Aalto University is where science and art meet technology and business. We shape a sustainable future by making research breakthroughs in and across our disciplines, sparking the game changers of tomorrow and creating novel solutions to major global challenges. Our community is made up of 120 nationalities, 14 000 students, 400 professors and close to 5000 faculty and staff working on our dynamic campus in Espoo, Greater Helsinki, Finland. Diversity is part of who we are, and we actively work to ensure our community’s diversity and inclusiveness. This is why we warmly encourage qualified candidates from all backgrounds to join our community.

The Aalto School of Arts, Design and Architecture (ARTS) is a Nordic leader in higher education for design, fashion, games, media, architecture, film, art education and fine art. We produce world-class research e.g. in design, digital media and visual culture, art education, urban planning and architecture. Our graduates innovate in and beyond their fields, drawing on over a century of tradition of our institution, a humane and forward-looking approach, and the latest technologies.  

The Department of Design is a community of creative and responsible researchers and design experts. We educate front-line design professionals and visionaries for established, changing and emerging fields of design. (https://www.aalto.fi/en/department-of-design). 

The Department of Design is now seeking for

Postdoctoral Researcher

The duration of the employment contract is 2 years and it starts on May 1, 2025, or as soon as possible thereafter.

Your role and goals

We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to work alongside an Academy Research Fellow in the Academy of Finland's EP-Nordic project. The aim of the project is to study energy vulnerability and identify how heating and other energy services appear alongside other forms of poverty in Finland, such as cold homes or reduced opportunities for agency. The project involves cooperation with Nordic universities. The Nordic perspective aims to understand how energy scarcity manifests in an energy-abundant country. The project utilizes qualitative and quantitative data and methods.

The postdoctoral researcher is expected to develop their own research theme, broadly focusing on inequalities, poverty and disadvantage in everyday life, and in the material reality of the home.The postdoctoral researcher will utilize existing data (interview data, survey data, statistics) and produce publications based on them together with Finnish and international researchers. Additionally, the postdoctoral researcher will collect their own data. The project may also include a broader fieldwork phase that addresses the everyday life and living conditions of low-income households. The postdoctoral researcher may also specialize in utilizing statistical data.

Your experience and ambitions

Applicants are required to have a doctoral degree in a relevant field such as sociology, science and technology studies, social sciences, behavioural sciences, environmental sciences, business studies, regional studies, or energy sciences and technology. The postdoctoral researcher may be oriented towards studying poverty, disadvantage, and inequality or household consumption (over-consumption and under-consumption, energy sufficiency) or may be specialized in rural studies, housing studies, or cultural research.

The position requires the following skills:

• Experience in conducting and analyzing interviews
• Good collaboration skills
• Ability to independently manage a sub-project and write scientific papers at an international level
• Excellent proficiency in English and Finnish (utilized data is in Finnish)
• Understanding of the causes and consequences of societal inequalities, and energy systems and markets is considered an advantage.

Your Network and Team

You will become part of Aalto University's extensive international researcher network and belong to the Department of Design's NODUS research group. The NODUS sustainable design research group (https://www.aalto.fi/en/department-of-design/nodus-sustainable-design-research-group) conducts interdisciplinary research for a sustainable future.

What we Offer

We offer the innovative, international working community of Aalto University and meaningful and varied work as part of a high-level department. The work includes the possibility of participating in interesting staff training at Aalto University. The salary level for the postdoctoral researcher is between €3900–4300, depending on merits.

Join Us!

Please submit your application via the Workday system by April 30th, 2025 (midnight Finnish time, GMT+2).

Attach to your application in English:

• Curriculum vitae
• 1-2 page description of your skills and motivation for the position
• 1-5 page research plan describing possible and meaningful research topics and methods you would use.

If you are already an employee at Aalto, please apply directly through your internal Workday profile.

Additional Information

For more information about the position, contact Academy Researcher Sini Numminen, sini.numminen(at)aalto.fi. For questions related to the application process, contact HR Partner Katju Helminen at katju.helminen(at)aalto.fi.

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