Call for application Post-doc on RESPOND Project

Sciences Po, Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics, CEE (UMR 8239) 

Background:

We are seeking to appoint a Researcher to work with Prof. Cyril Benoît (CNRS, Sciences Po) and in contact with Mihaly Fazekas (Central European University) in the project “Rescuing Democracy from Political Corruption in Digital Societies” (RESPOND) of the Horizon Program funded by the European Commission. 

The RESPOND project proposes a novel interdisciplinary assessment of political corruption, seen here as conducts and acts, often proliferating in grey zones regarding legality, that results in decision-making bias and exclusion in the policy cycle. It does so by: 1) analyzing four contemporary and relevant forms of political influence (political finance, lobbying, revolving doors/personal ties and media capture); 2) evaluating how political corruption is understood by political elites and citizens and is socially constructed through media and education; 3) exploring how established and emerging digital technologies entangle with political corruption and how they improve anti-corruption and pro-integrity strategies at both national and cross-border levels; 4) engaging in co-creation with relevant stakeholders to design, test, and revise practices and tools including new risk indicators developed by RESPOND, to increase civic monitoring and integrity in current democracies. 

The Sciences Po-CEU teams will be responsible for the most extensive empirical data-collection work package in the project. The Postdoctoral Research Fellow is expected to primarily contribute to data collection and empirical analyses, facilitating the systematic measurement of corruption and favoritism in policymaking. This entails assembling, in collaboration with research assistants, large-scale micro-level datasets on legislative and regulatory processes across various countries, as well as actively participating in the design and validation of a series of corruption risk indicators. The research endeavors are geared towards producing high-quality publications, drafting and submitting research reports to the European Commission, and organizing social impact activities in co-creation with civil society and institutions.

Skills and qualification:

• PhD in Political Science, Economics, Data Science or related disciplines, completed or to be defended within max 6 months after the application. 
• Exceptional pre-docs could be considered with substantial relevant experience. 
• Excellent knowledge of R or Python programming.
• Very good skills in text and (optionally) network analysis methods.
• Experience in text-as-data methods (e.g., dictionary analyses, supervised machine learning, topic modeling, word embedding). 
• Interest in or some background knowledge in the study of political economy would be an asset, but is not required. 
• Excellent written and spoken language skills in English.
• Strong interest in academic research, ideally proven through international publications and/or collaboration in research projects.
• Ability to work effectively, both independently and collaboratively, in an international team.

What we offer

• The appointment is full-time and available from September 1, 2024 with a contract duration of 24 months. 
• Type of contract: Fixed-duration contract (CDD)
• Partial contribution for Paris transportation card.
• Restaurant tickets. 

How to apply

Please send: 

• a cover letter outlining precisely the qualifications and skills that match the requirements for the position, and previous work experience carrying out similar tasks to those required here. 
• a CV
• a writing sample (an article or PhD thesis) 

to recruitment.cee@sciencespo.fr   by 5pm on May 24, 2022. Please indicate in the object: Application for RESPOND - Postdoc positio

Interviews will be planned during the first two weeks of June.

For further information, please contact Eleonora Russo (eleonora.russo@sciencespo.fr)