Deadline: 15-Feb-22
Applications for Postdoc Academy for Transformational Leadership are now open. It is designed to develop the next generation of leaders in sustainability and transformation research.
The program aims at postdocs from across Europe who want to make an impact on the transformation towards a sustainable society and advance the complementarity of natural sciences, social sciences and the humanities by means of their research. They should consider themselves as intrapreneurs, who act responsibly and initiate positive changes and innovation within their institutions and strive for an academic leadership position. In addition to excellent English language skills and experience with inter- and transdisciplinary collaborative research, their research topic must align with this year’s focus topic “Racing to climate justice? Debating the multiple temporalities of just transformations”.
Goals
For the Postdoc Academy for Transformational Leadership, the Robert Bosch Stiftung collaborates with four leading academic research centers to unite expert knowledge and educate the next generation of leading sustainability and transformation scholars.
Modules
The seminars are linked by four thematic modules that create an overarching framework.
- Module 1 engages with sustainability science as a research field and presents resulting challenges for theory and methodology according to this year’s focus topic “Racing to climate justice? Debating the multiple temporalities of just transformations”.
- Module 2 aims to increase the understanding of how complex systems thinking is used in transformation and sustainability research. It will be discussed how change can be navigated in this development.
- Module 3 deals with theoretical, methodological and process-oriented questions revolving around transdisciplinary research, such as quality criteria, mutual learning and differentiation/ integration. It also addresses challenges of the role of the researcher in these processes as well as “undisciplined“ career pathways.
- Module 4 deals with issues of career development. It discusses how participants can develop individual and coherent research profiles that will help them to develop their capabilities towards transformational leadership.
How does the project work?
The Postdoc Academy for Transformational Leadership is an intensive high-end program with four seminars in two years that broaden inter- and transdisciplinary research competencies of early career sustainability researchers and promote their qualifications towards transdisciplinary leadership. The program also offers seed funding (e.g. for stakeholder meetings or proposal writing activities) to small groups of participants, who plan to initiate research collaborations. In addition, an active network of current and former participants of the program will be established.
Eligible Countries
Applicants should be early career researchers at an academic institution in one of the following European countries: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Vatican.
Eligibility Criteria
- Per intake, 20 researchers will be selected. To be eligible for the Postdoc Academy for Transformational Leadership you should be an early career researcher with sustainability focus and be affiliated with a European research institution that is your major place of work and have your main residence in Europe,
- have funds for your research for the majority of the programme cycle (at least until September 2023),
- have obtained your doctorate no more than four years prior to applying (family and caring times excluded),
- have a research topic relevant to this year’s focus topic “Racing to climate justice? Debating the multiple temporalities of just transformations”,
- have a strong interest and experience in doing inter- and transdisciplinary sustainability research, and
- conduct research that asks for the complementarity of natural sciences, social sciences and the humanities,
- be an excellent researcher with a vision (societal impact),
- be on the way to professorship or other academic leadership positions,
- be an academic intrapreneur, who acts responsibly and initiates positive changes and innovation within his/ her institution,
- be a shaper, a shaker and a mover,
- have excellent English language skills (equivalent to CEFR Level C2) and
- be committed to attending all seminars and relevant networking activities.
For more information, visit https://www.bosch-stiftung.de/en/project/postdoc-academy-transformational-leadership/application