Research Programme Manager

The Philosophy Department of the University of Twente is looking for a Research Programme Manager for the multi-university, ten year long international research programme “Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies”

About the Research Programme

“Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies” is a new international research programme of seven academic institutions in the Netherlands. It has a combined budget of € 27 million, and is funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research in the Gravitation funding scheme for excellent research, and by matching funds from the participating institutions. The duration is from January 2020 to December 2029.

The programme has the aim of achieving breakthrough research in at the intersection of ethics, philosophy and technology / engineering and to position its consortium at the top of its field internationally. The consortium consists of internationally well-known ethicists, philosophers, engineers and social scientists. The programme includes four research lines, “Nature, life and human intervention”, “The future of a free and fair society”, “The human condition” and “Synthesis: Ethics of Technology, Practical Philosophy, and Modern Technology-Driven Societies”.

The Challenge

You are responsible for the day to day management of the research programme. You do this in consultation with the programme leader, prof. dr. Philip Brey. You implement policies outlined by the Daily Board (which, besides yourself, includes the programme leader, the vice programme leader, a financial controller and a programme secretary) and the Management Board (the central strategic board, that consists of nine full professors and yourself). Tasks include the following:

• Participation in the strategic and operational decision-making processes of the Management Board and Daily Board, and implementing decisions that are made.
• Coordinating, preparing and attending management and consortium meetings as well as research meetings and other programme-related meetings and events.
• Coordination of the programme’s exploitation, knowledge transfer activities and educational activities for the PhD students.
• Administrative & financial management, including the collection and organization of up-to-date information and coordination and writing of annual reports and other programme texts.
• Management of internal communications within the consortium, as well as external communications with the Academic Advisory Board, international research partners and other stakeholders and promotion of the programme and its results internationally.
• Coordination of HR activities, such as recruitment, gender and ethnic diversity strategy, career development, mentoring & secondment.
• Leading all aspects of data management, open access publishing and ethical aspects, including ethics committee approval.
• The tasks above are in collaboration with relevant offices and officers at UT and the other participating universities, including the Financial controller, coordinator of the PhD programme, HR departments, knowledge utilisation offices, and others.

Your profile

• A results-oriented, and proactive colleague with a positive attitude.
• Excellent social and organizational skills, professional disposition, responsible, accurate and independent.
• Relevant management or coordination experience.
• At least a master’s degree. Preference will be given to someone with A PhD degree in philosophy (preferred) or another relevant discipline, since we believe that several of the tasks and activities benefit from, a strong academic background.
• An interest in ethical, social and philosophical issues relating to technology and engineering.
• Ability to communicate effectively in English. An ability to communicate in Dutch, or willingness to learn, is a plus.

Our offer

We offer a full-time position for an initial two-year period with the possibility of extension. Starting salary between € 4,406 to € 4,660 gross per month based on your experience (scale 12) .We also offer excellent employment benefits, including an 8.3% end-of-year bonus and 8% holiday pay on top of the annual income.  (So  annual salary is € 61,490 - € 65,035 at the start.)  Foreign candidates likely qualify for a low 30% tax rate.

The organization The University of Twente. We stand for life sciences and technology. High tech and human touch. Education and research that matter. New technology which leads change, innovation and progress in society. The University of Twente is the only campus university of the Netherlands; divided over five faculties we provide more than fifty educational programmes. We have a strong focus on personal development and talented researchers are given scope for carrying out groundbreaking research.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status. Because of our diversity values we do particularly support women to apply.

Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social sciences The Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social sciences (BMS) strives to play a pivotal role in understanding, co-engineering and evaluating innovation in society. Innovation is driven by advances in technology. Through 'social engineering' these technological advances are embedded in society befitting human needs and behaviour, within proper public and private management and business structures. For this the faculty of BMS upholds high quality disciplinary knowledge in psychology, business administration, public administration, communication science, philosophy, educational science and health sciences. All with a focus on the challenges in society. Research is strongly connected to our institutes: Mesa+ Institute, TechMed Centra and Digital Society Institute.   For further information concerning the department of philosophy within the BMS faculty, visit https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/wijsb.