PhD candidate for DECIDE Project – Democratizing AI

Artificial Intelligence is reshaping how decisions are made, often creating a power imbalance between large institutions and individual citizens. How can we flip the script? How can we use AI not to monitor citizens, but to empower them?

We are looking for a highly motivated PhD candidate to conduct a PhD research in the context of the DECIDE Project – Democratizing AI: Empowering Citizens through Transparent Decision-making, a large-scale, NWO-funded research initiative under the Dutch Research Agenda (NWA).

About the DECIDE Project
The DECIDE project is a large-scale, NWO-funded research initiative under the Dutch Research Agenda (NWA). It brings together 10 Dutch universities, over 50 academic researchers (10 research teams), and 30 societal partners in an ambitious inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration. Our shared mission is to develop strategies towards the design and implement a new generation of transparent, citizen-empowering AI systems, with a focus on AI-supported decision-making that contribute to the empowerment and democratic participation of citizens.

Your Role as a PhD student
As a PhD candidate, you will be part of a multidisciplinary team of PhD students and become part of a vibrant inter- and transdisciplinary research community. You will:

• Collaborating across disciplines and with societal stakeholders to achieve real-world impact.
• Participate in joint training programs on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research methods, citizen engagement, and ethical AI.
• Contribute to cutting-edge research that bridges theory and practice.

Job description
The successful candidate will be based at the Department of Media and Communication of the ESHCC and will carry out the following tasks:

Research (0.85 fte)
The PhD candidate will lead the research project CES3 as part of the DECIDE project: Citizen Engagement & decision making in managing social issues using AI. In this project, you will investigate how transparent AI tools can help citizens navigate complex societal issues. You will research about the design and evaluate AI systems developed by the technical team that help citizens access complex scientific data to make informed, autonomous decisions for their communities.

Your core responsibilities will include:

• Conducting Field Research: Organizing focus groups and interviews with citizens and city council members (gemeenteraadsleden) to understand the barriers they face in decision-making using AI.
• Participatory Design Workshop: Leading participatory design workshops where citizens help define what a "trustworthy" AI tool looks like.
• Conducting AI system testing and evaluation: Running field experiments to test the effectiveness of the AI decision making systems developed from other work package.
• Collaboration and Coordination: Working effectively with an interdisciplinary consortium (WP2–WP7), including technical developers, municipalities, and NGOs.
• Publishing and presentation:
  
  • Writing reports as part of the deliverables of the DECIDE project;
  • Engaging in and presenting during consortium meetings (note that regular travelling is
  
  thus required);
  
  • Publishing and presenting research results in the form of academic journal papers as well as policy reports and presentations for the DECIDE project;
• A Ph.D. Dissertation: Completing a Ph.D. dissertation with published articles within the project duration.

Teaching (0.15 fte)
Performing junior teaching tasks in the BA or MA degree programmes in the field of Media and Communication provided by ESHCC, primarily through tutorial group teaching.

Requirements and selection criteria

You are/have:

• A Master’s degree in Communication, Media studies, Psychology, Behavior Science, or the Social Sciences, preferably a research master's degree.
• Skill and experience with qualitative methods (interviews, focus groups, workshops)
• Knowledge and skill with quantitative methods (surveys, experiments), preferably with prior experiences.
• A strong interest in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research and an affinity with research that can lead to societal impact, including through citizen engagement
• An interest to further develop your quantitative and qualitative research methods and data analysis skills
• Outstanding interpersonal and communication skills to work with multiple stakeholders
• Ability to work independently and as an effective team member to work with others across multiple disciplines and institutions.
• Excellent communication and conversation skills and proficiency in Dutch (B2/C1 or evidence of ongoing language training).
• Proficiency in spoken and written English (CEFR C1/C2 or evidence of ongoing language training).

We offer you an internationally oriented and varied job in an enthusiastic team, with excellent working conditions in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU).

The starting date of this position is 15 May 2026 and you will be based at the Department of Media and Communication in the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication (ESHCC). The salary is dependent on your experience and knowledge and ranges from a minimum of € 3.059 to a maximum of € 3.881 gross per month (scale PhD) on a fulltime basis (38 hours), in accordance with the CAO-NU. We offer a 1,5-year position which will be extended with another 30 months upon positive evaluation (total 48 months).

