Postdoctoral Position on Monitoring Enabling Environments for Citizen Science & Societal Engagement

Vacancy number:  16727

Job type:  Academic staff

Contract hours min:  38

Contract hours max:  38

Location:  Leiden

Applying is possible up to and including:  25 juli 2026

Citizen Science and Societal Engagement (CS&SE) practices are increasingly recognised as essential pillars of Open Science, yet they remain under-represented in monitoring frameworks and their enabling conditions are poorly understood. At CWTS/, Leiden University, we are seeking a postdoctoral researcher to lead a two-year research project developing the evidence base and monitoring tools needed to track, evaluate, and strengthen CS&SE practices across the Netherlands. The project, entitled ‘MEECSE: Monitoring the implementation of Enabling Environments for Citizen Science & Societal Engagement practices’, is funded by Open Science NL under the Dutch national Open Science programme. The postdoctoral researcher will be the primary driver of all research activities, working within an expert team at CWTS.

What you will do

The purpose of this position is to design and conduct original research that produces a practical monitoring and evaluation framework for CS&SE enabling environments, a repository of enabling actions, and a consolidated evidence base of CS&SE impacts.

The research will entail:

• Conducting a systematic desk research landscape mapping of academic and grey literature on CS&SE enabling environments and impacts, to establish a baseline state of knowledge and identify relevant initiatives, frameworks and preceding work.
• Carrying out ‘snowball’ expert interviews with leading researchers, practitioners and support staff to gather inputs, feedback, and examples of enabling environment actions from across the Dutch and international CS&SE community.
• Establishing and coordinating a CS&SE Community of Practice (CoP) with practitioner networks (including CS-NL, OSC-NL, NEWS, SciComNL, and the five Dutch Citizen Science Hubs), and facilitating roundtable discussions and co-creation workshops to collaboratively develop value-led monitoring indicators.
• Developing and testing an indicators framework — the ‘MEECSE Monitoring & Evaluation Indicators Framework for CS&SE Enabling Environments’ — covering progress, effectiveness and impact dimensions of enabling environments and CS&SE practices.
• Applying data-driven scientometric methodologies to mine existing open scientific databases (OpenAlex, Crossref, ORCID, OpenAIRE, DANS, DataCite, NWO Dataportaal, CORDIS, etc.) and conduct a feasibility analysis of available data sources for monitoring CS&SE practices.
• Contributing to the development of a ‘MEECSE Repository of Enabling Factors’ and a ‘MEECSE CS&SE Evidence Base’, and seeking integration of MEECSE indicators into national and international Open Science monitoring frameworks.
• Producing pre-prints, journal publications and conference presentations, while engaging with stakeholders through workshops and dissemination activities.

You will work closely with Dr. Rodrigo Costas Comesaña (lead supervisor, CWTS), Prof. Uta Wehn (secondary supervisor and expert advisor, CWTS), Margaret Gold (expert advisor, Citizen Science Lab), and Dr. Louise Bezuidenhout (expert advisor, CWTS).

Where you will work

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences consists of five institutes: Centre for Science and Technology Studies, Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, Political Science, and Psychology. The faculty has approximately 7,000 students and 1,000 staff members. Within the institutes, not only education is provided but also groundbreaking research is conducted that pushes the boundaries of our understanding of human behaviour and societal structures. What makes our faculty unique is the diversity of research topics, the various styles of teaching, and the way professional support is organised; this provides you with the opportunity to explore and develop your interests and expertise.

The Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University is a renowned research institute in the field of research on research. Our mission is to improve how science is practiced and governed and how it serves society. Besides our cutting-edge research, we also provide training, consultancy, and research intelligence; we engage in advocacy initiatives, and we contribute to policy making. Our work focuses on three broad areas: societal engagement and inclusion in the research system, responsible research evaluation and healthy research cultures, and openness of research information. For more information, please visit our website.

