PhD – Scholarship at the Pension Research Center (PeRCent) – Denmark

The Pension Research Center (PeRCent), part of the Department of Finance at Copenhagen Business School, invites applications for a PhD scholarship in finance under both the traditional three-year PhD scheme and the 4+4 PhD scheme. This position offers an exciting opportunity to conduct cutting-edge research at the intersection of finance, data science, and behavioral economics. The project is conducted in collaboration with PFA, Denmark’s largest pension company, offering access to unique data and industry insights to support innovative research, while maintaining a strong academic focus.

This PhD project aims to explore customer behavior in the pension sector, combining insights from behavioral economics, finance, and data science. The successful candidate will work with researchers at PeRCent and PFA’s AI Development team. The collaboration is structured to ensure that the research remains academically rigorous and broadly relevant, while also addressing real-world challenges in the pension sector.

The project’s objective is to develop innovative models and data-driven insights that can inform and enhance pension advising research and practices. These models will not only advance academic understanding of customer behavior and decision-making but also aim to contribute to broader societal benefits, such as improving pension advice and enabling better financial outcomes for individuals.

The candidate will have access to PFA’s proprietary dataset in accordance with applicable data protection regulations, including the GDPR. This offers a unique opportunity to study customer behavior in the pension sector and how pension advice affects customers’ reactions while ensuring full compliance with ethical and legal requirements. To gain a deeper understanding of the dataset and the operational context of the pension industry, the candidate will spend some time at PFA. This hands-on experience will complement the academic research process, ensuring that the findings are both theoretically robust and practically relevant.

Program

The three-year PhD program at CBS allows students to conduct research under the supervision of CBS faculty, supported by research focused PhD courses. The program is highly international, and students are expected to participate in international research conferences and to spend time abroad at another research institution as a visiting PhD student. Students are also expected to actively participate in the Department’s research activities, such as seminars and conferences organized by the Department.

Requirements

To be considered, the candidate should have a basic education at the Master’s level (similar to the 3+2 Bologna process). The applicant must have successfully completed the Master’s degree before commencing PhD at CBS, but we also welcome applications from individuals close to completion of the Master’s degree. Generally, a completed MBA education does not fulfil this requirement. The applicants must be fluent in English.

For admittance to the 4+4 PhD scheme, the candidate must have completed a bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) and have passed subjects corresponding to 60 ECTS in a relevant master’s program within the CBS’ subject areas. Applicants who are not enrolled in a master’s program at CBS will be assessed by the CBS Admissions Office.

The successful applicant must have shown academic excellence with a record of top grades from previously completed programs. Priority will be given to candidates who have both a strong quantitative background and strong previous training in financial economics, and who have high grades from their previous programs.

Benefits

A PhD scholarship runs for a period of 3 years and includes teaching obligations equivalent to 416 work hours. For the 4+4 PhD scheme, which includes the final year of a master’s degree followed by three years of PhD studies, the total teaching obligation is 277 work hours.

The scholarships are fully salaried positions, according to the national Danish collective agreement. The scholarship includes tuition fees, office space, course and travel costs (according to the current CBS agreement). The monthly salary is currently starting from app. DKK 29,691 up to DKK 36,180, depending on seniority, and includes an additional pension contribution totalling 18.07%. The scholarship includes tuition fees, office space, course and travel costs (according to the current CBS agreement).

Organisation/Company – Copenhagen Business School.

Field of research – Economics.

Research profile – First Stage Researcher (R1).

Country – Denmark.

Application deadline – 19 Dec 2025 – 12:00 (Europe/Copenhagen).

More information: Euraxess