The European University Viadrina is an international and interdisciplinary university that educates around 4,000 students from all over the world in law, economics and cultural studies programmes in the twin city of Frankfurt (Oder)-Słubice on the Polish and German sides of the Oder. It lives the European idea in everyday life, promotes European integration in teaching and research and, with around 300 academic and 300 non-academic employees, forms a community that is particularly concerned with successful communication and cooperation with Eastern Europe.

The Kelso Professorship of Comparative Law, East European Business Law and European Legal Policy (Prof. Dr. iur. Jens Lowitzsch) at the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, European University Viadrina invites applications for the position of a

Research Associate / Ph.D. position (m/x/f/d)
ID: 3000-25-01
(up to salary group 13 TV-L (https://oeffentlicher-dienst.info/c/t/rechner/tv-l/allg?id=tv-l-2025&matrix=1) , part-time 20 hours/week)

Starting is the 1st July 2025. The employment contract will be limited until 31 December 2027. The contract may be subject to prolongation or increase in the number of working hours depending on available funding.

Background

The Kelso Professorship of Comparative Law, East European Business Law and European Legal Policy endowed in 2010 at Viadrina has a strategic partnership with the Kelso Institute Europe (KIE) , incorporated in 2020.

The KIE and the Kelso Professorship conduct studies on European legal policy with a special focus on the energy transition and consumer co-ownership, employee financial participation,

ownership and privatisation, insolvency and restructuring, as well as financial crises and their

impact on the welfare state. The research of the interdisciplinary team (economics, law, sociology, political science and engineering) is mostly financed by third-party funding. The Kelso

Professorship and the Kelso Institute Europe organise events both in the context of our research activities and to communicate and disseminate results.

Context:

The Kelso Professorship is currently implementing the research & innovation project “Professionalisierung, Inklusion, Akzeptanz” (PIA - Professionalisation, Inclusion, Acceptance ) , which aims to investigate:

• How can all citizens (especially low-income groups and previously uninterested people) be informed and empowered to actively participate in energy communities?
• Which participation models and digital instruments with a solidarity-based approach can help to include as many citizens as possible, in an energy community?
• How can professional players from the energy sector (municipal utilities, ESCOs, etc.) be involved to ensure diversity of players and scalability of projects?
• How can electricity sharing be organised to ensure a transparent and fair value sharing in energy communities with heterogeneous stakeholders while keeping transaction cost low?

The research position is tendered with the possibility of writing a Ph.D. thesis on related topics.

Your tasks include

• Own research projects in the fields of renewable energies, financial participation, and acceptance of renewables in the context in the context of the PIA project which embraces:
• • collaboration on related scientific publications
  • engagement of underrepresented groups & digital participation tools (e.g. platforms, apps);
  • communication and networking with institutional partners and project partners
• Other research tasks beyond the own research project, in particular coordination of proposals for third-party funded projects and their implementation
• Co-management of daily tasks in KIE projects, including preparation and editing of deliverables, coordination with other consortium partners
• Teaching at the chair of the Kelso-Professorship of the European University Viadrina
• Public relations, participation in the organisation of scientific conferences; participation in the writing of project applications and project reports

Your profile includes

• University degree (Master or equivalent) either in economics, law or political sciences with a focus on renewables, energy policy, circular economy, renewable engineering, or similar
• Experience in energy economics research and well-versed in research methods (qualitative and quantitative)
• Experience in developing scientific research and contributing to research articles (someexperience in the research field is required) as well as in the editing of publications as regards content, style and layout
• Very good communication skills in English (C1 level) in writing and speaking, proficient command of German (B2 level) and knowledge of other languages is desirable
• Knowledge of participatory methods, energy communities, energy sharing, community building, and citizen dialogue
• Confident and communicative appearance in contact with scientists, lecturers and partners from practice, business, culture and politics
• Strong teamwork skills, intercultural competence and interdisciplinary understanding.
• Experience in the development, implementation and documentation of third-party funded interdisciplinary projects in a scientific and/or consulting context
• Proficiency in statistics and econometric methods, an understanding of behavioural

economics principles is of advantage

• Experience with the development or support of digital tools or platforms is an advantage.
• Excellent computer skills (MS Office), skills in quantitative analysis and/or programming in one or more languages are of advantage (e.g., STATA, Python, R)

Please send your application as a PDF file (cover letter, curriculum vitae, university

transcript/grade record, other references) to: bewerbung@europa-uni.de (mailto:bewerbung@europa-uni.de) until 1 June 2025

via e-mail. (The file will be deleted immediately after the selection procedure has been completed.)

If you have any questions about the position, please send an e-mail directly to: kelso-professorship@europa-uni.de (mailto:kelso-professorship@europa-uni.de) .

Further information on our vacancies and our HR policy can be found on our website. The European University Viadrina is committed to diversity and equality for all employees and observes all relevant equality and inclusion measures in the application process.

Please see www.europa-uni.de/stellenangebote (http://www.europa-uni.de/stellenangebote) for further information.

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