PhD Researcher: Developing Statistical Methods for Complex Network Diagnostics

22 Feb 2024
Job Information

Organisation/Company

Maastricht University (UM)

Research Field

Juridical sciences

Researcher Profile

First Stage Researcher (R1)

Country

Netherlands

Application Deadline

31 Mar 2024 - 22:59 (UTC)

Type of Contract

Temporary

Job Status

Not Applicable

Hours Per Week

38.0

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by an EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

Interested in conducting cutting-edge PhD research at the interface between (official) statistics and law into crimes that undermine democracy and the rule of law in and via the Netherlands (‘ondermijning’), in a dynamic interdisciplinary public-private research consortium? We are passionate about supervising you and five other PhD candidates as well as, in the fifth year, three postdoc researchers in this state-of-the-art prestigious five-year research programme, innovative in focus and approach, with both academic and societal impact. Please apply now to be a force for a more resilient democracy and rule of law.

About Us:
You will be a PhD researcher in our interdisciplinary public-private research consortium that seeks to address the fundamental problem of crimes that undermine democracy and the rule of law in and via the Netherlands (in Dutch: rechtsstaat-ondermijnende criminaliteit or in short ondermijning). Realizing that, for such a complex issue, the sum is more than its parts, more than 28 scholars from at least nine disciplines jointly conduct interdisciplinary research under the overall theoretical framework of complexity science. Given that neither the private sector nor the public sector can address this challenge on its own, 22 private and public agencies including three banks, two intelligence and law enforcement agencies, two applied knowledge institutes, three ministries, three NGOs, and three network organizations collaborate in this interdisciplinary public-private research consortium. Altogether, our COMCRIM community intends to gain a fundamental understanding of crimes that corrode democracy and the rule of law and develop proactive, evidence-based solutions thereto that foster resilience including on rule of law principles like accountability to the law, equality before the law, and fairness in the application of the law. To achieve this aim, we inter alia conduct a study for the development of statistical diagnostic tools that can be used on official statistical data for social and/or business networks. This should yield statistically sound methodology that in future might also be used to detect and quantify volumes and value of illicit goods and services in the overall economy, or unexplained mismatches in input and output of goods and services transmitted over such networks.

COMCRIM
This five-year research project entitled COMbatting CRIMes that undermine democratic societies governed by the rule of law in a smart and comprehensive manner (in short: COMCRIM) is part of the NWA research programme ‘Research along Routes by Consortia (ORC)’ , financed by the Dutch Research Council NWO (see for more information under budget range 2-5 million euros). The NWA supports excellent research in the Netherlands, providing funding to scientific consortia that have the potential to rank among the world’s best in their field. COMCRIM is a response to the urgent need for an informed perspective on crimes that undermine democracy and the rule of law in and via the Netherlands. Under the overall theoretical framework of complexity science, COMCRIM seeks to understand the systemic problems caused by such crime to core public and private institutions, society, and public values and norms. The project brings together three lines of inquiry: (i) socio-legal, (ii) computer science, and (iii) socio-economic research. Researchers in criminal law, private law/human rights due diligence, social science, computer science, artificial intelligence, complexity science, ethics, criminology, and statistics jointly conduct the interdisciplinary research involving supervision of our six PhD researchers and three postdoc researchers as well as our other personnel like student assistants. They will be guided by an equally interdisciplinary international expert group and national advisory group. As a close-knit team, the COMCRIM community will develop solutions for comprehensively and smartly tackling what complexity science understands to be the ‘ecosystem’ of crimes that undermine democratic societies governed by the rule of law. For more information, please contact COMCRIM’s project director and principal investigator, Dr. Jill Coster van Voorhout, and see our website: https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/comcrim

Your joint PhD project in context
Your joint PhD research project on “Development of Statistical Methods appropriate to measurement of Complex Network Diagnostics, using official statistics” at both Maastricht University and the Central Bureau of Statistics/Statistics Netherlands (CBS), the School of Law and in close collaboration with UvA’s Faculty of Natural Sciences and Informatics, is the sixth of six work packages of COMCRIM: COMbatting CRIMes that undermine democratic societies governed by the rule of law in a smart and comprehensive manner. Your study is essential to our interdisciplinary public-private research consortium with its focus on the systemic factors of crimes that corrode democracy and the rule of law. This quest for systemic factors means, in short, a study of their business model. Since hardly any such crimes can be committed without (a) persons, (b) money and (c) infrastructure, our study highlights (a) human trafficking, (b) money laundering and (c) corruption. While all three are crimes themselves, they also allow us to detect (a) forced commission of (other) such crimes, (b) the whitewashing of their criminal proceeds, and (c) their effects of interweaving the under- and upperworld.