The appointed candidate will join an interdisciplinary team of researchers and data practitioners at CWTS from the Engagement and Inclusion Focal Area, and will benefit from close ties with the Citizen Science Lab, an Expertise Centre for CS&SE practices and partner in the CS ‘Hub for Inclusive and Engaged Research’.

What you bring

• A PhD in science and technology studies, scientometrics, information science, sociology of science, citizen science, or a related relevant discipline.
• A demonstrated interest in Open Science, citizen science, societal engagement, or science policy.
• Experience with quantitative and/or qualitative research methods; experience with bibliometric or scientometric methods is a strong advantage.
• Familiarity with open scientific databases and data infrastructures (e.g. OpenAlex, OpenAIRE, ORCID, Crossref) is desirable.
• Experience with stakeholder engagement, community facilitation, or co-creation processes is an advantage.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English; knowledge of Dutch is an advantage.
• Impeccable project management and time management skills, with the ability to coordinate multiple workstreams simultaneously.
• Ability to work both independently and as part of an interdisciplinary team.
• Willingness to actively engage with the Engagement and Inclusion Focal Area, contributing collaboratively to its intellectual community and strategic development.

If you immediately recognise yourself in this profile, or if do you not quite meet all the requirements, but you believe that this is the right job for you, we look forward to your application!

What we offer

Our goal is to work together to create a transparent and inclusive work environment in which everyone feels welcome and appreciated. Our organisation is always evolving and we need your ideas for improvement and innovation to take us further. We want to devote attention to your personal development.

You can count on an enjoyable job within the socially relevant world of education and research. The University's challenging and international work environment is located just steps away from Leiden’s lively city centre or the bustling city centre of The Hague. We also want to work with you to devote attention to your health and vitality, for example with the fun activities we organise through Healthy University.

We also offer:

• An employment contract for 38 hours per week for the duration of two years (aligned with the project duration). This contract falls under the CLA of Dutch Universities.
• A salary of €4,728 gross per month, based on a full-time appointment (38 hours) (scale 11, step 0).
• A holiday allowance (8%), an end-of-year bonus (8,3%), and an attractive pension scheme at ABP;
• Full reimbursement of public transport commuting costs for home-to-work travel;
• Flexible working hours: as a standard, you are entitled to a minimum of 29 leave days on the basis of a full-time working week of 38 hours; you can also save for extra leave, for example by working 40 hours a week, and in this way accrue an extra 96 leave hours, or exchange 96 leave hours for a 36-hour week.
• Lots of options when it comes to secondary employment conditions; we can, for example, discuss options for a sabbatical or paid parental leave. Within our terms of employment individual choices model, you can exchange leave days and/or salary for benefits such as an advantageous sports subscription and bicycle scheme;
• If your work allows it, hybrid working is possible within the Netherlands;
• A home-working allowance (day and internet allowance) and attention for good workplaces. The University will also provide you with a laptop and a mobile telephone.

For more information about employment conditions, see https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/working-at/job-application-procedure-and-employment-conditions

What we value

Promoting an inclusive community is central to Leiden University’s values and vision. We strive to be an open community in which all students and staff members feel valued and respected, and are able to fully develop themselves. We consider an inclusive academic environment, where students and staff can share their experiences and viewpoints, to be essential for the development of talent.

Want to apply or find out more?

If you want to apply straight away, click the application button.

If you would like more information about what the job entails, please contact Dr. Rodrigo Costas Comesaña, Senior Researcher, at [email protected]. You can apply until 25 juli 2026; applications will be processed immediately.

To help us get to know each other better, we follow a number of steps in the application procedure. For more information, see https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/working-at/job-application-procedure-and-employment-conditions

• We believe mobility is very important. That is why we are also publishing this vacancy internally. In case of equal suitability, we will give priority to the internal candidate.
• A pre-employment screening (references, diplomas, certificate of good conduct (VOG)) may be part of the selection procedure.
• Acquisition in response to this vacancy is not appreciated. If you nevertheless choose to send us CVs, no rights can be derived from this. #LI-Hybrid