PhD Candidate (f/m) in Urban Mobility (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-DN-01-01 - WP5) - Ref: 25-20

The Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)

is recruiting a

PhD Candidate (Master Degree, f/m) in Urban mobility

Thesis title:
Socio-Spatial Differences in People’s Experiences and Their Attachment
to Mobility Cultures: A Cross-border Approach

• Ref: 25-20
• 3 years (36 months) fixed-term employment contract at LISER
• Full-time, 40 hours/week
• Department: Urban development and Mobility (UDM)
• Work location: Belval (Luxembourg)
• Expected start date : between September 1st, 2025 and November 1st, 2025
• Deadline: 15th of June 2025 at midnight CET

TRANSFORM Project (“Urban Mobility Cultures in Transition: Socio-spatial implications of transformative practices”) is a Doctoral Network funded by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (Horizon Europe Programme). TRANSFORM investigates the efficacy of transformative practices as mechanisms for initiating and consolidating transitions in urban mobility cultures, and analyses the resulting socio-spatial effects.

The successful applicant will be enrolled as a PhD Candidate at the University of Luxembourg, with an employment contact at LISER, and contribute to the work package 5 ‘’Behavioural change led by transformative practices’’ with the topic ‘’Socio-spatial differences in people’s experiences and their attachment to mobility cultures: A cross-border approach’’. Only applicants who have not been residing in Luxembourg for more than 12 months in the last three years preceding the start date of the contract are eligible for this position.

About the project TRANSFORM

TRANSFORM aims to break new academic ground by studying from a holistic, interdisciplinary, intersectoral, and gender-sensitive approach the meaning and functioning of transitions in urban mobility cultures, examining whether and to what extent transformative practices are effective mechanisms for activating and consolidating the transitions mentioned as well as the resulting socio-spatial effects. The project will recruit 13 doctoral candidates, aiming to pursue post-graduate studies towards the acquisition of a doctoral degree. The research program of these individual researchers will be integrated into a set of eight work packages that include the participation of 16 highly reputed European academic institutions and nine experienced non-academic organizations of relevance for urban mobility. The project will focus on training of a new generation of researchers through an innovative, comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and intersectoral doctoral program that includes: (i) academic training; (ii) non-academic training; (iii) transferable skills training; and (iv) specific and coordinated supervision and mentoring.

Your role

In this context, the successful candidate will have the following missions based on the main following objective: To formulate the concept of ‘accessibility biographies’ as a thread to evaluate mobility cultures attachment. More precisely:

Objectives:

• To develop a conceptual framework able to link ‘accessibility biographies’ to mobility cultures attachment ;
• To analyse how people with different levels of attachments and accessibility biographies experience and perform public space in cross-border places by using sensor-based measurements (including GPS, sound recordings and physiological sensors) ;
• To understand the willingness to change mobility behaviours based on the accessibility biographies and attachment concepts in order to achieve sustainable transitions in mobility.

Expected Results:

• Developing the conceptual framework linking accessibility biographies and mobility cultures attachment ;
• Application of novel methodologies dealing with big data (e.g. GPS and other sensors) for assessing people’s mobility experiences in public space ;
• A database of 800 participants (including Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Germany) with innovative measurements of momentary experiences in public space, attachment (to mobility cultures and places) and willingness to change travel behaviour.

Duties:

• Complete a research proposal, containing research objectives, description of research, methodology, proposed completion timeframe and originality of contribution ;
• Participate in network-wide training events in the course of the project and complete any additional training required to successfully carry out the research proposal ;
• Develop materials for TRANSFORM reporting and personal training requirements (e.g., personal career development plan; annual summaries of research findings) ;
• Prepare and disseminate research findings, in academic journals and for relevant stakeholders ;
• Prepare a manuscript for submission as a PhD thesis in accordance with the regulations of the University of Luxembourg.

Three secondments are foreseen within the framework of this position, and each one with a duration of approx. 2-3 months: (i) Goethe University Frankfurt-am-Main GUF (Germany), (ii) Technical University of Denmark DTU (Denmark), (iii) Network Sustainable Mobility NDM (Belgium). The main purpose of the secondments are field visits, to prepare the conceptual framework, to analyse the relationships between activity patterns and types of place attachment to propose ways of improving modal changes in different mobility culture contexts and to evaluate the usefulness of accessibility biographies in participatory planning approaches.

The position involves working at Urban Development and Mobility Department at LISER, and with the international TRANSFORM project team, publishing in international academic journals, and the regular presentation of papers at national and international conferences. More information on this and other TRANSFORM projects are available at https://www.transformresearch.eu

Your profile

• Master’s degree in Quantitative Geography / Psychology / Sociology / Health or Epidemiology / Transport or Civil engineering / Data Science / Urban Planning / or other relevant quantitative field ;
• Excellent knowledge and experience in regression analyses (SEM, multi-level, discrete choice behavior modeling…) based on statistical software (R, STATA or SAS) ;
• Excellent skills in GIS, Python is an asset ;
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills ;
• Excellent veral communication and academic writing skills in English, any other language such as French, German, or Luxembourgish is considered as an asset ;
• Enthusiasm for research, critical thinking and working in an interdisciplinary and diverse team.

LISER particularly encourages female candidates to apply

What we offer

• A dynamic and international research environment with attractive working conditions and a stimulating work environment ;
• Flexibility in the organisation of the working hours and the possibility of teleworking ;
• Competitive remuneration according to the Collective Labour Agreement in force ;
• Investment in career support and development (trainings, seminars, participation to international meetings and conferences);
• 32.5 days of annual leave for a full-time contract.

How to apply

Please submit your complete application in English via https://jobs.liser.lu/jobs by including the following documents:

• Curriculum vitae ;
• Motivation letter ;
• Recent piece of research/reporting ;
• Copy of your Master diploma and transcripts;
• Two reference letters (to be uploaded with the application documents or sent separately to recruitment@liser.lu) or the applicant should provide the names of two individuals (referees) familiar with the applicant's professional qualifications

Deadline to submit applications: 15th of June 2025 at midnight CET.

Early application is encouraged as the applications are processed upon reception.

All applications received before 15st of June 2025 will receive full consideration.

Would you have any work-related question, please contact Dr. Philippe Gerber at philippe.gerber@liser.lu and Dr. Veronique Van Acker at veronique.vanacker@liser.lu.

For administrative matters, please contact Mrs. Vanya KIROVA at recruitment@liser.lu

Why LISER?

LISER is a publicly funded research institute located in Luxembourg and dedicated to applied empirical research in economic, social and spatial sciences. The Institute attracts top researchers from all over the world and high-level student training is a vibrant part of the Institute’s activities. LISER staff consists of approx. 200 employees, about 60% of the staff being researchers; mainly from the fields of economics, geography and sociology. The vision of the institute is to be a socio-economic research institute internationally recognised, focused on scientific excellence and societal impact, able to contribute through multi-disciplinary and intersectoral research, in an active and inclusive way to a sustainable and inclusive society at national and international level.

The institute is located on the new Belval campus in the south of Luxembourg (Cité des Sciences, Luxembourg), which hosts the University of Luxembourg and a substantial part of the country’s publicly funded research facilities, i.e. LISER, the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) cross-national data centre, the Luxembourg institutes of Health (LIH) and of Science and Technology (LIST). Information on research in Luxembourg is accessible via the national EURAXESS platform.

LISER is strongly committed to gender parity, diversity and inclusion and is proud to be an equal opportunities Employer. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates of any background.