Post-Doctoral Fellow & Scientific Project Manager

Institut d’étuDes Européennes – Université libre de Bruxelles

PolyCIVIS / CIVIS

Last date to submit your candidacy: 31 October 2023

Submit Applications & Questions to: Professor François Heinderyckx by email from your account JobTeaserand to polycivis@ulb.be

Faculty / Department: Institut d’études européennes (IEE)

Academic Supervisor: Professor Anne Weyembergh

Fellowship Type: Full-Time, International Post-Doctoral Fellowship

Fellowship Length: up to 3 years (project ends 30/9/2026)

Indicative Fellowship Start date: asap

Funding source:   POLYCIVIS – Confronting the Polycrisis in Europe and Africa (Erasmus+ / Jean Monnet Policy Network – GA 101127795)

The IEE-ULB is looking to award a full-time Post-Doctoral Fellowship as part of the Jean-Monnet Network on External Policy EU-Africa project “PolyCIVIS: Confronting the Polycrisis in Europe and Africa.”

Job description

The Scientific Project Manager will be awarded a full-time Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in the framework of the Jean Monnetnetwork on external policy EU-Africa – PolyCIVIS: confronting the poly-crisis in Europe and Africa.

As part of both a research team based at the Institut d’études européennes (IEE-ULB) and the team associated with the European universities alliance CIVIS at ULB, the selected candidate will take on a research & management mandate on external (EU) funding.

The selected candidate will be in charge of the day-to-day scientific coordination and quality assurance of the PolyCIVIS project. This is to be achieved in very close collaboration with:

• the administrative coordinator of the project,
• the lead scientists at ULB,
• the academic representatives of all other partners in the project, in particular the WP leaders.

The Scientific Project Manager will contribute to the following missions:

• Provide the scientific coordination of the PolyCIVIS Network, including both its strategic orientation and the implementation of the necessary organisational work (e.g. coordination meetings, networking events, scientific workshops…). This is to be done in close relation with the PolyCIVIS’ Administrative Coordinator, the CIVIS Team based at the ULB, and the partner universities/colleagues across Europe and Africa.
• Ensure the necessary actions and activities are undertaken to achieve the milestones and deliverables listed as part of PolyCIVIS’ work package 3 (WP3). WP3, entitled “Polycrisis and policy” is to be jointly coordinated by ULB (BE) with the University of the Witwatersrand (ZA) and focusses on ensuring the policy impact of the vast expertise brought together across PolyCIVIS.
• Provide support, guidance and direction to all partners and WP leaders to ensure timely preparation and finalisation of milestones and deliverables (as per application).

The project

PolyCIVIS is a Jean Monnet Network on External Policy EU-Africa. It focuses on the polycrisis (the combination of several concurrent major societal crises that we currently face).  It proposes to jostle against 4 factors impeding our capacity to resolve the polycrisis by actively working through and across 4 groups of boundaries:

• across the different crises (contemplating holistically how they interact),
• across time (combining the latest science with overlooked lessons of the past),
• across disciplinary clusters (the complexity of the polycrisis requires a fully integrated multidisciplinary response), and
• across territories and languages (at the local, the national, the regional, the continental, and the global levels, and across language barriers).

These 4 approaches will be applied to 3 fundamental dimensions: research, policy, and teaching. The proposed network offers to bring down the walls between the crises, between the scientific disciplines trying to understand them, and between the levels of policy response across nations and continents. PolyCIVIS offers to take the polycrisis out of the various silos which prevent a compelling systemic understanding of its overall complexity and the deployment of the most adequate policy response in Europe and in Africa. PolyCIVIS will be deeply embedded across the Euro-African interregional relationship, both locally and inter-regionally, and as such would be particularly well positioned to ensure the creation of durable instruments with a sustainable impact beyond the confines of both the consortium and the lifespan of the project.

The ULB-led PolyCIVIS Jean Monnet Network will be coordinated by a well-established actor in European studies and European scientifically informed policymaking located near the major EU institutions in Brussels, namely the IEE-ULB. It gathers 19 universities, 10 of which are situated in Africa (among which 8 in the sub-Saharan region 9), to collect, share, discuss, and structure a rich body of research findings and knowledge, teaching material, policy and governmental efforts, civil society initiatives, and real-life experience. The Network will function in close cooperation with CIVIS a European University Alliance that established strong ties with African universities from the onset. Indeed, out of the Jean Monnet Network’s 19 Universities, 9 are European Partners and 6 African partners within CIVIS. The Network foresees the creation of a set of outcomes tied to some of the lasting pan-European structures of CIVIS,

Work Environment

The Scientific Project Manager will be a member of an IEE and CIVIS team dedicated to the scientific coordination of PolyCIVIS.

