Job description

Are you fascinated by conducting research on urban big data and smart cities? You can apply for a two-year post-doctoral position (0.6 – 0.8 FTE) from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2022 in Information Systems at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM). The position is integrated with both the Erasmus Centre for Data Analytics, which conducts cross-disciplinary research on data analytics, and the Kenniswerkplaats Urban Big Data, which co-ordinates research collaboration on big data between Erasmus University, the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, and the Municipality of Rotterdam. You will conduct research in RSM’s department of Technology and Operations Management, section Business Information Management (BIM).

Project description

Cities increasingly collect data from various sources, such as sensors and social media, seeking to leverage it for improved decision-making and innovation. Consequently, services and processes in cities are becoming increasingly data-driven, such as waste containers sensing their fill level and water levels being measured remotely. Often, these smart services emerge as standalone ‘siloed’ solutions, with neither infrastructure nor data being shared.

As part of smart city initiatives, cities are developing urban data platforms (UDPs) to integrate these solutions, allowing data to be potentially shared across applications. Since data collected for one application may be valuable in other contexts as well, enabling data-sharing across applications may lead to completely new insights and services, accelerating urban innovation.

As a post-doctoral researcher, you will build upon and integrate existing research at RSM and Erasmus University on UDPs – for example, in context of the EU Horizon 2020 project RUGGEDISED – to investigate key questions surrounding these platforms. These include possible governance models, the contribution of UDPs to local economic activity, and the role of UDPs in fostering the triple bottom line of financial, environmental, and social value.

Data will be collected in the network of EU-funded smart cities and community lighthouse projects and several field labs (such as sensible sensor Feyenoord) that are set up as part of smart city development in the Rotterdam – The Hague metropolitan region. You will work on your research with faculty from the Kenniswerkplaats Urban Big Data, the Erasmus Centre for Data Analytics and several professors participating in the EU project RUGGEDISED. Part of the subtopics will be elaborated and worked out as part of master thesis projects.

Required qualifications

To be eligible for the role, you should:

·         have a PhD in information systems, computer science, management, sociology or related fields

·         be strongly committed to high-quality research

·         prove your ability to conduct impactful work and to publish in top journals

·         feel comfortable in a multi-disciplinary environment with stakeholders with different academic backgrounds as well as stakeholders from outside of academia

·         be able to communicate effectively (written and verbally) in English and Dutch.

Employment conditions

The conditions of employment comply with the collective labour agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU). The salary of the post-doctoral position will be in accordance with the gross full-time monthly salary scales for post-doctoral researchers at Dutch universities, scales 10 and 11, ranging from € 2,709 to € 4,978 (based on 1.0 FTE). Erasmus University has attractive employment conditions, which include a holiday allowance of 8 per cent, an end-of-year bonus of 8.3 per cent, and a generous number of vacation days.

The appointment for the outlined research project is for 0.6 FTE. Depending on candidates’ preferences, the position can be increased to up to 0.8 FTE through limited involvement in a related research project or limited teaching tasks. The teaching tasks entail the supervision of master thesis projects, which can be thematically aligned with the research project.

The post-doctoral researcher’s appointment will be originally for the period of one year, with the possibility for prolongation. The appointment preferably commences on 1 January 2020. Extension of the contract for another year is subject to satisfactory performance after the first year.