Postdoctoral​/Doctoral Positions

Wann :00 to :55 (Europe/Berlin / UTC
100)

The DFG Cluster of Excellence TransforM at Technical University Munich is inviting applications for up to

They are looking to hire three to four doctoral or postdoctoral researchers to help us develop and run the ‘Public Technology Lab’ as a research infrastructure of Transfor

M:
Munich Center for Transformative Technologies and Societal Change ().

Start Date:

as soon as possible (negotiable)

As a Cluster of Excellence funded by the German Research Foundation DFG, Transfor

M’s goal is to better understand why, when, and how technologies become socially transformative, and to critically assess and inform transformation pathways ‘all the way through’ – from the early stages of their emergence to their wider socio-economic impact. As one element in an ambitious research infrastructure, Transfor

M will set up a Public Technology Lab tasked to explore and mediate the complex relationships between emerging technologies and emerging publics in all their heterogeneity, including through innovative public engagement and dialogue formats.

They are not looking for people to match existing profiles. These are positions for creative and ambitious people interested in working in a team to develop and run their own projects while building a public research infrastructure in collaboration with Transfor

M as a whole. There is plenty of space for good ideas!

The public technology will likely cover the following dimensions:

• a community lab component focused on urban and rural everyday life and how it is transformed in multiple ways by technologies, with a view towards diverse public engagement and deliberation formats, potentially including digital or mobile formats that could be deployed across Germany
• a regulatory science component focused on questions of governance of transformative technologies in relation to policy stakeholders, aligned with the TUM Think Tank ().
• an educational component together with the K12 schools programme of the Deutsche Museum in Munich, Europe’s largest museum of science (), potentially including other elements of science communication

They are looking to put together a creative and enthusiastic team. The team as whole – not each member of the team – needs to reflect

• the heterogeneity of late modern societies, including diverse social and political positionalities;
• different degrees of professional experience (from early doc to senior researcher and experienced practioners);
• different methodological and conceptual proficiencies (across the social sciences and humanities);
• interest and expertise in different technological domains.

Transfor

M aims to become one of Europe’s foremost centres for social science research on transformative technologies. Transfor

M is hosted by the Technical University of Munich, Europe’s highest ranked university. We thus offer an extremely vibrant and well‑resourced research and teaching environment. Transfor

M comprises 25 principal investigators from across the social sciences and humanities. It is a highly inter‑and transdisciplinary environment presenting tremendous opportunities for ambitious early‑ and mid‑career researchers to move their ideas forward in Germany, in Europe, and worldwide.

Pay grades in the team can vary from 75% E13 for entry level graduate students to 100% E14 for senior researchers
. Contracts will typically last for 3.5 years in the first instance. Transfor

M is funded for seven years initially. Details are negotiable and depend very much on the person and what they will bring to Transfor

M.

Transfor

M is closely connected to the Department of Science, Technology and Society (STS) at the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology, which is dedicated to understanding the larger social, political, ethical and legal dimensions of science and technology. Embedded in TUM’s unique innovation ecosystem, we are committed to society‑centred innovation, i.e. enabling a more responsible and sustainable engagement with science and innovation through social science research, teaching and…