The Institut d’études européennes (IEE) at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) is a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence. As such, it is recognised for its expertise in European Studies. The IEE-ULB carries out its own interdisciplinary research projects. At the same time, it promotes the work of its affiliated members on European issues within the associated research units and centres of its three partner faculties – the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, the Faculty of Law and Criminology and The Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management. The IEE-ULB develops an interdisciplinary research agenda established by the Institute’s Research Committee. The current agenda is based on four research themes that are articulated around political sciences, law, economics, history, values and global interactions: Europe as an area of freedom, security & justice; Europe as an area of economic & social regulation; Europe as a community of norms & values; and Europe in the world.

CIVIS is an alliance of 11 leading research-intensive across Europe: Aix-Marseille Université, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Université libre de Bruxelles, University of Bucharest, University of Glasgow, University of Lausanne, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Sapienza Università di Roma, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Stockholm University, and Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen. It was among the first alliances to be formed within the European Universities Initiative of the European Union in 2019.

The team managing CIVIS at ULB is a vibrant, multidisciplinary group of administrators and academics contributing to the development of an ambitious and innovative alliance of universities.

Remuneration is approx. 2937 €/month net (+ periodic indexation on inflation).

Eligibility and profile

Qualifications required

Diploma: Must have a Ph.D./Doctorate in social sciences or humanities, preferably with previous experience of Africa. Special consideration will be given to those applicants with a research background that speaks directly to PolyCIVIS’ focus on a given dimension the polycrisis currently facing EU-African inter-regional relations.

Research profile: Candidates should demonstrate a successful track record in academic work on topics relevant to the polycrisis, EU-Africa relations, policymaking in the context of crises, interdisciplinarity, knowledge transfer, and other topics associated with the aims of the PolyCIVIS Network.

Language proficiency: the project’s working language is English, therefore fluency in English (oral and written) is required. Moreover, the ULB is a French language institution with many internal procedures in French, therefore, working knowledge of French will be considered a plus. Any further languages are welcome, especially Arabic and African languages.

Professional experience: no prior experience in project management is required, yet any previous involvement with international research projects – notably those funded by the EU – will be considered a further asset.

Mobility Requirement

As the funding is provided as an international post-doctoral fellowship, eligible candidates must be in a position to formally expatriate, i.e., move to Belgium when starting the fellowship.

This means that “the selected candidate must not have resided or carried out their main activity in Belgium for more than 12 months over the past 3 years immediately before their recruitment date”.

Equally, applicants’ must not have obtained their Ph.D. for more than 8 years at the time when the post-doctoral fellowship is scheduled to start – i.e., indicatively December 2023

Specific Scientific knowledge and skills

Candidates must have

• Expertise and interest in the topic of the project – i.e. EU-Africa relations
• A strong record of publications relevant to the project.
• Experience in qualitative and quantitative research methods.
• Abilities to coordinate the organisation of scientific events (e.g., conferences, summer schools, workshops, panels international conferences…).
• Experience in research, teaching, and interacting with policymakers.
• Experience in interdisciplinarity.

Candidates must have

• A very good command of English (excellent academic writing and oral skills). A good command of French is an asset,      as well as command of Arabic and other African languages.
• A proven ability to lead and coordinate a multinational, multilingual team in the context of a EU-funded project, to meet deadlines, and to combine autonomy and compliance with guidelines.
• Significant experience in working in an international environment – having experience working both in Europe and in Africa.
• A demonstrated set of strong project management and interpersonal communication skills.
• A tried ability to operate in a considerably multi-cultural environment.

Application procedure

Candidates are invited to submit their application in one email sent to Professor François Heinderyckx by email from your account JobTeaserand to polycivis@ulb.be

Application files must include in a single PDF document the following information in English:

Application Calendar

• Deadline for Submissions: 31 October 2023 (Midnight CET)
• In-Person (or online) interviews and Tests: between 6 and 17 November 2023
• Results Communicated: by22 November 2023
• Target Start date of the Fellowship:asap, depending on relocation schedule of the successful candidate

Equal opportunity policy

ULB’s personnel policy is based on diversity and equal opportunity.

We recruit candidates on the basis of their skills, regardless of their age, gender, sexual orientation, origin, nationality, beliefs, disability, etc.

Would you like to be provided with reasonable accommodation in the selection procedure because of a disability, disorder, or illness?  Please contact Marie Botty, the person in charge of diversity aspects for the academic and scientific staff ( marie.botty@ulb.be ). Be assured of the confidentiality of this information.

More details on the ULB gender and diversity policy are available at https://www.ulb.be/en/about-ulb/gender-equality-at-ulb.

• A detailed Professional Curriculum Vitae.

You may choose to complete a standard Europass form (https://europa.eu/europass/en)) or not. This is left entirely up to the applicants. Once completed, whether Europass or not, the CV must be included in the single application file.

• A personal motivation letter – two pages maximum.
• A description of your previous involvement in, or experience of, (European) project management – one page maximum.
• The names and e-mail addresses of two professional references (who may be contacted by those evaluating applications to ensure a balanced analysis.  These referees should not have conflicts of interest because of familial or emotional ties.