Postdoctoral Researcher in Ethical Assessment of Technology-Driven Social Disruption

Socially disruptive technologies (SDTs) such as AI, robotics, new energy and climate technologies, and large-scale data infrastructures are transforming social practices, roles, institutions, and the frameworks through which people interpret and evaluate moral life. Existing ethical approaches are poorly equipped to address these multidimensional transformations. By focusing on individual actions or impacts, isolated design choices, or fixed value lists, they often fail to capture how SDTs reshape the broader social contexts in which moral phenomena arise and can be meaningfully assessed.

This postdoctoral project develops new methods for the ethical assessment of socially disruptive technologies. It is part of the ESDiT programme on the ethics of SDTs (see below), specifically a research line in ESDiT on methodological innovation, and involves close collaboration with another postdoc working on complementary approaches, as well as other scholars in the programme.

The project aims to identify and assess key forms of disruption associated with SDTs, with particular attention to changes in the organisation of society. These include institutional transformations in governance, coordination, and economic systems; shifts in social and relational structures; and changes in shared frameworks of meaning that shape roles, responsibilities, and expectations. More broadly, the project examines transformations in social roles and dependencies, coordination and decision-making, and forms of collective and distributed agency.

The expected outcome is a set of clear, practically applicable, and validated methods for ethical assessment that capture multi-level social and normative change and support more responsive evaluations of socially disruptive technologies. The methodological development will be informed by selected case studies across technological domains, focusing on distinct types of social disruption.

Assistant/Associate Professor in Mathematical statistics or Statistical learning

You develop your own identity as a mathematician and are encouraged to attract national or European research grants to support your research line, and/or to initiate collaborations with industry.

Moreover, you will be involved in the teaching program of the department of Applied Mathematics at the Bachelor's and Master's levels, and the department also supplies service teaching to other programmes and faculties. During the first three years, you will acquire the University Teaching Qualification (UTQ). You will be supported to develop both research and teaching skills.

Statistics Research Group Twente: The research focus of the Statistics group is on the development of statistical methodology for new data applications and the theoretical analysis of machine learning methods. A list of members of the statistics group can be found here. The Statistics group is embedded within a larger data science initiative at the University of Twente’s Department of Applied Mathematics.

The Department of Mathematics has as its objective to develop mathematics in the context of important societal problems. We do fundamental research and also encourage and support interdisciplinary collaborations. In applications we focus on systems that are crucial to every-day life. We contribute to smart grids that make energy networks more efficient, mathematical models that assist medical doctors, schedules that make hospitals more efficient and numerical schemes to study multiscale fluid problems and wave propagation from nano to kilometer scales.

The faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) uses mathematics, electronics and computer technology to contribute to the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). With ICT present in almost every device and product we use nowadays, we embrace our role as contributors to a broad range of societal activities and as pioneers of tomorrow's digital society. As part of a people-first tech university that aims to shape society, individuals and connections, our faculty works together intensively with industrial partners and researchers in the Netherlands and abroad, and conducts extensive research for external commissioning parties and funders. Our research has a high profile both in the Netherlands and internationally. It has been accommodated in three multidisciplinary UT research institutes: Mesa+ Institute, TechMed Centre and Digital Society Institute.

Research assistant for the Stress in Action project

Do you want to help bring stress research out of the lab and into everyday life? The Stress in Action project, funded by the Dutch Research Council is looking for an enthusiastic research assistant to join its team for one year.
You will contribute to developing a toolkit for monitoring stress in daily life, combining physiological measurements, wearable technology, VR stress simulations, and smartphone-based cognitive tasks. You can expect to set up and run experiments, work hands-on with cutting-edge wearable devices, and manage and preprocess both experimental and passive sensing data. You will also contribute to literature searches and help maintain research databases.
You bring an affinity for technology and a genuine interest in stress and cognition research. A master's degree is preferred, and experience with programming in R or Python, signal processing, or qualitative analysis is a plus.
This is a full-time, one-year position embedded in a vibrant, multidisciplinary research consortium at the forefront of daily life stress science. Curious? Find out more at stress-in-action.nl.