Consequently, this research project will focus on reconstructing the (criminal) networks involved in crimes that undermine democratic societies governed by the rule of law. Those networks have both business and social elements. For the business component, it helps to treat regular and irregular economic activity as layers in a multiplex network, as this could lead to indicators for the vulnerability of the Dutch economy. In terms of the social network of people residing in the Netherlands, we will use official statistical data, linked with data on registered crime, to assess the social impacts of crime and the spread of that influence over the social network. While law and statistics are central to this PhD research project, socio-legal methods will be used to reflect on the limited use of data. This PhD research project is thereby interdisciplinary by design, and will be enriched thanks to the close collaboration with the five other PhD research projects on, in short, criminal law, human rights due diligence under private law, artificial intelligence, complex systems science, statistics and economics.

As a part of the socio-economic research line, your PhD research project 3.2. contributes to answering its research question: What is the perpetrator-victim-facilitator-triad of crimes that undermine democratic societies governed by the rule of law, and what is the impact of simulated interventions aimed at actively protecting itself against the most corrosive effects on the Netherlands at the national level? The PhD research project for 3.2. specifically will address sub-question 3.2.a: How can we reconstruct the (criminal) networks involved in crimes that undermine democratic societies governed by the rule of law? and sub-question 3.2.b: What is the economic and social impact for the Netherlands of simulated interventions intended to counter their most corrosive effects at the national level? Thanks to the provision of answers to the above, you will contribute to the overall aim of this research project COMCRIM, answering its central research question: How should the complex problems caused by crimes that undermine democratic societies governed by the rule of law be tackled in a smart and comprehensive manner?

Your Role:
As a PhD researcher, you will play a key role in conducting research in your own research project in close collaboration and with multiple learning opportunities in the diverse team. While the research project design has been described in detail above, you will within its bounds have the academic freedom to come up within bounds of the outline above your own ideas that we are eager to discuss with you.

Responsibilities:

• Develop, conduct, and publish research on (statistics on) crimes that undermine democracy and the rule of law and devise more effective data-driven (preventative) interventions;
• Contribute to the public debate and organize outreach activities of COMCRIM;
• Contribute to the overall COMCRIM program in terms of events, research meetings, activities;
• Collaborate with other researchers within the COMCRIM consortium;
• Give guest-lectures in the area of your expertise at BA or MA level at Maastricht University and CBS or UvA’s FNWI;
• Help co-supervising research projects of students working on related topics.

Your Activities:
The COMCRIM community provides a stimulating research environment, fostering teamwork, educational innovation, and societal impact. As a key member, you will:

• Conduct research and benefit from educational development activities.
• Contribute to teamwork within committed departments and universities.
• Support and elevate our ambitious research agenda in its scientific and societal impact goals.

Requirements
Specific Requirements

We are looking for the following in the candidate: A proactive, collaborative PhD Researcher, who is experienced in or has a demonstrable eagerness to start working on interdisciplinary research in a ditto public-private research consortium, who has by the time of appointment:

• A (research) master’s degree in statistics, criminology, criminal law, social sciences or a comparable discipline;
• A strong affinity with the research topic and in collaborating in a team of researchers from different disciplines including an interest to learn and work with supervisors from the areas of criminal law, human rights and business due diligence/private law, artificial intelligence, complex systems science, criminology, ethics, statistics and economics;
• An excellent written and spoken command of Dutch and/or English, for instance demonstrated by publications in Dutch-language and/or English-language journals, blogs or comparable publications (written and spoken command of other languages, including Spanish, French, and/or German is a plus);
• A demonstrable interest in or experience with empirical research methods, specifically with mixed methods research, ethnographic research, and qualitative research methods;
• An interest in ensuring scientific and societal impact;
• The ability, willingness, and commitment to do autonomous work in an interdisciplinary team;
• An interest in having an active role in organizing workshops, lecture series, and similar events.

Current master students are welcome to apply. However, appointment will only be possible if the master’s degree has been obtained before the start of the employment contract. You can apply without having proof of obtaining your master’s degree, however, bear in mind that proof of a master’s degree is a formal requirement for employment and must be delivered at least 3 weeks before the start date of the contract.

