The Centre for the Future of Democracy, within the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) at the University of Cambridge, invites applications for a one-year post-doctoral Research Associate.
The successful candidate will be responsible for leading academic publication teams using the Satisfaction with Democracy dataset, supported by the Prime Minister’s Cabinet Office.
The Global Satisfaction with Democracy Dataset is an integrated multi-source project that combines data from almost 50 survey sources, 4000 country-year surveys, 5 million respondents, and 160 countries between 1973 and 2021. Key questions for the working groups include identifying quarterly and monthly predictors of changes in democratic legitimacy, investigating the effects of policies undertaken during the 2020 pandemic, and working with new daily tracking poll data on satisfaction with democracy collected by the Centre since 2019.
The Centre for the Future of Democracy is a new research institute whose goal is to understand the prospects for democracy in broad historical and international perspective, getting beyond the immediate crisis to identify different possible trajectories for democracy around the world. It is based at the University of Cambridge, and housed within the Department for Politics & International Studies, and led by inaugural Directors David Runciman and Roberto Stefan Foa.
The Research Associate will enjoy significant opportunities to advance their academic publication record, engage with leading academics at Cambridge and globally, and acquire administrative experience in the Centre.
The successful candidate should have (or be close to completing) a PhD in a field relevant to the quantitative analysis of survey data and the analysis of public opinion. They should provide evidence of potential for research and publication at the highest level, advanced statistical training, and the ability to participate in collaborative projects, and a strong desire to advance their research record in pursuit of a career in academia. As this is an active project, preference will be given to candidates ready to commence work sooner rather than later.
Please ensure that you upload your Curriculum Vitae (CV) and a recent writing sample on the online application portal. If you upload any additional documents which have not been requested, we will not be able to consider these as part of your application.
The deadline for applications is May 1st at 12pm (GMT). It is anticipated that interviews will be carried out shortly after the deadline.
Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available for 12 months in the first instance.
All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply for this position. We particularly welcome applications from women and /or candidates from a BME background for this vacancy.
Click the 'Apply' button below to register an account with our recruitment system (if you have not already) and apply online.
Enquiries about the post can be made to the co-director of the Centre for the Future of Democracy Roberto Stefan Foa (
[email protected]).
If you have any queries about the application process please contact
[email protected].