Marie Curie Doctoral Training Network PhD researcher fellowship in mobility

The Faculty Social Sciences & Solvay Business School, Department Business Technology and Operations, Research Group House of Sustainable Transitions is looking for a PhD-student with a doctoral grant. 

More concretely your work package, for the preparation of a doctorate, contains: 

You will be conducting research on the new governance of urban transformations and mobility as part of the new European MSCA Doctoral Network TRANSFORM - Urban Mobility Cultures in Transition: Socio-Spatial Implications of Transformative Practices (2025-2028).

The TRANSFORM project will study from a holistic, interdisciplinary, intersectoral and gender-sensitive perspective the meaning and functioning of transitions in urban mobility cultures. It will examine whether and to what extent transformative practices are effective mechanisms to activate and consolidate the transitions as well as the resulting socio-spatial effects. The project is recruiting 13 doctoral candidates to pursue post-graduate studies towards the acquisition of a doctoral degree. The research programme of these individual researchers will be integrated into a set of 8 work packages that include the participation of 16 highly-reputed European academic institutions and 9 experienced non-academic organizations: private companies, associations, regional governments, and urban living labs. The project will focus on training of a new generation of researchers through an innovative, comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and intersectoral doctoral programme that includes: (i) academic training; (ii) non-academic training; (iii) transferable skills training; and (iv) specific and coordinated supervision & mentoring.

You will conduct research to analyse urban transformations by examining the involvement of non-governmental initiatives across six case studies: Brussels (Belgium), Copenhagen (Denmark), Frankfurt (Germany), Luxembourg (Luxembourg), Madrid (Spain), and Vienna (Austria). To achieve this, the first step is to assess why mobility campaigns have been implemented and evaluate their success. Building on this, the second step focuses on determining the role of stakeholders, with an emphasis on non-governmental initiatives, in ensuring the success of these policies. This analysis will contribute to a broader theoretical understanding of the governance of urban transformations. Finally, the third step is to translate these insights into practical recommendations for the future design of urban transformation processes, ensuring that best practices can inform future policy and planning.

The expected results are:

1) Critical analysis of the impact of mobility campaigns across six case studies representing diverse mobility cultures across Europe;

2) Analysis of how these non-governmental initiatives questioned and initiated changes in behaviour and policy making;

3) Theoretical knowledge will be further developed regarding the structure of transport governance, the importance of local residents’ quality of life and, ultimately, the transition of transport and urban planning towards more sustainable mobility cultures. The empirical research will include working with local stakeholders such as civil organisations and government representatives in Belgium to investigate mobility campaigns and bottom-up governance at different scales.

The participation in trainings, workshops and secondments (1-2 months) to another partner institution during the project is mandatory.

Tasks

You will carry out academic research in the domains of mobility, participation and governance.
You will collect and analyse qualitative (e.g. interviews, focus groups, content and discourse analysis) and quantitative data (e.g. surveys, datasets on travel behaviour).
You will author academic publications and research reports.
You will present research results at workshops, academic and policy conferences.
You will contribute to public dissemination activities.
You will supervise master thesis students.

MSCA rules:Researchers must comply with the MSCA mobility rule, i.e., researchers may not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Belgium for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the date of the recruitment. Compulsory national service, short stays such as holidays and time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention are not taken into account. 

Researchers must be early-stage researchers (ESR), i.e. not already in possession of a doctoral degree at the date of the recruitment. Researchers who have successfully defended their doctoral thesis but who have not yet formally been awarded the doctoral degree will not be considered eligible.

For this function, our Brussels Humanities, Sciences & Engineering Campus (Elsene) will serve as your home base.