Research assistant (political science / European studies)

About the position 

ARENA Centre for European Studies are looking for a research assistant (position code SKO 1020/1019) to work on our Horizon Europe-funded projects Rebuilding governance and resilience out of the pandemic (REGROUP) and The REpresentative DIsconnect: diagnosis and strategies for RECTification (REDIRECT). 

The position is a full time position for the duration of two years.

The position is available as soon as possible.

About ARENA

ARENA Centre for European Studies is an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Oslo. The centre is a national focal point for research on political integration in Europe and one of the leading centers in this field internationally. ARENA coordinates and participates in several international research networks and projects financed by the Norwegian Research Council and the EU's Horizon Europe program and is primarily externally funded.

ARENA currently has a scientific staff of 26 people, including doctoral candidates and postdoctoral fellows, as well as four administrative staff. The staff is international.

About the projects

REGROUP | Rebuilding Governance and Resilience out of the Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on society in the past years. It has also created an opportunity for states and the EU to revaluate not only their emergency responses but also their existing policy responses to the many challenges and disruptions created or intensified by the pandemic.

Building on this opportunity, REGROUP studies governance after the Covid-19 pandemic. The project maps out the socio-political dynamics and consequences of Covid-19 and normatively evaluates the pandemic and the governments’ responses to it. Based on this, the project will discern relevant lessons and provide the EU with advice on how to rebuild post-pandemic governance and public policies in an effective and democratic way.

The REGROUP project is multidimensional in its research approach, looking to reach its objectives by using three cross-cutting dimensions to analyse the covid-19 pandemic:

• Multi-mission, in the sense that the project both seeks to map out and evaluate the socio-political dynamics created by the pandemic, as well as provides suggestions for solutions to EU policymakers.
• Multi-level, in which the researchers examine the pandemic across several levels of government: National, supranational and international.
• Multi-sphere, where the project will look at several societal spheres, including the political sphere, the ideational sphere and the digital sphere.

 

REDIRECT: HOME - The REpresentative DIsconnect: diagnosis and strategies for RECTification

The main objective of REDIRECT is to enhance our understanding of the current transformations of representative democracy in Europe at national and supranational level, and at the interconnection between different levels of territorial representation. 

REDIRECT wishes to assess whether the centre of gravity of democratic representation is shifting away from the traditional forms of political intermediation, such as parties, parliaments, and party-based government, and whether other forms of political representation are taking their place. Although these transformations are by now long seated, they seem to have reached a critical point in the first two decades of the 21st century, fomenting a sense of crisis and uncertainty, and a diffuse malaise in the European democracies.

The crisis of these institutions, as well as the changing attitudes and behaviour of citizens and political elites towards politics, have made the linking of the citizenry to the governing institutions more difficult and haphazard.

The two main questions REDIRECT addresses are:

a) what are the nature, scope, aspects and causes of the representative disconnect;

b) how can the current representative disconnect be addressed, ameliorated, and/or rectified? (i.e., legislative and procedural innovation to ensure transparency and full information to citizens) and the bottom-up way of a stronger liaison between citizens and mediating bodies (i.e., remobilizing citizens via digitalization, diffusion of share values of social sustainability and civic education).

Work description

The employed  assistant will start the 2-year engagement working mainly on REGROUP project tasks in the first 6 months of his/her employment. 

The main responsibilities are related to work package 5 (WP5) in the project, on auditing democracy in times of crisis led by ARENA, Task 5.2: Application of the audit framework to the Covid-19 circumstance. The work will be based on the general conceptual and analytical framework for the democratic audit approach developed in the project. The research assistant will have responsibility for process-tracing to reconstruct three types of policy decisions at critical times during the Covid-19 crisis, using primary and secondary sources, and interviews with key decision-makers.

Other major task will be research and writing support with the book planned in the project.

In the REDIRECT project, the research assistant will help prepare three reports: on i) forms of disconnection between citizens and representative politics and institutions (report due January 2026); ii) how the Conference on the Future of Europe addressed problems of disconnection in the representative system (report due January 2026); and iii) political parties and mediatisation strategies (report due July 2026). In all three cases, the assistant will help survey the existing literature and identify any relevant data within and beyond the REDIRECT project.

The research assistant will also help to obtain information on the democratic audits in both REGROUP and REDIRECT.

The lead researchers will provide templates and guidelines for what is relevant information to be collected.