In addition, we offer an 8% holiday allowance, an end-of-year payment of 8.3%, and a very generous paid leave scheme. Furthermore, EUR is affiliated with ABP for the pension provision, and we offer partially paid parental leave, fully paid extended birth leave for partners, a personal career budget, work-life balance coaches, discounted collective health insurance, and more. As an employee, you can also use EUR facilities such as the University library and receive a discount on subscriptions for the Erasmus sports center.

Erasmus University Rotterdam offers a Dual Career Programme (DCP) to assist the life partners of new academic staff (on payroll) in finding employment in The Netherlands. The programme is offered in close cooperation with the nearby universities of Delft and Leiden.

Erasmus University Rotterdam aspires to be an equitable and inclusive community. We nurture an open culture, where everyone is supported to fulfil their full potential. We see inclusivity of talent as the basis of our successes, and the diversity of perspectives and people as a highly valued outcome. EUR provides equal opportunities to all employees and applicants regardless of gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, neurodiversity, functional impairment, citizenship, or any other aspect which makes them unique. We look forward to welcoming you to our community.

Everything else we offer you; you can find below!

• Everything you need for a good work-life balance: the option to work from home in consultation with your manager, 41 days of paid leave with a 40 hour contract, 8% holiday pay and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus, and a significant discount on a subscription for our on-campus sports centre!
• Sustainable, inclusive and diverse work environment with an open culture, where you can be yourself and we pay attention to each other and to the world around us. Make the most of our bicycle budget, or join networks such as Young@EUR, FAME or QuEUR.
• Time and space for your development in the broadest sense: development days and a personal career budget and free access to our university library.
• Good pension with ABP that EUR contributes 2/3rds towards, discounts on various collective insurances with Zilveren Kruis Achmea, Loyalis, and Allianz, and compensation for travel, working from home and home internet use.
• Are you currently combining your job with parenthood, or do you want to do so in the future? EUR offers partially paid parental leave and fully paid additional birth leave for partners, and our campus features a daycare (daycare not paid for by EUR).
• Moving to the Netherlands for your job with EUR? Then you may be eligible for the 30%-ruling if you meet the requirements of the Belastingdienst (Dutch tax agency).

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) is an internationally oriented university with a strong social orientation in its education and research, as expressed in our mission ‘Creating positive societal impact’. EUR is home to 4.100 academics and professionals and almost 33.000 students from more than 140 countries. Everything we do, we do under the credo The Erasmian Way – Making Minds Matter. We’re global citizens, connecting, entrepreneurial, open-minded, and socially involved. These Erasmian Values function as our internal compass and create EUR’s distinctive and recognizable profile. From these values, with a broad perspective and with an eye for diversity, different backgrounds and opinions, our employees work closely together to solve societal challenges from the dynamic and cosmopolitan city of Rotterdam. Thanks to the high quality and positive societal impact of our research and education, EUR can compete with the top European universities. www.eur.nl.

Faculty / Institute / Central service
The Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication (ESHCC) is part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. The school has three departments: History, Arts and Culture and Media & Communication. There are approximately 2500 students and 220 employees.

ESHCC offers high quality education, based on scientific research, at the intersection of the Humanities and Social Sciences. We teach our ambitious, Dutch and international students in a stimulating learning environment. After graduation, they will have acquired the knowledge, insight and skills to make an important and inspiring contribution to an increasingly international society in which diversity plays a major role.

The ESHCC also has an ambitious research agenda. We want to strengthen our involvement in multidisciplinary research, expand the share of external funding in our total research funding and increase our social impact. ESHCC is working towards one research institute, the Erasmus Institute for Media, Culture, History and Society (ERMeCHS).

ERMeCHS (Erasmus Research Institute for Media, Culture, History & Society) is a research centre located within the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication at Erasmus University Rotterdam. The Centre was founded in 2023, as a merger of former research centres ERMeCC and History@Erasmus, by members of the Departments of Media and Communication, Arts and Culture Studies and History. Researchers at the Centre are dedicated to carrying out interdisciplinary research on media, communication, culture, history, and society.

The Media and Communication Department is a dynamic, internationally oriented department within the ESHCC. The department offers five international degree programmes: the International Bachelor’s programme in Communication and Media (IBCoM), four international Master’s programmes in Media Studies (Media & Business, Media & Creative Industries, Media, Culture & Society, Digitalisation, Surveillance & Society) and the Research master in the Sociology of Culture, Media and the Arts. The department has close ties with ERMeCHS.