Smurfit Kappa Newman Fellowship on Women in STEM

As part of its programme to provide postdoctoral research opportunities for scholars of proven academic excellence, University College Dublin is pleased to announce the Smurfit Kappa Newman Fellowship on Women in STEM. This Newman Fellowship is established with the generous support of Smurfit Kappa.

Smurfit Kappa, a FTSE 100 company, is one of the leading providers of paper-based packaging solutions in the world, with approximately 48,000 employees and with revenue of €10.1 billion in 2021. With operations in 23 countries in Europe, and 13 in the Americas, Smurfit Kappa is the only large-scale pan-regional player in Latin America. Smurfit Kappa is a business with an essential and enduring purpose to create, protect and care, with a proud tradition of supporting social, environmental and community initiatives in the countries where it operates.

The creation of the Smurfit Kappa Newman Fellowship forms part of this commitment to building a sustainable and inclusive future for everyone.

Background to Project:
There is a significant shortage of engineers of all disciplines internationally, and that shortage is exacerbated by the fact that women are not attracted into engineering as a career choice. In addition, retaining those women who have chosen to study engineering in engineering careers can prove difficult. While much of the emphasis in research to date has been on attracting girls from school to study engineering (with some success in increasing percentages of women studying engineering), there has been less emphasis on looking at the experiences of women who have chosen to study engineering, graduated and work in these careers, and, for some, to leave these careers. There is some evidence that women leave engineering careers more so than other professions, but this has not been studied in any significant detail and clear, quantitative evidence is missing.

The Fellowship project will explore the barriers women face to stay in engineering careers, looking at those who have opted for careers in engineering, rather than focussing on students in school who may choose to study engineering. The focus will be international, including Europe, US, Latin America and Asia, in order to compare experiences in those regions, and to determine if there are cultural factors at play.

The Newman Fellow will be based in UCD School of Civil Engineering and work collaboratively with a close network of researchers from Engineering and Social Sciences. This is a major project that will provide the successful candidate with a unique opportunity to create a difference to the profession of engineering and to make real difference to how we view engineering as a career and to improve the working experiences of women in engineering industries.

Candidate Details:
Applications are invited from candidates who hold a doctoral degree in Social Science or Engineering, with particular expertise on the role of gender in engineering, science and technology. The successful applicant will have a strong track record of high-quality research and publication. Candidates must have completed and passed their doctoral examination before commencement of the post. The Fellowship is designed for a creative thinker, a problem solver, with both qualitative and quantitative research skills, who has an interest in improving the under-representation of women in engineering and STEM and who has the flexibility to move between qualitative and quantitative research. The candidate should have experience of conducting focus groups, and analyzing these, and should be comfortable with using statistical analysis when looking at surveys and focus groups.

The university adheres to a range of equality, diversity and inclusion policies, and we welcome applications from everyone, including those who identify with any of the protected characteristics that are set out in our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy.

The Smurfit Kappa Newman Fellow in Women in STEM will work under the supervision and mentorship of Professor Aoife Ahern, UCD School of Civil Engineering.

This Newman Fellowship comes with a tax-free stipend of €35k p.a. and is tenable for two years. Fellows must register as a fulltime student for the duration of the Fellowship term.