PhD – Public Administration & Digital Governance – Netherlands

As a PhD candidate you will be part of the NWO-funded project “AI4ALL: Value-aligned AI for Public Organizations”. You conduct research on the actual and intended use of AI in public organizations, researching the intended reasons and expected impact of AI in the public sector, and empirically measuring public values affected by the use of AI in public governance. More specifically, your research will focus on empirically measuring public values affected by AI use in public governance, examining which values are actually impacted and what citizens consider most important in terms of value trade-offs. The research methods include document analysis, interviews with various stakeholders, including affected citizens, and a citizen survey among the Dutch general public.

The position is funded for a period of 48 months, preferably starting on 1 January 2026, or by mutual agreement.

Duties

• Preparation and conducting of PhD research on AI and public values.
• Data collection through interviews, document analysis, and citizen survey.
• Analysis of the data with the first years a focus on qualitative research methods.
• Writing and publishing of scientific articles and a PhD dissertation.
• Presentation of research results on (inter)national conferences and societal context.
• Attending and successfully completing PhD courses at the Graduate School
• Collaborating with partners in the Consortium AI4ALL: Value-aligned AI for Public Organizations.
• Collaborating with colleagues in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration.

Requirements

• A Master in Social Sciences, like Public Administration, Business Ethics, Political Science, or Management Studies.
• A demonstrable interest in digital governance through an understanding of core topics pertaining to AI and digital governance, and a level of AI literacy (desirable).
• Demonstrable experience and affinity with scientific research.
• Experience with or interest in qualitative research methods (like interviews) and interest in survey research.
• Strong organizational and communicative skills and a proactive attitude.
• Excellent English and Dutch language skills.
• Willingness to work in a team.

Benefits

• A salary of € 3.059,00 (PhD) and maximum € 3.881,00 (PhD) gross per month in the fourth year, for a full-time employment
• An employment contract of initially 1 year. If there is sufficient perspective, this will be extended to a total of 4 years. Your dissertation at the end of the fourth year forms the end of your employment contract.

They also offer you attractive fringe benefits and arrangements. Some examples:

• A full-time 38-hour working week comes with a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year. If you choose to work 40 hours, you have 96 extra holiday leave hours on an annual basis. For part-timers, this is calculated pro rata.
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• optional model for designing a personalized benefits package
• contribution to commuting expenses
• a wide range of sports facilities which staff may use at a modest charge

Organization/Company – Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU).

Research field – Political sciences » Governance

Research profile – First Stage Researcher (R1).

Country –Netherlands.

Application Deadline – 1 Nov 2025 – 22:59 (UTC).

More information: Euraxess.

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