Doctoral student in Technology and Society focusing on legal learning and supervisory capacity

Lund University was founded in 1666 and is regularly ranked as one of the world’s leading higher education institutions. It has around 46 000 students and 8 500 employees in Lund, Helsingborg and Malmö. We are united in our commitment to understanding, explaining and improving our world and people’s circumstances.
Lund University welcomes applicants with diverse backgrounds and experience. Gender equality, equal opportunities and diversity are fundamental principles in all parts of our activities.
Description of the activities
This doctoral position is part of REGULAIRE, a European doctoral network within MSCA (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions) that studies how regulation can learn and adapt in situations where technologies, risks and expectations change rapidly. The network will train 15 doctoral students to examine this learning process from different perspectives. They will study how authorities identify early signals, design and test interventions, evaluate what works, and share results across organisations.
REGULAIRE stands for Regulatory Learning for the Governance of Transformative Technologies, and the consortium is led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM). The collaboration includes technical universities, business schools, social science and legal researchers, as well as public-sector organisations.
This vacancy is for a doctoral position at LTH, Lund University. The research environment at LTH in Lund, led by Stefan Larsson, focuses on socially oriented but interdisciplinary issues related to artificial intelligence (AI), with affiliated researchers at both junior and senior levels. The research group has its office on the LTH campus and is part of the Department of Technology and Society. Read more about the research group in Lund University’s research portal.
Being a doctoral student
As a doctoral student, you are both admitted as a student and employed by Lund University.
As a research student, you will be trained in a scientific approach. In brief, this means that you will practise thinking critically and analytically, learn to solve problems independently using appropriate methods, and develop awareness of research ethics. In addition, as a doctoral student you will have the opportunity to work on projects and develop your leadership and teaching skills. You will be guided by supervisors throughout your studies. Doctoral studies conclude with a thesis and a doctoral degree.
Read more about being a doctoral student at LTH at lth.se.
Description of the subject and project
The doctoral subject of Technology and Society covers multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary studies of technology’s role, interaction, regulation and significance in different parts of society. Research includes both qualitative and quantitative studies and is often characterised by a diversity of methods and theories.
Regulatory or legal flexibility can help legislation keep pace with rapidly emerging technologies, but at the same time it risks challenging the predictability of legislation. This doctoral project examines how these two aspects meet by analysing whether, and in what way, flexibility mechanisms, delegations, obligations and codes of conduct affect supervisory authorities in particular, in their roles and relationships with, among others, legislators, the European Commission and other relevant actors.
Duties
You will primarily focus on your doctoral studies, which include participation in both research projects and doctoral courses, seminars and conferences.
You will map the capacity, organisation and methods of supervisory authorities in selected jurisdictions, using the AI Act as a basis for comparison. Through document analysis, interviews and process tracing, you will examine how design decisions affect predictability for businesses and the protection of citizens.
From a critical perspective, the work will analyse flexibility mechanisms and their implications for governance and supervision. It may draw on supervisory practices and comparative case studies, and contribute to a framework for assessing supervisory capacity. The project will also seek to translate research findings into guidance on how regulatory flexibility can be combined with foresight without undermining legal predictability. The project offers a focused entry point into research relating to law and society, AI governance and the study of technology-oriented supervision.
The position also includes a three-month cross-sectoral secondment in another country.
The duties include:
Refining the research questions and research design together with the supervisory team, and preparing materials for ethical review, data management and open science.
Collecting, managing and analysing research data using the methods approved for the project.
Completing a doctoral thesis and related research outputs as part of the doctoral studies and REGULAIRE’s research plan.
Participating in local and network-wide training activities, doctoral student activities, network evaluations, dissemination of research findings and collaboration with practitioners. This includes three residential summer schools and monthly seminars to develop and discuss research papers.
Carrying out the planned three-month cross-sectoral secondment at a partner organisation within the REGULAIRE network.
The duties may also include participation in teaching and other departmental work (up to a maximum of 20% of working time).

Qualifications
To be admitted and employed as a doctoral student, you must meet the requirements below.
Entry requirements
You meet the general entry requirements for third-cycle studies if you have:
a second-cycle qualification, or
completed course requirements of at least 240 higher education credits, of which at least 60 are at second-cycle level, or
otherwise acquired substantially equivalent knowledge.

You meet the specific entry requirements for Technology and Society if you have:
30 higher education credits at second-cycle level relevant to the subject area.

Read the full advertisement on the Varbi recruitment platform, where you can also apply.