Additional Information
Benefits

As PhD Researcherat Faculty of Law, you will be employed by the most international university in the Netherlands, located in the beautiful city of Maastricht. In addition, we offer you:

• Good employment conditions. The position is graded in scale P according to UFO profile PhD researcher, with corresponding salary based on experience ranging from €2770,00 and €3539,00 gross per month (based on a full-time employment of 38 hours per week). In addition to the monthly salary, an 8.0% holiday allowance and an 8.3% year-end bonus apply.
• An employment contract for a period of 12 months with a scope of 1,0 FTE. Upon a positive evaluation, an extension of 3 years will follow. Since this is a joint PhD research project, you will be a member of our research community in Maastricht, while you can also regularly benefit from the research community at VU Amsterdam through our hospitality agreement and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Amsterdam through its partnership in COMCRIM.
• At Maastricht University, the well-being of our employees is of utmost importance, we offer flexible working hours and the possibility to work partly from home if the nature of your position allows it. You will receive a monthly commuting and internet allowance for this. If you work full-time, you will be entitled to 29 vacation days and 4 additional public holidays per year, namely carnival Monday, carnival Tuesday, Good Friday, and Liberation Day. If you choose to accumulate compensation hours, an additional 12 days will be added. Furthermore, you can personalize your employment conditions through a collective labor agreement (CAO) choice model.
• As Maastricht University, we offer various other excellent secondary employment conditions. These include a good pension scheme with the ABP and the opportunity for UM employees to participate in company fitness and make use of the extensive sports facilities that we also offer to our students.
• We provide the space and facilities for your personal and professional development. We facilitate this by offering a wide range of training programs and supporting various well-established initiatives such as 'acknowledge and appreciate'.
• At the Institute for Advanced Study in Amsterdam, you will be able to regularly conduct the research with all other members of the team consisting of at first the other five PhD Researchers and the project director/principal investigator as well as your and their supervisors.

The terms of employment at Maastricht University are largely set out in the collective labor agreement of Dutch Universities. In addition, local provisions specific to UM apply.

Additional comments

Curious?

Are you interested in this exciting position but still have questions? Feel free to contact Dr. Jill Coster van Voorhout, COMCRIM project director and its principal investigator ([email protected] ) and/or the work package leader Dr. Yarin Eski ([email protected] ) for more information.

Applying?
Or are you already convinced and ready to become our new PhD Researcher? Apply now, no later than march 31st, for this position.

Your application should be written in English and include the following documents:

• A filled application form
• A 2-page motivation letter, indicating your motivation to work with us, your research interests, and experience related to the research field;
• A curriculum vitae, including a list of publications;
• Your research proposal (maximum 2000 words on 5 pages, excluding references) in which you describe the methodological approach tailored to the project you are applying for, highlighting your ideas and strategies to conduct the research, the barriers that you envision as well as your solutions, as well as reflecting on possible ethical and practical challenges of your project.
• Two references, including contact information, that can be consulted
• Copy of Master diploma and transcripts

The vacancy is open for internal and external candidates. In case of equal qualifications, internal candidates will be prioritized.

Maastricht University is committed to promoting and nurturing a diverse and inclusive community. We believe that diversity in our staff and student population contributes to the quality of research and education at UM, and strive to enable this through inclusive policies and innovative projects led by teams of staff and students. We encourage you to apply for this position.

If you are intrigued by our vacancy but uncertain if you are the perfect fit, apply anyway! We welcome all qualified candidates, including minorities, women, individuals with disabilities, and those underrepresented in academia. Our consortium values diversity, equity, inclusivity, and complementarity. We believe that diverse perspectives are vital in shaping a societal vision to prevent the erosion of democratic societies governed by the rule of law. Our commitment extends to creating an inclusive environment where mutual respect, equal opportunities, and varied experiences thrive in research, organization, flexibility, training, and community activities. Join us in building a team where every voice matters.

Website for additional job details

https://www.academictransfer.com/338066/

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

Maastricht University

Country

Netherlands

City

Maastricht

Postal Code

6211LH

Street

Bouillonstraat 3

Geofield

Where to apply

Website

https://www.academictransfer.com/en/338066/phd-researcher-developing-statistica…

Contact

City

Maastricht

Website

http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/

Street

Minderbroedersberg 4

Postal Code

6211 LK

STATUS: EXPIRED