Communicatieadviseur voor de faculteit EEMCS & Lifelong Learning

In deze gecombineerde functie werk je op het snijvlak van facultaire strategie en universiteitsbrede onderwijsinitiatieven. Je draagt bij aan de positionering en zichtbaarheid van de Faculteit Electrical Engineering, Mathematics & Computer Science (EEMCS) en versterkt tegelijkertijd de communicatie en zichtbaarheid van de Lifelong Learning-initiatieven van de Universiteit Twente.

Hoewel het een gecombineerde functie betreft, verschillen de verantwoordelijkheden in aard en complexiteit tussen beide onderdelen.

Voor de faculteit EEMCS (0,4 fte)
Binnen EEMCS fungeer je als strategisch communicatieadviseur en sparringpartner voor het faculteitsbestuur, opleidingsdirecteuren en onderzoekers.

Je verantwoordelijkheden en taken voor EEMCS zijn:

• Je adviseert over strategische communicatievraagstukken rondom interne communicatie, profilering, reputatie en communicatiekeuzes.
• Je adviseert over studentenwerving en onderwijsmarketing, in lijn met de centrale marketing- en communicatiestrategie van de UT.
• Je versterkt de onderzoekscommunicatie door onderzoeksresultaten, projecten en maatschappelijke impact te vertalen naar zichtbare en aansprekende verhalen.
• Je zorgt voor een goede aansluiting tussen facultaire ambities en centrale UT-strategieën (zoals profilering, organisatorische ontwikkelingen en impactdomeinen).
• Je vertaalt communicatiestrategieën naar concrete plannen en coördineert de uitvoering samen met specialisten binnen Marketing & Communicatie.
• Je fungeert als verbindende schakel tussen onderzoekers, docenten, centrale communicatieteams, persvoorlichting en externe partners.

In dit deel van de functie opereer je op strategisch niveau, beweeg je je in een complexe stakeholderomgeving en signaleer je proactief communicatiekansen die bijdragen aan de langetermijnpositionering van zowel de faculteit als de Universiteit Twente.

Voor Lifelong Learning (0,4 fte)
Als communicatieadviseur Lifelong Learning draag je bij aan de positionering en zichtbaarheid van het Lifelong Learning-portfolio van de Universiteit Twente. Je werkt op het snijvlak van onderwijs, onderzoek en maatschappelijke impact en ondersteunt faculteiten en centrale teams bij het vergroten van de zichtbaarheid en toegankelijkheid van het professionele onderwijsaanbod van de UT.

Je helpt de UT-strategie voor Lifelong Learning te vertalen naar heldere communicatie, zodat collega’s, professionals en partners de waarde van Lifelong Learning aan de Universiteit Twente goed begrijpen.

In deze rol werk je nauw samen met faculteiten, programmamanagers Lifelong Learning en de afdeling Marketing & Communicatie.

Je verantwoordelijkheden en taken voor Lifelong Learning zijn:

• Je versterkt de zichtbaarheid en promotie van het professionele onderwijsaanbod van de UT, zowel intern als extern.
• Je ontwikkelt communicatieaanpakken voor verschillende doelgroepen, zoals professionals, organisaties en UT-medewerkers.
• Je draagt bij aan de online zichtbaarheid en storytelling rondom Lifelong Learning-initiatieven.
• Je vertaalt onderwijsinnovaties, onderzoeksinzichten en maatschappelijke impact naar aansprekende verhalen voor externe doelgroepen.

Deze combinatie van verantwoordelijkheden vraagt om een professional die zowel op strategisch als coördinerend niveau kan opereren en de verbinding versterkt tussen faculteiten, centrale diensten en Marketing & Communicatie.