“Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies” (Esdit) is an international research programme of seven academic institutions in the Netherlands. It has a combined budget of € 27 million, and is funded by the Ministry for Education, Culture and Science and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) 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, counting over sixty researcher, 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”.
You are responsible for the external communication of the Esdit programme, and also have a role in internal communication. You carry out these tasks in consultation with the programme manager, Wendy Aartsen, the programme leader, prof. dr. Philip Brey, the vice leader, prof. dr. Sabine Roeser and the management assistant, Seeta Autar. You implement policies outlined by the Daily Board (which, besides yourself, includes Aartsen, Brey, and Roeser) and the Management Board (the central strategic board, consisting of nine professors). Tasks include the following:
- taking responsibility for the communication strategy for the research programme, together with the programme manager and researchers in the programme;
- writing and editing news items, feature articles and other texts for various audiences and media concerning the relationship between technology, society, philosophy and ethics;
- creating an original representation of the consortium on social media, using the latest techniques and software;
- exploring and utilizing new tools (also for visual communication) and ideas to communicate messages to various audiences and in collaboration with stakeholders;
- supporting researchers in the programme with their communication and impact activities and coordinating the external communication activities;
- as communication advisor for the ESDIT programme you will join the Front Office team meetings of the Marketing Communication department (MC). The team consists of 18 colleagues with diverse functions and roles, communication advisors, marketers and online marketers. We all have our own projects but help each other in sparring on subjects where necessary.