Vacancy Research Coordinator

Job offer for a Research coordinator at Interface Demography

For already 50 years, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel has stood for freedom, equality and connectedness. These values are strongly present on our campuses, in our students as well as our staff. At the VUB, you’ll find a diverse collection of personalities: pure innovators and especially people who are 100% their authentic selves. With about 3.500 employees, we are the largest Dutch-speaking employer in Brussels, an international city with which we are all too happy to be connected, and around which our four campuses are located.

Our education and research are grounded in the principles of free research with an eye on human progress. We disapprove of every purely authoritative argument and guarantee the free formation of judgement that is necessary for this basic principle to be incorporated in the community.

The VUB is autonomous and managed democratically. As such, we guarantee fundamental freedoms within our university, as well as the right of the university community to be involved in making and checking university policy.

The mission of the university includes:

• the development, the transfer and the application of high-standing academic education and scientific research, free from any prejudice;
• community integration of this in a spirit of social compassion;
• critical development of everyone in light of the responsibilities borne in the community.

The Faculty Social Sciences & Solvay Business School, Department Sociologie, is looking for a postdoctoral researcher.

More concretely your work package contains:

Together with a part-time data manager and a part-time dissemination and outreach collaborator, you will be responsible for coordinating the research program and supporting the research staff. Although a specific division of tasks can be discussed during the hiring process, we envisage the following:

• Management of the strategic research program: assuring that the actions described in our 5-year work program are realized, supporting the senior staff with the further development of the research group, organizing board meetings and maintaining communication with our expert committee and the university authorities;
• Public outreach and networking: supporting our research staff with maintaining and expanding a wide academic and policy makers network in order to generate new research ideas and showcast the results of ID researchers;
• Coaching our junior PhD-students in close collaboration with their supervisor and the VUB-doctoral school;
• Coordinating and motivating ID’s self-steering working groups on data quality, outreach, social activities, … and organizing the pre- and postdoctoral researchers’ say in the strategical decision-making in our research group;
• Scientific coordination of a new research project on collecting data about the living situation of new migrant groups in Belgium.

Interface Demography (ID – http://www.interfacedemography.be) is the research unit for population studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. ID is part of the Department of Sociology and figures as a reference center for fundamental and applied demographic and population sociological research in Belgium. The strength of ID is its multidisciplinary and strong empirical approach to population research, which allows our unit to collaboratively tackle core social scientific research questions using concepts and approaches from demography, sociology, epidemiology, geography, history, and macroeconomics, while applying a wide range of quantitative and also qualitative empirical methods. The team consists of about 40 members, consisting of professors, senior and junior researchers.

Our main research lines relate to six mutually interconnected themes: (1) sustainable work and employment; (2) sustainable living environments; (3) equitable and non-discriminatory social relations; (4) global population issues and migration; (5) inequality in health and mortality and (6) data and research infrastructure. More information on the research program can be requested via the contact emails mentioned below.

Interface Demography seeks an experienced research fellow (postdoc or a minimum of 5 years of experience in a relevant academic field). The successful candidate will be expected to coordinate the activities of the Strategic Research Program of Interface Demography. This program was granted to ID as a recognized center of excellence by the university authorities for a period of at least 5 more years.

For this function, our Brussels Humanities, Sciences & Engineering Campus (Elsene) will serve as your home base. 

What do we expect from you?

• Holder of a PhD or/and a master degree with proven research experience in social sciences, demography, social epidemiology, population statistics, social health sciences or another relevant discipline;

The ideal candidate will possess the following characteristics:

• Someone with a passion for scientific research who is prepared to invest efforts in research policy and management tasks;
• Strong skills and experience in quantitative social research methods, and good feeling for qualitative and mixed-methods research designs;
• Good communication skills both in academic writing and in writing for a non-academic audience, but also good oral communication and networking skills;
• Experience with project management or proven involvement in large research projects;
• Strong organizational and management skills;
• Being fluent in English – as most communication occurs in English;
• Being able to speak Dutch will be considered an additional asset, although is not a necessity;
• Strong interpersonal and coaching skills; being a team player;