Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences is looking for a post-doc in the project Wellmod: a Wellbeing Simulation Model for Enhancing Wellbeing

Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences
is looking for a post-doc in the project Wellmod: a Wellbeing Simulation Model for Enhancing Wellbeing for the Future led by Anna Gromada, PhD
in consortium with London School of Economics, Paris School of Economics, and University of Luxembourg
The Polish team is funded by the National Science Centre (NCN) as part of the “NORFACE CHANSE” Grant No. DEC-2024/06/Y/HS4/00049
Context
How should government policies be chosen? So far much of what policy makers have done revolved around maximizing GDP: ignoring inequalities, environmental side-effects but most importantly, missing what truly matters. We believe that this missing part is wellbeing, understood as an overall positive mental functioning with three dimensions: evaluative (e.g. life satisfaction); affective (e.g. joy or sadness) and eudemonic (e.g. the sense of purpose and meaning in life).
However, there currently exists no method of how to put these calls into practice. The WELLMOD research consortium – London School of Economics, Paris School of Economics, University of Luxembourg, and the Polish Academy of Sciences – will develop a micro-simulation model to evaluate the impacts of a variety of policies on both lifetime wellbeing and the public purse. The model will be developed in close cooperation with its end users, involving think tanks, civil society, and policy-makers at the European and national levels. This practical tool will then allow policy-makers to select those policies that yield the highest wellbeing benefit per cost, and so maximize wellbeing in society subject to budget constraints. The Polish team – led by Anna Gromada – will be responsible for choosing and evaluating public policies that concurrently stand a chance of implementation in European countries and of increasing wellbeing of their populations.
Why should you apply?
- Work contract (paid holidays, health insurance contribution, pension scheme, and all other social contributions covered) for 35,5 months (including a 3-month trial period).
- Postdoctoral salary of PLN 11 667 gross gross (including the employer’s cost).
- A generous IT and travel budget (over PLN 30 000).
- Opportunity to develop a strong network among leading European policymakers and policy researchers – crucial for a future career if you wish to stay in the field.
- Work and publication record with the world’s leaders in the field of policy and wellbeing (e.g. Richard Layard, Andrew Clark, Conchita D’Ambrosio, Christian Krekel) and myself (Anna Gromada) in a high-quality project (we won a highly competitive Norface Chanse with a success rate of 6% across Europe).
- Complete flexibility:
a. I only care about high-quality output delivered on time. I don’t interfere in how, where and when you work;
b. I will arrange your workstream to be compatible with your other commitments as long as they do not involve employment contracts nor income from the NCN Poland. Commitments under civil law contracts or self-employment are acceptable. - Opportunity to contribute to social change in a project that stands a high chance of implementation (among others, because of the engagement of policy makers in our advisory board, including two members of the UK’s House of Lords).
Number of vacancies: 1
Start date: April 1, 2025 (negotiable)
Your tasks:
- Supporting the review of missing literature on: a) understanding and measuring wellbeing; b) the impact of health, environmental and labor market policies on wellbeing.
- Media content analysis to identify the most-debated health, environmental, and economic policy proposals in the European countries
- Identifying key stakeholders in at least 5 European countries; collecting their public policy preferences and feedback.
- Analysis of proposed reforms in the area of health, environment, and labor market from the viewpoint of model parameterization;
- Close collaboration with the teams in Luxemburg (on wellbeing definitions and measurement), the UK (on model parametrization and statistical analysis), and France (on collecting primary survey data).
- Preparing journal articles and delivering presentations at academic conferences.
Participating in administrative and organizational work related to the tasks, including project team meetings (remote participation is possible).
Your profile:
- Knowledge of wellbeing research and public policy issues in Europe.
- Strong econometrics and statistics skills in R or Stata.
- Excellent written and spoken English.
- Attention to detail, ability to work systematically with minimal supervision.
PhD in hand[1] (Economics, Sociology, or Politics are preferred but any field will be considered if sufficiently justified)
[1] The doctoral degree must be obtained in an entity other than IFiS PAN, in the period of 7 years before April 1, 2025; PhD holders from IFiS PAN may apply provided that they have completed at least 10 months of continuous and documented postdoctoral training outside Poland.
Content of the announcement
Two-stage Application:
Stage 1: dossier in one pdf emailed by 17 February 2025 to konkurs@ifispan.edu.pl (with anna.gromada@sciencespo.fr on copy) titled „Post-doc WELLMOD”. Please include:
- A one page response to the question: “In your opinion, which public policies currently feasible in European countries have the highest potential of influencing the wellbeing of their populations? How would you measure that?”
- Cover letter (max. 1 page)
- CV
- Copy of a PhD diploma[1]
[1] Or a document confirming that the PhD defense is already scheduled (e.g., confirmation of the planned date).
Stage 2: interview with a recruitment task
The interviews are planned for the second half of February 2025 at the Institute’s headquarters (Warsaw, Nowy Świat 72) or as a video call. The results will be published no later than March 2025 on the website: ifispan.pl/category/oferty-pracy/konkursy/.
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