POSITIONS / DC4

Prototyping policy options in spaces for experimentation and learning for urban climate transitions

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT-EU), Barcelona (Spain)

Professor Laurene Vaughan, School of Design, RMIT, Melbourne (Australia)

Professor Massimo Menichinelli, School of Design, Elisava Barcelona School of Design and Engineering (UVic-UCC), Barcelona (Spain)

Adrià Garcia i Mateu, (Holon, Catalonia, Spain) (mentor); Julie Hjort (Danish Design Centre, Denmark) (mentor)

36 months

A design researcher or professional with expertise in service design, strategic design, or design thinking, and preferably, knowledge or experience in sustainable transition and co-design for public participation. A Master’s degree in design, policy studies, sustainability management, computer science, social sciences, or related fields is required.

We are looking for individuals who are open-minded, curious, enthusiastic, and precise. They should be proactive, capable of working independently, and enjoy collaborating within interdisciplinary fields and sectors. Strong personal motivation and flexibility for engaging in design research and in a dual doctoral degree is essential.

The ideal candidate should have an interest in design practices and the evolution of socio-technical systems, should be able to adopt a systemic perspective and be open to developing qualitative research methodology skills. Strong social and empathy-based skills, effective organisational and communication abilities, proficiency in spoken and written English, good academic writing skills, and visualization skills are highly valued.

To investigate and integrate studies of co-design, digital innovation, policy design and climate transitions to develop a basis for policy prototyping related to urban transitions.
To design, produce, test and critically assess creative and digital methods for citizen participation in policy making for urban transitions (practice research).
To synthesise results and produce a conceptual framework for designers, businesses, government and civil society organisations for citizen participation in urban transitions.

Danish Design Center (Denmark) (3 months) with mentor Julie Hjort to analyse opportunities for using creative methods for enhancing citizen participation in urban transitions.
Holon (Spain) (6 months) to share, test and evaluate creative visual or media artefacts and processes developed through practice research enabling citizen participation in urban transitions.

We offer full-time employment contract. The annual funding available to the university RMIT-EU for this position DC4 is 44.450,40 €. Please note: this is not the gross annual salary for the candidate. This figure refers to the total amount of funding available to the university that will hire the doctoral candidate, taking into account the living and mobility allowance funding from the EU MSCA as well as national laws. Applicants should be aware that their annual gross salary may well be significantly less than this amount, once the university has covered costs they incur such as pension and national insurance, subject to national laws. The annual gross salary the candidate receives will also be subject to tax, employment and pension deductions, depending on national employment laws.

According to the indications of the MSCA-DN program, the above amount may be increased by 660€ per month for researchers with family obligations.

This doctoral position is funded by the EU MSCA Programme.