areas of expertise and cultural backgrounds. Within the team we value great teamwork and supporting each other as ESI, we are very motivated to contribute to this cultural change within EUR (see https://www.eur.nl/en/evaluating-societal-impact-team for more information on the program, including its team composition).

Requirements
Specific Requirements

The successful candidate has:

• A PhD degree, preferably with a background in science, technology and innovation policy studies or related fields. For the current project, it is beneficial if the applicant has experience and affinity with societal impact assessment.
• Proven experience with mixed-method research (e.g., document research, interviews, focus groups, surveys, network analysis) is required.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English (C1 in accordance with CEFR), evidenced by published peer-reviewed journal publications, book chapters and/or other relevant outputs. Authorship of policy reports is a plus.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in Dutch are a plus.
• Very good organization skills, dares to take initiative, flourished in dynamic environments, and can work both independently and collaboratively.
• A natural curiosity into different disciplinary cultures is an important asset of the successful candidate.

Additional Information
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 start date of this position is as soon as possible or by mutual agreement and you will be based at Campus Woudestein in Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB). This position is for 0.8 fte – 1 fte. The salary is dependent on your experience and knowledge and ranges from a minimum of € 4.332 to a maximum of € 5.929 gross per month Scale 11 on a fulltime basis (38 hours), in accordance with the CAO-NU. The contract is entered into for the duration of 1 year. During this year we will actively search for opportunities to extend the position if possible.

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 or QuEUR.
• 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.

Selection process

Please submit your application, consisting of a motivation letter and CV, before the vacancy closing date.

If you have questions, you can reach out to Dr. Stefan de Jong ([email protected] or +31 10 754 7458). Please refer in your e-mail to ”Postdoc impact assessment Convergence”

The job interviews will take place in week 11, 12 and 13 of 2024 (end of February/early March).

You can find more information about the EUR on our website www.eur.nl .

We look forward to receiving your application.

Additional comments

Website for additional job details

https://www.academictransfer.com/337865/

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

Erasmus University Rotterdam

Country

Netherlands

City

Rotterdam

Postal Code

3062PA

Street

Burgemeester Oudlaan 50

Geofield

Where to apply

Website

https://www.academictransfer.com/en/337865/postdoc-societal-impact-of-transdisc…

Contact

City

Rotterdam

Website

http://www.eur.nl/

Street

Burgemeester Oudlaan 50

Postal Code

3062 PA

STATUS: EXPIRED