iHub-IMR Call for PhD (pre)proposals on the theme ‘Responsible governing in a digital age’

The central themes iHub and IMR research allow for many interesting collaboration opportunities and together provide an answer to the question: What does responsible governance in a digital age look like? To strengthen the ties between iHub and the Faculty of Management, **two co-funded PhD positions are available**. These PhD positions will be interdisciplinary, and will be supervised by one (co)promotor affiliated to the iHub (for example an iHub member from a different faculty) and one (co)promotor from the Faculty of Management.

iHub is Radboud University’s Interdisciplinary Hub for Digitalization and Society. It is an interfaculty initiative that describes its mission as “to develop state-of-the-art research to better understand the impacts of digitalization on our social, economic and political worlds, and to help steer digital transformations in ways that promote the common good”. The central themes of iHub and the Institute for Management Research. (https://www.ru.nl/nsm/imr/) (IMR) research allow for many interesting collaboration opportunities and together provide an answer to the question: What does responsible governance in a digital age look like? To strengthen the ties between iHub and Nijmegen School of Management, two co-funded PhD positions are available. These PhD positions will be interdisciplinary, and will be supervised by one (co)promotor affiliated to the iHub (for example an iHub member from a different faculty) and one (co)promotor from Nijmegen School of Management.

Research conducted at iHub has two aims: to identify and map the beneficial and detrimental impacts of digitalization, and to provide solutions that can support or address them. On the one hand we engage in theoretical work to clarify how digitalization destabilizes norms, practices and laws. On the other, we seek to develop value-driven solutions that can both help secure and achieve the desirable effects of digitalization, and limit and pre-empt its undesirable ones, based on this more theoretical research. Such solutions can be technical (e.g. privacy by design), and will be developed and tested in the hub’s iLab, but they can also be normative (e.g. updating regulations and laws), and institutional (e.g. new governance frameworks). Work in both research arms is interdisciplinary, drawing on frameworks, insights and methods provided by the pool of disciplines collaborating in the hub. IMR’s scientific research is organized along the lines of [Hot Spots](https://www.ru.nl/nsm/imr/our-research/hot-spots/) in which researchers from the seven different disciplines in our faculty work together to develop and carry out new, innovative research characterized by our motto’s two criteria: scientific excellence and societal relevance. In the challenges society is currently confronted with, the impact of digitalization cannot be ignored. Democracy is at stake as influencing and voting increasingly becomes digitalized; environmental and political issues arise due to the increased use of energy and network capacity for data storage facilities; discrimination tends to sneak into recruitment practices due to use of AI; and work environments become increasingly stressful as digital tracing techniques allow for increased surveillance and control - to name just a few examples. Digitalization is inevitable and offers many opportunities to provide solutions for society: the challenge is to do so in a responsible way. More information can be found on the IMR website. Procedure Pre-proposals for PhD projects, consisting of maximally one A-4, should be sent to Edita Poljac, edita.poljac@ru.nl no later than 17 December, 2021. Pre-proposals should explicitly address the outline of the project; expected contributions and methods; and how it relates to cross-over research themes of iHub and (at least) one of the Hot Spots in Nijmegen School of Management. It should also mention the prospective supervisors (one from Nijmegen School of Management, one related to iHub). A committee consisting of representatives of the iHub and IMR will select six promising pre-proposals. Their applicants will be invited to hand in a full proposal of 2,000 words before 15 February, 2022. From these, the two winning proposals will be selected before Mid-March 2022. Symposium For those interested, see also the symposium organized by Business Administration on ‘[Responsible organizing in a digital age](https://www.ru.nl/nsm/imr/our-research/departments/business-administration/symposium-responsible-organising-digital-age/)’, **25 November** at Van der Valk hotel Nijmegen. Participation is free and provides ample opportunities to network with iHub members who are invited as well.