In addition, the research assistant will contribute to day-to-day activities in the projects and at ARENA, including among other tasks helping with events, publications, practical arrangements, etc. There may be changes in tasks in line with the respective developments at ARENA.

Qualifications 

Qualification requirements

• We are primarily looking for candidates who have completed their MA degree in social sciences, law, or humanities. The applicant may also be in her/his last term as an MA student (in such instances, the applicant will be employed in the position code 1019 until completion of her/his MA degree). 
• Knowledge of or interest in ARENA's research field. 
• Good knowledge of the EU and EU politics. 
• Excellent written and oral proficiency in English, including spelling and grammar. 
• Good knowledge and understanding of Norwegian or other Scandinavian language.
• Good familiarity with text editing and experience with Word. 

 Desired qualifications 

• Experience in organizing events is a plus. 
• Experience with other tasks such as finalising manuscripts, communication, and web work is also valued. 
• Familiarity with and experience in Excel, web publishing solutions, and other relevant programmes is an advantage.

What are we looking for in you? 

We are looking for candidates who have interest for tasks such as described and for ARENA’s research fields.

Employment in the position is based on a comprehensive assessment of all qualification requirements applicable to the position, including personal qualifications.

We are looking for a person who

• is thorough, reliable, and flexible, with attention to detail.
• has the ability to take responsibility and initiative and works independently. 
• can work under time pressure and handle multiple tasks simultaneously.

Training for the tasks will be given. The working language at ARENA is English. Sufficient knowledge of Norwegian or another Scandinavian language is also required. 

The place of work is in ARENA’s offices in Gaustadalléen 30 in Oslo.

We offer 

• Exciting and meaningful tasks in an organisation with an important societal mission, contributing to knowledge development, education, and enlightenment that promote sustainable, fair, and knowledge-based societal development.
• Committed colleagues in a good working environment. 
• Good welfare schemes.
• Opportunity of up to 1.5 hours a week of exercise during working hours.
• A workplace with good development and career opportunities. 
• Membership in the Statens Pensjonskasse, which is one of Norway's best pension schemes with beneficial mortgages and good insurance schemes.
• Salary in a position as research assistant: for candidates with an MA degree (position code 1020): in an annual salary range from NOK 509 300 - 524 700, depending on competence and experience. For candidates with a minimum of three years of higher education (position code SKO 1019): in an annual salary range from NOK 460 000 - 475 600. From the salary, two percent is deducted in statutory contributions to the State Pension Fund.

Read more about the benefits of working in the public sector at Employer Portal.

Inclusive worklife and diversity at UiO

Inclusion and diversity are a strength. The University of Oslo has a personnel policy objective of achieving a balanced gender composition. Furthermore, we want employees with diverse professional expertise, life experience and perspectives.

If there are qualified applicants with disabilities, employment gaps or immigrant background, we will invite at least one applicant from each of these categories to an interview.

We hope that you will apply for the position. 

Application

Your application should include:

• Application letter
• CV
• Transcripts and certificates
• Up to two writing samples (e.g. your BA or master’s thesis or other academic work). Please note that there is no separate prompt for uploading such documents in the application portal. These must therefore be uploaded as separate “Attachments”
• Contact information for 2-3 references.

Application with attachments must be submitted via our recruitment system Jobbnorge, click "Apply for the position".

When applying for the position, we ask you to retrieve your education results from Vitnemålsportalen.no. If your education results are not available through Vitnemålsportalen, we ask you to upload copies of your transcripts or grades. Please note that all documentation must be in English or a Scandinavian language.

General information

The best qualified candidates will be invited for an interview. 

Applicant lists can be published in accordance with Norwegian Freedom of Information Act § 25. When you apply for a position with us, your name will appear on the public applicant list. It is possible to request to be excluded from this list. You must justify why you want an exemption from publication and we will then decide whether we can grant your request. If we can't, you will hear from us.

The total duration of employment as a Research Assistant cannot exceed two years, and candidates cannot have been previously employed in this role at UiO.

Please refer to Regulations for the Act on universities and colleges chapter 3 (Norwegian).

The University of Oslo has a transfer agreement with all employees that is intended to secure the rights to all research results etc.

Contact information

For questions about the position, please contact:

• Senior adviser Vilija Duleviciute
• Project leader John Erik Fossum