Post-doctoral part time position for « JET Cities : Boosting Green Workforce in Cities»

The Laboratory for interdisciplinary evaluation of public policies (LIEPP) seeks to appoint a post doctoral researcher to support Dr Charlotte HALPERN in the JET Cities project “Boosting Green Workforce in Cities”, funded under the « HORIZON-RIA-SGA-NZC-101121530 » and led by the City of Marseille. 

CONTEXT

Some hundred cities have been selected by the EU Mission Climat- Neutral and Smart Cities as part of the Horizon Europe 2021-2027 program. In this context, they benefit from the financial and technical support of the “Net Zero Cities” platform to explore and implement initiatives to foster city/metropolitan-wide transformative change and which are also transferable to many other European cities.

Within this framework, the project “JET Cities : Boosting Green Workforce in Cities” brings together five French local authorities – Marseille, Lyon, Paris, Grenoble Alpes Métropole and Dijon Métropole – and two academic partners – LIEPP and CEREQ. The JetCities project aims at accelerating the transformation of the economy, employment policies and professional integration to support the green transition and achieve climate neutrality by 2030. Together the five city partners host 3,500,00 jobs. Their annual carbon emissions amount to 37MtCO2e, that is 6% of the French carbon footprint. Between 7 and 11% of existing jobs in these 5 cities are considered threatened by the ecological transition. As part of their commitment to achieve a just transition towards carbon neutrality, the transformation of the workforce is a priority, as well as the professional integration of the most vulnerable groups of the population. 

Together JET Cities partners will seek to 1) establish key knowledge and foundations for designing efficient public economic, employment and integration policies, 2) experiment with various approaches to promote green jobs and strengthening public support tools for professional integration, 3) promote their dissemination to other European cities. 

During 18 months, the LIEPP team led by Dr. Halpern at Sciences Po, CEE will support the 5 cities’ efforts in the following way: 

• Develop a shared diagnosis of local barriers and resources to develop transformative city-wide public economic, employment and integration initiatives to support the green transition and deliver on climate neutrality by 2030 ; 
• Establish a set of (existing and new) quantitative and qualitative indicators to monitor progress, both at project level and at city level; 
• By collecting evidence and knowledge, encourage a continuous process of stock-taking at city level, with the aim to provide guidance for cities at project level and beyond (regional/national/EU levels)
• Draw on the Monitoring Evaluation Learning (MEL) approach to support cities in monitoring progress, evaluating outcomes and learning from these initiatives while at the same time contributing to capacity building and strengthening their role the field of employment and integration policies to support the green transition.
• Establish a national network of practitioners and researchers on Cities / metropolises and transition professions to support the increase in knowledge and support initiatives that other cities may wish to implement subsequently. 

JOB DESCRIPTION

The person appointed will contribute to LIEPP’s work under WP2, “Study to examine strategies and recommendations to develop strategic workforce planning to support climate action at the local level”. He or She will perform the following tasks under the supervision of the PI, involving: 

1. Literature review and research input provision (data collection, original dataset and analysis) about strategic workforce planning to support climate action at the local level. 
2. Support city partners with the delivery of policy and operational objectives, i.e., identify short term needs (5 years) in key economic sectors impacted by climate objectives
3. Work package management, including contributing to project activities, meetings and dissemination activities
4. Contribute to any scientific management and administration tasks arising from the research project, incl. reports and high-level policy documents (e.g., policy briefs, project summary, etc.). 

We welcome applications from excellent candidates with a PhD degree and strong research experience in one or more of following areas: urban studies, public policy research, work and employment policies. 

Work environment – The person employed will be: 

• 12 months contract, part time (50%)
• Based at LIEPP, at Sciences Po, CEE, in Paris, and fully integrated in the JETCities consortium
• Willing to work in a European and French environment and under the supervision of the PI.
• Willing to travel. 

Qualifications, knowledge, and experience – essential: 

• An excellent PhD degree in political science or sociology, or close discipline, with a major in urban studies, comparative public policy research or climate policies. 
• Excellent writing skills and proficiency in English and French (written and spoken).

Applications should be sent by May 9 to Charlotte Halpern : charlotte.halpern@sciencespo.fr

You will be asked to provide a CV, a covering letter (no longer than 2 pages) and the names and contact information of two reference persons. 

Candidates short-listed for interview will be contacted during the week of May 12. They will be informed of the results no later than May 16.