Are you interested in finding innovative ways of making European democracies more resilient? Do you like working across disciplinary boundaries and in partnership with societal stakeholders? Are you excited about shaping the future of democracy research through the introduction of cutting-edge digital technologies? Do you have a strong background in computational social sciences applied to democracy research? Consider joining the TWIN4DEM team as a post-doctoral researcher

TWIN4DEM project

Over the last decade, executive power grabs – also called executive aggrandizement – have driven a retreat of democracy raising concerns about Europe’s democratic resilience among scholars, policymakers and the public alike. Despite the profusion of data on many dimensions of democratic life, democracy researchers have not been able to identify the multidimensional causal pathways that trigger executive aggrandizement and weaken rule of law-based institutions. TWIN4DEM ambitions to scale up the use of Computational Social Sciences (CSS) in democracy research by bringing together scholars of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), CSS, computer scientists and democratic promotion stakeholders to jointly address one of the most crucial questions in democracy scholarship: what causes democracies to decline? Combining various advanced CSS methods (natural language processing; data aggregation and synthesizing, and dynamic simulation models) allows to uncover the drivers and implications of executive aggrandizement in a more precise manner. By prototyping the first ever digital twins (DT) of four European democratic systems (Czechia, France, Hungary and the Netherlands), TWIN4DEM develops cross-cutting tools to process and aggregate textual and non-textual data more efficiently and accurately through the simulation of policy scenarios in a participatory and inclusive environment.

TWIN4DEM is a project funded under the Horizon Europe programme involving 11 partners coming from 10 countries.

Your role and responsibilities
As a post-doctoral researcher, you will have five main responsibilities:

• Support the EUR coordinating team in the day-to-day management of the TWIN4DEM project. This includes contributing to the drafting of review reports; support the organization of the project’s meetings, representing the EUR in project’s meetings (10% of your working time);
• Leading the Netherlands case study. This implies collecting the necessary textual and non-textual data to build a digital replica of the Dutch political system and coordinating with the other case study and work package leaders (40% of your working time);
• Support WP’s leaders in the development of a natural language processing algorithm to analyze a diverse corpus of textual sources in Dutch (legal archives; social media pages, political communication) (10% of your working time);
• Develop, with TWIN4DEM partners, strategies and organize activities to maximize the scientific and societal impacts of the project, incl. the set-up of methodological toolbox; the organizing of the TWIN4DEM training camp, the drafting of policy briefs. This amounts to 20% of your working time over the full duration of the project (20% of your working time);
• Support the teaching activities of the DPAS department and, in particular, contribute to the supervision of BA and MA theses on your area of expertise (20% of your working time).

What to expect from us?
You will join a very dynamic team and collaborate across disciplinary and national borders. You will gain new skills in cutting-edge CSS methods applied to democracy research. As a post-doctoral researcher, you will become an integral part of the research team and contribute to the supervision of early-career researchers hired for the project. You will build from an extended professional network in this field.

• PhD in a relevant field (political science, computational social sciences, economics,…);
• Expertise in the application of CSS methods to democracy research (such as natural language processing, agent-based models,…) demonstrated by international publications and working papers;
• Demonstrated ability to work across disciplinary boundaries in multinational research teams;
• Knowledge of the Dutch political system (expertise in comparative research is an asset);
• Excellent English skills.

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 1 January 2025 and you will be based at Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB). This position is for 1 fte. The salary is dependent on your experience and knowledge and ranges from a minimum of € 4.492 to a maximum of € 6.148 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 one year and can be extended with another two years if performance is good and the organizational circumstances remain unchanged.

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 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 (daycare not paid for by EUR).
• 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.

Erasmus University Rotterdam

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) is an internationally oriented university with a strong social orientation in its education and research, as expressed in our mission ‘Creating positive societal impact’. EUR is home to 4.100 academics and professionals and almost 33.000 students from more than 140 countries. Everything we do, we do under the credo The Erasmian Way – Making Minds Matter. We’re global citizens, connecting, entrepreneurial, open-minded, and socially involved. These Erasmian Values function as our internal compass and create EUR’s distinctive and recognizable profile. From these values, with a broad perspective and with an eye for diversity, different backgrounds and opinions, our employees work closely together to solve societal challenges from the dynamic and cosmopolitan city of Rotterdam. Thanks to the high quality and positive societal impact of our research and education, EUR can compete with the top European universities. www.eur.nl.

Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB)
The Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences is home to a vast diversity of scientific disciplines: public administration, pedagogical sciences, psychology and sociology. In addition, the Erasmus University College, IHS, and two research institutes RISBO and DRIFT are linked to the faculty. This also reflects in the content of the (international) bachelor's and master's programs and in research. Our activities are always focused on people and society. At the ESSB fundamental, internationally oriented research is of paramount importance. In addition, social research for professionals, policy makers, and the society is part of our research activities. ESSB offers a stimulating research environment where major national and international research grants are received. Appealing guest researchers and ambitious PhD candidates come along to conduct their research. Our education is small-scale and works with innovative forms of education such as Problem-Based Learning (PBL). Both the Dutch and English programs are highly ranked by students and alumni. ESSB is home to over 4000 students and more than 400 staff-members. The different disciplines are supported by the Faculty Office (for more information, please visit www.eur.nl/essb).

Department of Public Administration and Sociology (DPAS)

DPAS encompasses the disciplines Public Administration and Sociology: two related scientific fields each with a unique profile. Public Administration studies governance capacity and policy interventions. It focuses on institutional power to organize and intervene in the relations between different social, political and economic actors. Public Administration in Rotterdam goes far beyond the public realm to also pay attention to public-private cooperation and the networks of organizations. Sociology investigates the social structures of societies and the way these evolve. Sociologists in Rotterdam focus, inter alia, on processes of globalization and individualization, and the effects of these processes on international social relations, the labor market and family relations. Social issues that are studied under this banner include migration, flexibilization and solidarity. The perspectives of Public Administration and Sociology complement each other. Together they guarantee a highly relevant and scientific approach to topical administrative and social issues. The bachelor- and master programs of DPAS are built on this profile and develop students into scientifically schooled professionals.

Team Policy, Politics and Society
The team Policy, Politics and Society (PPS) is an interdisciplinary team that does research and provides teaching around a broad set of complex policy issues. Working together based on the principles of team science, PPS aims to provide a stimulating and creative environment for academic development. Besides scientific impact, societal impact and engagement (with communities, governments, organizations) are key trademark of the team. Within PPS, specializations have emerged on a number of complex policy issues, such as institutional reform, welfare and inclusion, European and global governance, resilient cities, e-governance, and on migration and diversity.

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

For more information about this vacancy, please contact dr. Clara Egger, egger@essb.eur.nl or dr. Asya Zhelyazkova, zhelyazkova@essb.eur.nl.