Home>Recruitment - Junior Researcher
31.05.2023
Recruitment - Junior Researcher
Description
We are seeking to appoint a Junior Researcher to work with Prof Laura Morales (the PI), from October 2023, in the Horizon Europe project ActEU: Towards a new era of representative democracy - Activating European Citizens’ Trust in Times of Crises and Polarization”. Sciences Po is a partner in this project led by the Universities of Duisburg-Essen and of Saarland (Germany), and the Sciences Po team is led by Prof Morales at CEE, who is joined in the project by researchers at both CEE and CEVIPOF.
The ActEU project studies political trust and legitimacy in Europe using a new conceptual framework – the ActEU conceptual triangle. The project focuses on the interactions between citizens’ political attitudes, their political participation and the representation of their policy preferences with the aim of mapping and investigating the sources of the decline of political trust and legitimacy in Europe.
In addition to the overall conceptual triangle, ActEU considers the specific challenges posed by new controversies that are polarizing European societies as well as by the multi-level structure of the EU multi-level system of governance. Therefore, we place specific emphasis on the different levels of the polity that are pertinent in the EU multi-level system as well as on major policy fields – migration, the environment, gender inequalities – around which European societies are highly polarized.
Our research methods range from descriptive large-N analyses of publicly available data sets (all EU member states + additional countries wherever necessary), qualitative focus group discussions, to quantitative survey experiments and web-scraping techniques for selected countries:
We provide deep insights for the following ten EU countries: Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland and Spain (i.e., quantitative survey experiments and web scraped data).
For the focus groups, we opt for a smaller country selection (Czechia, France, Germany and Greece)
Based on the empirical findings, one of the major aims of ActEU is to develop a toolbox of remedial actions including two toolkits for (1) European, national, regional and local policymakers, and (2) civil society and the educational sector to (re-)activate citizens and to enhance trust in and legitimacy of representative democracy.
The project started in March 2023 and will run until February 2026. The Junior Researcher will join a team at Sciences Po formed by 7 senior researchers of CEE and CEVIPOF, 2 PhD researchers of CEE and a research engineer at CEE, as well as an international team formed by senior and junior researchers in 11 other universities and research organizations.
Tasks
We are seeking to appoint a Junior Researcher who will undertake the following range of tasks:
Supporting the coordination of all deliverables and data collection/analysis owed by Sciences Po for the project;
Analyzing cross-national survey data on the dynamics and patterns of political trust and political action, as well as on the role of ethnic diversity and the politicization of immigration on such dynamics and patterns, and contributing as necessary to the reports and deliverables relating to such analyses;
Supporting the coordinators of WP2 on citizens’ attitudes;
Contributing to the design of toolkits and policy briefs for policymakers and other stakeholders on the results of the project produced by the Sciences Po team;
Contributing to the preparation and delivery of all dissemination, communication and exploitation activities of the project;
Being responsible for the maintenance and version control of any data used for the project, including the preparation of Data Management Plans and any other formal Personal Data Protection requirements established by Sciences Po, the ActEU coordinators or the European Commission. This will also include inputting of data and its safe storage using the agreed protocols, as defined by the research team and Sciences Po’s research data protection policy;
Prepare and undertake data analysis and tests using quantitative and qualitative techniques and approaches agreed with the Principal Investigator and the rest of the team;
Attending the relevant meetings of the international consortium;
Actively contributing to (and where necessary and appropriate depending on qualifications and experience, leading) academic publications stemming from the project, also including the preparation of any replication data submission for journals, as required;
Supporting the PI in all administrative and project management tasks as required;
Identifying and understanding work requirements prioritising tasks and responsibilities within an agreed time frame agreed with the PI;
The post holder will be required to effectively manage their time to deliver on the priorities of the project. The post holder will need to plan ahead to ensure the research is delivered in accordance with the overall research objectives and deadlines. This may include defining tasks and schedules, organising meetings, preparing intermediate reports on data and findings, and contributing to the preparation of the project final report.
Requirements
Research Field
Political sciences
Education Level
Master Degree or equivalent
Skills/Qualifications
Essential:
A Master's degree in Politics or Political Sociology (or closely related discipline) with a substantive or methodological focus relevant to the project, completed or close to completion (e.g., will be completed in the Summer);*
Demonstrable training and experience using quantitative research methods and techniques;*
An expertise, backed up by research experience, in the subfields of political behaviour and political attitudes in Europe, and in one or several of the following fields:, political representation, political institutions or political parties;*
Research experience in subjects or projects relevant to the research project;*
Proficiency in English (oral and for academic writing);*
Proven ability of social science data input, management and analysis with Stata or R;*
Advanced-level quantitative analysis skills (e.g., including pooled cross-sectional time series analysis, multilevel regression analysis, etc.);*
Proven ability to write up research findings;*
Ability to take initiative, self-manage and contribute intellectually to the overall project;
Expertise with relevant office packages;
Ability to work as part of a team;
Good oral and written communication skills;*
Attention to detail.*
Desirable, but not essential:
Experience in primary survey data collection;
Some proficiency in French (oral reading);
Reading proficiency in at least one more of the following languages would be an advantage: German, Italian or Spanish;
Some experience with Bayesian statistics, the analysis of social media data and/or the design of experiments in surveys would be an advantage;
Prior research experience in externally funded projects;*
A track record of international collaboration in social science research or consultancy experience;
Experience in writing reports for funders;
(*Criteria to be used to shortlist candidates for interview)
Languages
English
Level
Excellent
Research Field
Political sciences - Governance
Additional Information
Selection process
Please send (1) a cover letter outlining your experience and qualifications for the role, and how you feel you meet the requirements for the position, (2) a CV and (3) a sample of single-authored written piece of work in English that includes quantitative empirical analysis to recruitment.cee@sciencespo.fr copying laura.morales@sciencespo.fr and eleonora.russo@sciencespo.fr. Please indicate in the object “ActEU junior researcher application”.
