OFFER DESCRIPTION
This fully funded PhD position is part of the EU Horizon 2020 Marie
Sklodowska Curie ITN project entitled "ODECO: Towards a Sustainable Open
Data ECOsystem" (
https://odeco-research.eu/).
ODECO is a four-year project involving 15 PhD projects covering each a
specific part of the open data ecosystem. The central aim of the ODECO
consortium network is to train the next generation of creative and
innovative early stage open data researchers, to
unlock their creative and innovative potential to address current and
future challenges in the creation of user driven, circular and inclusive
open data ecosystems.
Current developments in the field of open data are characterised as
highly fragmented. Open data ecosystems are often developed in different
domains in isolation of each other and with little involvement of
potential users, resulting in approaches that significantly
limit open data reusability for users. This reduces innovation and the
ability to create new valued added goods and services. Isolated domains
also undermine interoperability for users acting as a barrier to data
sharing. Efforts are also uncoordinated in
open data training and research, where multidisciplinary approaches are
scant.
Bringing together different sectors (research, private sector,
government, non-profit) and different perspectives (public
administration, law, business, engineering), ODECO aims to address the
central challenge of realizing a user driven, circular and inclusive
open data ecosystem. Through its novel research and training programme,
ODECO will provide early-stage researchers with relevant open data
knowledge, skills and research experience.
The offered PhD position on “Open Licensing of Non-Government Data” is
to design new legal instruments to include private actors as producers
and sharers of (open) data and data generated by private companies and
users on private platforms, by:
- Investigating from a legal perspective novel value distribution and
incentive mechanisms and design how a new sustainable distribution of
value in the open data ecosystem may be implemented in licenses based on
alternative values defined in collaboration
with other PhDs and members of the ODECO project teams working in other
disciplines.
- Investigating whether commons-based approaches can be developed to
openly license commercial data and data volunteered by citizens on
public, commons, and private platforms, and ported from other
environments (e.g., medical and microbial commons, data pools).
- Exploring legal mechanisms that will facilitate and incentivise the
release of non-government data as open data in open data commons, data
pools or data collaboratives) as well as private and user-generated data
contributed to public and private platforms
(e.g., social media).
- Ensuring compatibility between commercial, and individual (data protection, privacy and sharing) interests.
During the PhD, the candidate will conduct this research, prepare
scientific articles presenting the research at conferences and in
journals, and contribute to deliverables of the project with the project
team.
To enable the candidate to do this successfully, the candidate will be
supervised by Professor Lucie Cluzel-Metayer at the University Paris
Nanterre Center for Research on Public Law (CRDP, see
https://crdp.parisnanterre.fr/), and Dr. Mélanie Dulong de Rosnay at the CNRS Center for Internet and Society (CIS, see
https://cis.cnrs.fr/).
This is a joint appointment: the candidate will be enrolled at
University Paris Nanterre doctoral law school which will deliver the PhD
degree, and be part of the CIS team at CNRS which will provide a
full-time employment contract.
In addition to academic co-supervision, the candidate will be enrolled
in the University of Paris Nanterre doctoral law school programme
activities, with conferences and personal and professional training
courses with other PhD candidates in law.
The candidate will take part to the ODECO interdisciplinary training
activities with the other teams including 14 other PhD candidates of the
project, and benefit from a career development plan.
The candidate will work in an environment allowing mentoring as a full
member of the CIS team, hosted in a CNRS shared office in Paris 17ème
arrondissement with colleagues in sociology of technology involved in
French-based, European and international projects
(among others: a lab on open science pioneered by the Minister of
Research, the SoBigData++ H2020 project) and hosting a network of 350
researchers working in the Internet and Society field, including working
groups on open science and digital commons policy.
As a Marie Curie ITN researcher, the candidate will have the opportunity
to conduct practical internships at universities and case studies at
excellent open data intermediaries through the EU ITN network, in your
case, at the University of Delft co-supervised
by Prof. Ploeger and at Doctrine, a French-based legaltech company).
Contract duration: 36 months
Monthly gross salary: 3452 euros + 600 euros of Marie Curie mobility + 500 euros if the candidate has family dependents.
(About 3400 euros net after taxes, up to about 4000 euros if the candidate has family dependents.)
CNRS will recruit prospective talented researchers of any nationality, gender, culture, religion, sexual orientation or age.
Mobility requirements:
Since this PhD position is part of a Horizon Marie Curie ITN project, several hard selection criteria apply to be eligible:
• You comply with the early-stage researcher definition: at the time of
recruitment (January 2022), you must be in the first four years
(full‐time equivalent research experience) of your research career and
have not been awarded a doctoral degree.
• You comply with the mobility rule, meaning that you must not have
resided or carried out your main activity (work, studies, etc.) in
France for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the
recruitment date (January 2022).
Travel requirements:
You will be expected to work for 5 months at two other organizations in
the consortium as part of secondments: 2 months in the Netherlands at
the University of Delft (around Month 19 and 20 of the project) and 3
months in Paris at Doctrine (around Month 26
to 28 of the project).
During the 36 months of your appointment, you will be expected to
participate to the ODECO project meetings hosted by the European
partners and conferences.
Prior education and experience:
The candidate must have a master's degree in law or a similar degree
with an academic level equivalent to the master's degree in law such as
LLM or JD.
Prior knowledge of Information Technology law is required.
Familiarity with public sector information, contract law, intellectual
property, open licensing and/or information technologies is 'nice to
have'.
Language:
A good command of spoken and written English is required and a good reading knowledge of French is highly desired.
Skills required:
Writing skills, ability to formulate/work on a scientific project
Ability to work in a team
Ability to work independently, organisational ability and ability to account for one’s own actions
Ability to communicate, analyse and argue a case, summary and critical evaluation
To apply, you should submit:
• A short cover letter explaining your personal motivation in pursuing a
PhD as part of ODECO, including how you see the PhD fitting into your
career trajectory
• A CV, which should include details of your eligibility (degree and residency)
• Diploma
• Transcripts of records (bachelor and master)
• The master thesis with a one-page summary in English
• If available, another sample of writing, e.g., scientific publications, professional or popular science writing
• English language certificate(s)
• 2–3 recent recommendation letters if you already have them, or the
email contact details and affiliation of 2-3 academic or professional
references we may contact.
Please submit your application package in one single PDF file entitled as “Lastname_Odeco_Application.pdf”.
Applications need to be submitted online through the Euraxess
'application button'. Only applications submitted through the portal can
be considered.
Please note that incomplete applications will not be processed and that
your application cannot be considered if you don’t comply with the
mobility rules, in particular you must not have resided or carried out
your main activity (work, studies, etc.) in France
for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the
recruitment date (January 2022).
Contact of both supervisors
odecoparisPhD@protonmail.com