项目介绍

2025年1月23日

About the position

Two PhD research fellowships (SKO 1017) are available at ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo. The fellowships form part of the EU MSCA funded Doctoral Network project Contested EU Foreign Policy in an Era of Geopolitics (EUFOG). This announcement is for the Doctoral candidate (DC) no. 11 in the project, on the subject of relations between the EU and countries from the Global South. The announcement for the other position (DC 05), can be found here.

Applicants should hold a master’s degree in political science, European Studies, international relations, or another relevant social science discipline.

The position is announced for a duration of three years, with no teaching obligations. 

The starting date for the fellowship is 1 September 2025.

About ARENA

ARENA Centre for European Studies is a multidisciplinary research centre at the University of Oslo, studying the direction, dynamics and sustainability of the evolving European political order. The Centre has conducted research on political, economic, legal and social integration, transformation and cooperation in Europe since 1994. The centre is part of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Oslo and has its own board, led by a centre director. ARENA currently has a scientific staff of 26 people, including doctoral candidates and postdoctoral fellows, as well as four administrative staff. The staff is international, and English is used as the working language. More information about ARENA is available at www.arena.uio.no.

The MSCA Network EUFOG

The doctoral network EUFOG is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA), which is the European Union (EU)’s flagship programme for doctoral education. It unites seven academic partners across Europe and ten associated partners from all across the world and will include a total of 18 doctoral candidates.

As an MSCA doctoral network, EUFOG has three main objectives: (1) to provide a cutting-edge and world-class training programme to doctoral candidates (DCs) to better understand the ways in which the EU is reconsidering key tenets of its international role in the face of the geopolitical turn in international politics; (2) to foster scientific excellence and methodological innovation on the EU’s role as a geopolitical actor through an inter-disciplinary programme, the use of mixed methods, the decentering of EU foreign policy scholarship, and the co-production of research with key stakeholders; (3) to engage in effective and mutually-beneficial knowledge exchange with a diversity of stakeholders, including policy-, decision- and opinion-makers, and media (traditional and social), in the EU and beyond it. 

For more information about EUFOG’s research, framework and the call for all 18 positions (DCs), please see the project’s website. 

Job description

PhD project: ‘Going South. Changing perspectives on the EU among ‘friends of multilateralism’’ (DC 11)

International politics have become more conflictive, and multilateralism is increasingly contested. This PhD project analyses changes in approaches and perspectives on the EU amongst states in the context of the UN system. It focuses particularly on the changing perspectives amongst ‘friends of multilateralism’ within the Global South, as well as on the implications of any such changes for the EU’s own approach to these countries.

Supervision

The PhD fellow will be supervised by Research Professor Helene Sjursen at ARENA Centre for European Studies. Co-supervision will be offered by a senior scholar at another EUFOG partner university.

Secondments

The EUFOG doctoral network programme includes two six-month secondments for each DC. The secondments for each DC are planned at the respective EUFOG partner institutions.  DC 11 is required to carry out two secondments as part of the PhD project:

• A six-month academic secondment at University of Canterbury, New Zealand 
• A six-month non-academic secondment at Fundacao Getulio Vargas (FGV), Brazil.

Network-wide training events and conferences

In addition to the secondments, a range of network-wide training events and conferences are planned in the EUFOG programme, across partner institutions. These are an integral part of the doctoral programme. All DCs must therefore be able and willing to travel during their PhD study period.

PhD programme

The successful candidate will be admitted to the PhD programme at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Oslo. You will have your base at ARENA Centre for European Studies. You will be expected to be based in Oslo. 

More about the position

This is a fulltime salaried position, starting 1 September 2025. You will be provided with office space, equipment, and services. Resources for research related field work and conference travel will be provided in line with ARENA’s internal travel application procedures.

You are welcome to contact the project leader at ARENA, Helene Sjursen, if you have questions regarding your proposed project. 

All applicants are asked to carefully read the EUFOG Guide for Applicants. 

Qualification requirements

Three eligibility criteria apply to Marie Sklodowska Curie Action (MSCA) Doctoral networks:

(a)         Applicants must not already be in possession of a doctoral degree at the date of the recruitment (i.e. the starting date indicated in the employment contract/equivalent direct contract). Researchers who have successfully defended their doctoral thesis but have not yet formally been awarded their doctoral degree will not be considered.

(b)         Applicants must comply with the mobility rule: in general, they must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting organisation (for DC 11 – Norway) for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before their recruitment date. 

