Post Doc Positions within Foresight and Innovation Management

Post Doc Positions within Foresight and Innovation Management

Odense, Denmark

Job Description

The Department of Business & Management (DBM) at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) invites applications for one or more 30-months Post Doc position(s) in Foresight and Innovation Management.  

The PostDoc will teach within innovation, organization, or strategic management and contribute research time for one of the following projects:

• “Facilitating collective climate future envisioning among the youth in the Danish-German border region: Shaping actionable strategies and common initiatives” (FUSION)
• “Anticipating STRAtegic Long-term challenges” (ASTRAL).

The positions are located at SDU’s Campus in Odense and are vacant from 1st September 2025 or soon thereafter.

Job description

The applicant is expected to hold a PhD degree relevant to the topics like business, management or organization studies with a preference for candidates knowledgeable about foresight and innovation. Candidates about to complete their PhD will also be considered and should attach a statement from their supervisors or their university administration regarding their impending completion.

The positions are embedded in the Center for Integrative Innovation Management (C*I2M) and the SDU Climate Elite Center “Mobilizing Post-Anthropocentric Climate Action: A New Root Narrative” (PACA). 

• The research in C*I2M is cross-disciplinary integrating management, marketing, and technology for a more comprehensive understanding of innovation. We seek to understand and promote capabilities for innovation from foresight to initial idea to the fully commercialized or implemented innovation. 
• The research in PACA is dedicated to identifying post-anthropocentric root narratives to mass-mobilize societal actors for climate action. It assesses the extent to which such practices and beliefs can provide a positive narrative for a new organization of production and consumption practices and, finally, the role of universities as mediators of the emergent post-anthropocentrism.

Both centers are integrated and currently hiring several younger researchers for various projects ensuring a vibrant research environment.

In both the FUSION and ASTRAL projects, the C*I2M and PACA themes are integrated into a unique perspective on how organizations can use foresight to help societal actors develop long-term visions and strategies for the future, enabling them to address major challenges such as climate change or digitization.

• FUSION empowers young people from the Danish-German border region to drive societal innovation to tackle climate change. Climate requires well aligned actions across nation states as it can only be mitigated through collaborative collective efforts and behavioral changes of all citizens. At the same time, many high school students in the Danish-German border region suffer from climate anxiety and a lack of positive outlook that makes them feel powerless. FUSION aims to break the paralysis in which these students are trapped, educate them in the collective imagination of positive climate futures, and empower them to develop and implement joint climate change initiatives across borders in the program region. It is a collaborative project involving two university and seven school partners from Denmark and Germany. To reach these overarching objectives, FUSION will develop an innovative education format: A teaching module for English language education at secondary education institutions. This module includes creative future fiction writing, in-class analysis, and a cross-border camp where common climate change initiatives and future job profiles will be developed. FUSION further develops a learning platform that ensures open access to all produced teaching material, (anonymized) stories, and automized story overview summaries. 
• ASTRAL is investigating how universities can train high-tech SMEs in long-term foresight and strategy development for a sustainable future. This involves engaging in responsible innovation and basing strategy on a positive root narrative of a sustainable future. The project aims to broaden our understanding of what positive futures are imagined by actors in SMEs, and to develop a training that can be used by higher education institutions to guide them in the process of developing a sustainable long-term strategy towards a desirable future. This European project includes further Higher Education Institutions, VETs and industry partners from Germany, Spain, France and The Netherlands.

The Post Docs will be involved in all parts and activities of the research projects. The workload will be geared towards

• participation in coordination activities, 
• data collection and data analysis,
• learning/ training material development
• participation in the design and conduction of events with the project stakeholders,
• outreach, dissemination and publication of project results,
• evaluation of the effectiveness and impact of the project output.

The successful candidate will also be expected to teach at the Centre for Integrative Innovation Management in topics related to innovation, organization, or strategic management. Moreover, the candidate will participate in the various activities within the department and is expected to be present on a daily basis.

