Senior researcher position at the Nordic Africa Institute

Job Description

The Nordic Africa Institute employs an established scholar for one year from an African university or research institute. Typically they are on sabbatical from their home institution. The programme is targeted towards a scholar with a demonstrated record of academic accomplishment who wants to engage with Nordic decision-makers in government, and with related change-makers, to convey messages from their research and present perspectives on contemporary Africa.

NAI welcomes applications from scholars covering innovative research that is consistent with the impact areas identified in the NAI 2022-2026 strategy, which can be found here.

A successful candidate might use the period of employment at NAI to engage with Nordic decision-makers, complete ongoing research, develop a research project, or complete articles and policy-relevant outputs. A scholar-researcher should take advantage of the intellectual and logistical resources of the Nordic Africa Institute and expect to contribute meaningfully towards actualizing NAI’s vision and mandate and its policy outreach activities in return.

The research may take a comparative view, explore a thematic area, or present an in-depth analysis on a specific country focus. The strong emphasis at NAI is upon contextually informed, well-nuanced, field-based research in the qualitative social sciences or economics.

Qualifications

• A PhD degree in anthropology, geography, sociology, gender studies, international development, development economics or related subject.
• A senior scholar with 7 or more years’ experience post-PhD conducting academic research.
• A current research/teaching position in a university or research institution in Africa.
• Record of high-quality scholarly research.
• Record of science communication and policy/practice engagement with non-academic stakeholders.
• Strong ability to present complex issues to non-academic audiences.
• Knowledge of African scientific communities, and policy environments, and other stakeholders and actors relevant to the research topic.
• Ability to work in a multi-cultural environment.
• Excellent knowledge of spoken and written English.

Application

Your Application Needs To Include The Following Proposal not exceeding 5 pages presenting a realistic work plan for the length of stay at the Institute (1 year) – detailing proposed intellectual activities/research projects, expected outputs (such as publications, dissemination activities, participation at seminar/workshop/conference activities, and policy engagements).

Complete CV with a list of scientific publications clearly indicating which publications are formally considered peer-reviewed.

Indication of internet addresses to the applicant’s own publications relating to his/her research (a maximum of three publications).

Evidence of policy engagement / science-policy communication to non-academic audiences (a one-page summary, or up to three non-academic outputs).

Names and contact details of at least two references.

The deadline to apply is 30 November 2024.