Postdoctoral position in the field of ELS

Postdoctoral position

Postdoctoral position within the ERC CURIAFIDES project on “The Relevance of Judicial Trust for the Legal Integration of Europe”

You can find all information below in the following Pdf: Call CURIAFIDES postdoc

The UC3M’s CURIAFIDES project is seeking applications for one full-time postdoc. This position is available from mid-February 2025 (start day negotiable) for a duration of 36 months, renewable to one more if the project requires it. The position is part of the CURIAFIDES Project, funded by the European Research Council and led by Juan A. Mayoral. The Postdoctoral Fellow will be responsible for developing experimental and survey research with judges. The project offers financial support for research and conferences.

Job Description Postdoctoral position

• Department: Social Science
• Salary: € 47.610 per year in 14 payments
• Location: Madrid
• Duration: 3 (+1) years / Hours: 37.5 hours per week.

Project

The functioning of the European Union (EU) legal system is ensured through an intricate interdependent judicial system, where judges at the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) and national courts must rely on the willing cooperation with each other to enforce decisions on EU law matters. Scholars have pointed to the relevance of legal, sociological and political factors in explaining why courts cooperate within the EU judicial system. The CURIAFIDES project is an interdisciplinary research project, aiming at articulating a novel theory of judicial trust within the EU, which will be based on strong empirical evidence collected from experiments, surveys, and interviews with CJEU and national judges. The purpose of which being is to define and explain judicial trust and its impact on judicial cooperation, which ties into a broader aim of offering new policy and legal solutions.

Research environment and institution
The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) was created in 1989 and it is one of the emerging leading multi-disciplinary universities. It is ranked by QS as one of the top 50 universities created in the last 50 years, and among the top three universities in Spain in the field of social sciences. The UC3M is committed to excellence, innovation and the promotion of global understanding in research, teaching, enterprise and community engagement. The university flourishes thanks to the rich diversity and creativity of our community, which includes over 3.101 staff, along with 24.195 undergraduates and postgraduate students, 20% from abroad.

The Department of Social Sciences is an interdisciplinary department created in 2013 that offers a uniquely stimulating environment for the study of all fields of social sciences, including international relations, public policy- making and administration, and its intersection with other fields like law, communication, psycology, etc. Bachelor, Masters, and doctoral programs offered at the department are typically taught in English and attract applicants from all over Europe and beyond. At present members of the department include doctoral students, post-docs, assistant professors, and faculty from some 22 countries. The department’s faculty has a strong international profile and outstanding publications in top journals in the Social Sciences.

The department hosts the Carlos III-Juan March Institute (IC3JM), the Figuerola Institute of History and Social Sciences, and the Jean Monnet Madrid Centre of Excellence for Intedisciplinary European Studies (MACIES). The successful candidates will be offered affiliation with the IC3JM and MACIES. The IC3JM, with a strong international profiled, promotes high quality research in the Social Sciences, while MACIES strengthen and promote excellence in teaching and research in EU studies.

The postdoc will be part of the CURIAFIDES team and integrated in the broader research context of the social science department, and its research institutes and centres: the IC3JM and MACIES located in Madrid, one of Europe’s most exciting cities with an outstanding research environment.

Duties and responsibilities

The postdoc will be part of the CURIAFIDES Team. The successful candidate is expected to:

• Design, implement and analyse the results of experiments and surveys in collaboration with the team in various EU countries such as Spain, Ireland, Romania, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany & Denmark.
• Generate and pursue independent and original research ideas within the context of the CURIAFIDES project and, broadly, on topics in judicial politics, international relations, legal sociology, empirical legal studies, comparative politics and/or EU studies.
  Participate in publications in leading international journals in Social Sciences and Law, and disseminate research results to different audiences.
• Additionally, the ability to conduct other research techniques (e.g. interviews, focus groups, text mining and analysis, natural language processing, network analysis, among others) and mixed them will also be valued.
• The postdoc will work closely with other members of the team and will meet regularly.
• Teaching is NOT a requirement; however, opportunities can be arranged if the candidate believes it would contribute to her/his professional development.

Job descriptions cannot be exhaustive and so the post holder may be required to undertake other duties which are in line with the scope, spirit and purpose of the project.

Ideal Candidate

The post requires a PhD’s degree. We are open to PhDs in different subjects, including Political Science, Sociology, Law, Public Administration, Economics, and other social science disciplines, with a significant component of mixing quantitative and qualitative methods. Hence, expertise in statisticial methods, experiments and/or surveys is mandatory, while experience in interviews and mixed methods desiderable. Moreover, previous experience or research on trust or cooperation from an interdisciplinary approach will be highly valued.

Successful candidates must demonstrate a clear potential to deliver high quality peer-reviewed research publications and their capacity to work as part of a team is considered an asse. Very good English in speech and writing is a requirement. Moreover, speaking the language of the country’s case studies will be considered a merit.

In the overall assessment, emphasis will be placed on the applicant’s skills and research potential. As a public institution, the University Carlos III of Madrid is an equal opportunity employer.

Application

The application must include the following enclosures:

• Application letter/cover letter (max. 3 pages): The letter should explain (a) the applicant’s current research interests, (b) the research they hope to carry as part of their postdoc, (c) their capacity to work in an interdisciplinary team, their network, and experience, and (d) what role they believe they could play as part of the CURIAFIDES project.

• Curriculum vitae (max. 2 pages).
• Up to 2 publication or manuscript samples. • 2 letters of reference.

Candidates must have obtained a Ph.D. by the time the application deadline is closed (31st January 2025). Before the submission, potential candidates are encouraged to express their interest by contacting the Principal Investigator at: juan.mayoral@uc3m.es

The application deadline is 31st January, 2025, 23:59 GMT.

You will be able to submit your application through a link to the submission portal that will be created soon. To receive a notification when the application portal opens, please email curiafides@uc3m.es to join the mailing list.

Applications received after the deadline has expired will not be accepted.