For further information, please contact Professor and Principal investigator of FUSION and PACA, Patricia Wolf pawo@sam.sdu.dk, Professor and Head of Research at C*I2M Mette Præst Knudsen mpk@sam.sdu.dk or Associate Professor Bryan Yazell yazell@sdu.dk

Conditions of employment

Appointment to the position will be in accordance with the collective agreement between the Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations for academics in the state with the associated circular on the protocol for the job structure for academic staff at Danish universities and the provisions for postdoc as described herein. Please check links for more information on salary (only available in Danish) and taxation.

The person employed in the position may, based on a specific individual managerial assessment, be exempted from time registration, also known as a self-organiser.

For more information on the department guidelines for qualification and recruitment please visit our website.

How to apply for this positon

Applicants are encouraged to read the information "How to apply" before applying. 

To qualify for the position as postdoc you must have obtained a PhD degree by the employment date. 

Assessment of the candidates is based on the application material, and the application must include:

• Motivated application, including an indication of a preference for either the FUSION project or the ASTRAL project.
• Detailed CV where education and work history must be date, month and year specific.
• Master’s degree and PhD degree or equivalent (copy of original + verified English translation). If the PhD hasn’t been completed, please attach a statement from your supervisors or university administration regarding your impending completion.
• A complete list of publications and pipeline, indicating which publications are most relevant for the position. 
• Research plan (in the context of either the FUSION project or the ASTRAL project).
• Teaching portfolio – you can find instructions for this here.
• Up to 2 of the most relevant publications. Please upload a pdf for each publication. If your publications have been co-authored, please briefly describe the extent of the co-authorship or your contribution to the individual joint publication. You can do so by using this form or you can describe the co-authorship in such a way that the committee can assess the extent of your contribution. 
• A description (2 – 3 pages of 2400 characters each, including spaces, notes, appendices, bibliography, etc.) of the applicant’s envisioned role and contribution to the FUSION/ASTRAL project. This description should also indicate how to earlier work by the applicant relates to FUSION’s/ASTRAL’s research goals and explain the motivation for applying for this Post Doc position. 

All non-Danish documents must be translated into English. 

We request files in pdf-format no more than 5 MB per file. All pdf-files must be unlocked and allow binding and may not be password protected. Documents should not contain a CPR number (civil registration number) – in this case, the CPR number must be crossed out.

UPLOAD GUIDE: Motivated application shall be uploaded as ‘Cover letter’, Curriculum Vitae shall be uploaded as ‘Resume’. All other documents shall be uploaded as ‘Miscellaneous documents’.

If the application does not meet the requirements mentioned above, the faculty may reject your application without further notice. Applications received after the deadline will neither be considered nor evaluated.

The assessment and evaluation process

Shortlisting may be used in the assessment process. Please note that only shortlisted applicants will receive an assessment. Read about shortlisting at SDU. 

Applications will be assessed by an assessment committee and the shortlisted applicants will receive the part of the evaluation that concerns them. The committee may request additional information, and if so, it is the responsibility of the applicants to provide the necessary material.

When the assessment committee has submitted its report, the candidates will receive the part of the evaluation that concerns them. The assessment report will subsequently be forwarded to the Head of Department who will assemble an appointments committee. The appointments committee will manage and complete the job interviews, should such be conducted.

Interviews and tests may be part of the overall evaluation. 

If you experience technical problems, please contact hcm-support@sdu.dk. 

We recommend that as an international applicant, you take the time to visit Work in Denmark where you will find information and facts about moving to, working and living in Denmark, as well as the International Staff Office at SDU.

The application deadline is April 22, 2025, at 11.59 PM/23.59 (CET/CEST)

The University of Southern Denmark wishes to reflect the surrounding community and therefore encourages everyone, regardless of personal background, to apply for the position.

About SDU

The University of Southern Denmark was established to create value for and with society. Whether our contributions come in the form of excellent research, innovative solutions, education or learning, we must make a positive difference to society and contribute to a sustainable future. We do this by cultivating talents and creating the best environments for research and learning. It is therefore crucial that SDU retains, develops and recruits talent. At the same time, we need to ensure consistently high quality in all our activities – and we can only do that with the right people. The University’s researchers, lecturers, students, managers and technical/administrative staff are the foundation of our success.

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