(c)          Applicants must meet all the academic criteria for admission to the doctoral programme of the university awarding the PhD degree. As the EUFOG doctoral programme is delivered in English, proficiency in the English language is a requirement for all DCs.

Further qualification requirements for the position:

Applicants must hold a degree equivalent to a Master’s degree in Social Sciences which meets the requirements of enrolment in the PhD-programme before taking up the position. Please note that admission is normally granted only to applicants with a master’s degree of at least two years (120 ECTS).

ARENA’s working language is English. Excellent oral and written communication skills in English are therefore required.

For further information, please visit the Faculty of Social Sciences’ homepage for the PhD programme: Applying for a PhD fellowship

Assessment

In assessing the candidates, particular emphasis will be placed on:

a) Quality of the project proposal as well as the proposal’s fit within the PhD project on perspectives on the EU and the global south (DC 11); 

b) Academic qualifications, including MA degree grades and the quality of the submitted writing samples; 

c) Personal suitability and motivation, including attitudes towards working autonomously in an interdisciplinary and transnational environment and alignment between the applicant’s career aspirations and the doctoral programme. 

Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an online interview. They will be notified by 28 March 2025. The interviews are scheduled to take place starting on 31 March 2025. 

We offer

• A salary of NOK 536 200 – 579 400 NOK per annum, depending on qualifications, in a position as PhD Research fellow (position code SKO 1017)
• An academically stimulating and international research environment combined with a friendly and inclusive work environment
• A good work-life balance and access to Norway’s excellent public services and welfare schemes, including generous parental leave provisions and affordable and accessible childcare
• Attractive welfare benefits, including a generous pension agreement. 
• The city of Oslo: A unique mix of vibrant city life and extraordinary nature with rich opportunities for cultural and outdoor activities
• The MSCA Doctoral Network programme offers highly competitive and attractive working and salary conditions. Each DC will receive a living allowance, a mobility allowance, a family allowance (if applicable) and long-term leave and special needs allowances (if applicable) in line with the MSCA Financial Guide.

Information about life in Oslo

For more information about living and working in Oslo, please visit:

https://www.uio.no/english/for-employees/employment/

https://www.uio.no/english/about/vacancies/ismo/

Application

Please submit your full application online through our JobbNorge portal by 1 March 2025 at 17:00 CET. The application must include:

1. Completed application form 

2. A cover letter (2 pages maximum): it should explain your motivations for applying for an EUFOG scholarship and present an overview of your academic background, including the concrete experience, knowledge, skills and attributes that make you a good fit for the position for which you are applying

3. CV: it must clearly indicate your periods of education, qualifications achieved, work experience (if applicable), research experience (if applicable), and publications (if applicable)

4. Scanned copy of a valid ID (national ID or passport)

5. Scanned copies of your official academic transcripts: if those are not in English, they should be submitted together with a translation of these documents into English. If you have not yet been awarded your Master’s degree, please submit a provisional transcript of your marks

6. Scanned copy of the certificate or other documentation proving your English proficiency

7. A sample of academic writing (e.g., journal article, research paper, conference paper, Master’s dissertation, etc.). Please note that there is no separate prompt for uploading such a document in the application portal. This must therefore be uploaded as a separate “Attachment”.

8. A research proposal on the project you have selected of a minimum of 5, maximum 10, pages (single spaced). The bibliography is not included in the page count. Please see Annex 1 for more information. 

9. Names and contact details of two persons from whom recommendation letters may be solicited. You should indicate your relation to these persons. Please do not submit any recommendation letters before we contact you and explicitly ask you to do so.

Important: Please note that the application and all supporting documents must be submitted in our electronic recruiting system, JobbNorge. Please follow the link “apply for this job”. It is not necessary to send the documents to Helene Sjursen (Lead expert), as is described in the EUFOG guide for applicants. 

International applicants are advised to attach an official explanation of their University’s grading system, translated into ECTS. Please note that all documents should be in English or a Scandinavian language.

General information

The best qualified candidates will invited for interviews. 

Applicant lists can be published in accordance with Norwegian Freedom of Information Act § 25. When you apply for a position with us, your name will appear on the public applicant list. It is possible to request to be excluded from this list. You must justify why you want an exemption from publication and we will then decide whether we can grant your request. If we can’t, you will hear from us.

Please refer to Regulations for the Act on universities and colleges chapter 3 (Norwegian),  Guidelines concerning appointment to post doctoral and research posts at UiO (Norwegian) and Regulations for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) at the University of Oslo.

The University of Oslo has a transfer agreement with all employees that is intended to secure the rights to all research results etc.