Ad Astra Fellow - Assistant Professor in Behavioural Economics & Sustainability

Applications are sought for Ad Astra Fellow - Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Behavioural Economics and Sustainability within the College of Social Sciences and Law.

The successful candidate is expected to have a strong research agenda at the intersection of behavioural economics and sustainability. They should apply cutting edge methods of behavioural economics (experiments, causal inference, microeconomic theory) to policy-relevant topics in sustainability. Sustainability can be broadly defined, including environmental topics (climate change, energy, biodiversity loss, water scarcity and pollution, urban sprawl, waste), sustainable economies and behaviours (pro-environmental behaviours, circular economy, smart cities, etc), sustainable development, societal challenges (poverty, inequality, education), health, and gender.

The successful candidate will enhance UCD's position as an international leader in knowledge creation, learning, and action across the sustainability agenda, as well as the university’s leadership in research and impact in behavioural economics. They will collaborate with research groups across UCD – for example the Energy Institute, the Behavioural Science and Policy Group, the Geary Institute for Public Policy and the Earth Institute – to contribute to large-scale research initiatives such as the Centre for Energy Decarbonisation or the SFI-funded NexSys project, lead applications to large-scale national and European funding calls, and develop new initiatives with researchers from across the social sciences, life sciences, and hard sciences.

The candidate will deliver impact through research, teaching, outreach, and community engagement. They will contribute new innovative modules to the teaching portfolio of the School of Economics and the College of Social Science and Law. They will develop an interdisciplinary module in Behavioural Sustainability, where students will learn to apply a range of methods from Behavioural Science to questions in sustainability. With a strong focus on applied methods, this module will enhance UCD’s ambition to offer research-led teaching to a diverse group students, and substantially contribute to the BSc Sustainability and BSc Social Science programmes. It also has the potential to be offered as a micro-credential and, thus, foster lifelong learning.

The candidate will disseminate their research widely and deliver impact through engagement with government agencies – in particular IGEES (Irish Government Economic Evaluation Service), the Behavioural Insights Team, the Central Bank of Ireland – industry, and the wider community. Through short training courses, presentations, social media and non-academic publications, they will communicate their research findings to a diverse audience and explain the benefit of behavioural science methods for meeting our sustainability goals.

Informal enquiries to Prof. Ben Elsner ([email protected]).

95 Lecturer/Asst Professor Above the Bar (7943) Salary Scale: €62,855 - €99,533 Per Annum

Appointment will be made on scale and in accordance with the Irish Government Department of Finance guidelines.

Closing date: 12:00 noon (local Irish time) on the 21st February 2025.

Additional information and to apply: https://www.ucd.ie/workatucd/jobs/

Applications must be submitted by the closing date and time specified. Any applications which are still in progress at the closing time of 12:00 noon (Local Irish Time) on the specified closing date will be cancelled automatically by the system. UCD are unable to accept late applications.

Please note: the eRecruitment system only requests the names of two referees. The full list of 3 referees should be included in the text of your application. Letters are not required at this stage.

UCD do not require assistance from Recruitment Agencies. Any CVs submitted by Recruitment Agencies will be returned.

Note: Hours of work for academic staff are those as prescribed under Public Service Agreements. For further information please follow the link; https://www.ucd.ie/hr/t4media/Academic%20Contract.pdf