New Marie Curie Initial Training Network
DREAM – Disability Rights Expanding Accessible Markets
2 Early Stage Researcher positions on Disability Rights
and Accessibility
(Full-time, fixed term for three years, available from 1 September 2011)
The Marie Curie Initial Training Network, DREAM, is seeking to recruit 14 Early Stage
Researchers who will research how the rights contained in the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities can be transformed into
practical applications. As a participant in this Network, there will be two positions
available, one located at Swiss Paraplegic Research and the other at the Faculty of
Law, University of Lucerne.
Description of DREAM
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD,
2006) imposes legal obligations on States Parties to promote and achieve
accessibility across the board for people with disabilities. This includes areas as
diverse as access to Information and Communications Technologies and consumer
goods and services more generally, access to employment, having legal capacity to
act and take decisions, and access to independent living. Accessibility can be
achieved through a variety of means, ranging from ensuring goods and services
meet Design for All requirements, reasonable accommodation, non-discrimination,
and inclusive social and economic policies and legislation. All Member States of the
EU and the EEA have signed the Convention, as has the European Union, and all
have ratified or concluded the Convention, or are committed to doing so.
Each researcher in the project will be employed by one of the partners in the Initial
Training Network. The DREAM Network consists of the National University of Ireland,
Galway, Technosite (Spain), Maastricht University (Netherlands), University of Leeds
(UK), NOVA Norwegian Social Research (Norway), the University of Iceland and
Swiss Paraplegic Research. In addition, it includes eight associated partners,
including leading civil society groups, in which researchers may also spend some of
their time. These include the European Disability Forum, Interights, Mental Disability
Advocacy Centre, the European Group of National Human Rights Institutions and
Digital Europe.
The successful applicant will be working within the context of multi-disciplinary
research institution with the mission of producing and putting into practice high
quality research that contributes to the optimal functioning and full inclusion and
participation of individuals with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), and within the Disability
Policy Unit which focuses on legal and policy issues, trans-disability, across policy
sectors and international, and in collaboration with the Faculty of Law of the
University of Lucerne.
Specific job descriptions
The successful applicant will be responsible for research towards the production of
deliverables concerning legal and technical issues involved in human rights indicator
development, the identification and analysis of national and international data
streams, and the technical and statistical aspects of monitoring mechanisms
sufficiently robust to serve the requirements of UN CRPD Articles 31 and 33.
More specifically, the successful applicant will be responsible for work in two
interlocking areas of UN CRPD implementation work:
A. Exploiting Existing Human Rights and Disability Data Streams in Europe
The aim is to provide the knowledge and skill necessary to determine a European
baseline of existing disability data streams relevant to the CRPD rights monitoring
that will assist states parties in meeting their monitoring obligations, by (i) reviewing
existing approaches to disability data collection, across a broad spectrum of national
policy areas, and ii) develop a protocol for analyzing and evaluating these data in
terms of the CRPD’s monitoring requirements. It is anticipated that the successful
applicant over the course of three years, and in conjunction with her or his PhD
programme, will assist in the production of research reports that will inform the CRPD
monitoring requirements for European countries.
B. Developing Tools & Indicators for Measuring Progress
The aim here is to rely on European comparative analyses of disability law and
policy, and literature on human rights indicators, their development and use, to assist
in the development and testing of CRPD rights indicators necessary to assist states
parties in giving effect to Article 31 of the Convention, and to determine the most
feasible and valid approach to Convention rights monitoring. It is anticipated that the
successful applicant over the course of three years, and in conjunction with her or his
PhD programme, will assist in the produce a series of research reports summarizing
national and international best practices on indicator development for CRPD Articles
31 and 33 purposes, practicable recommendations for effective and independent
monitoring at the EU and state parties levels, and guidelines for standardized
disability data collection for CRPD Article 33.
Because of this research agenda, the successful applicant will either already have
mastered the required research background and technical skills, or will have an
appropriate academic preparatory background and the proven capacity to acquire the
appropriate research background and technical skills, relevant to this research and
deliverables.
In particular, the potential applicant will have a graduate law degree (LLM) and as
well, either a professional law degree (LLB or JD) with basic social science
methodological competences (with a focus on quantitative methods), or either a
science masters in sociological (e.g. psychometrics), political sciences, history,
economics, psychology, rehabilitation therapy, public health, epidemiology, or related
area and either have, or be prepared to developed competences in econometrics,
qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, basic statistical methods, survey
methodology, and related skills. A knowledge of disability studies (grounded in any
discipline, but with an interdisciplinary and international focus) and international
human rights (either from an international legal, political theoretical or philosophical
perspective) would be desirable. Finally, the potential applicant must have strong
writing and other communication skills in English, and, preferably, a working facility
with German.
The researchers will be encouraged to conduct a PhD at the Faculty of Law (which
requires 60 ECTS-Credits in legal subjects) or the Faculty of Humanities and Social
Science at University of Lucerne.
Description of SPF and University of Lucerne
SPF is a subsidiary of Swiss Paraplegic-Foundation. SPF is engaged in rehabilitation
research from a comprehensive, multidisciplinary perspective, with focus on
Functioning Sciences, Integrative Rehabilitation Sciences, Health Care Research,
Biomedical Rehabilitation Sciences as well as Spinal Cord Injury Research. As a
non-university research institution, SPF has been approved and supported by the
Government of Switzerland as well as the Canton of Lucerne and constitutes an
active link to university research as well as industrial research and development in
Switzerland and worldwide.
The law faculty of the University of Lucerne is young and the University has a student
body of approximately 1100 undergraduate and graduate students. This awardwinning law faculty has particular expertise in the following areas: public international
law, human rights law, trade and commercial law, international and European private
law, commercial arbitration, comparative constitutional law, international
communications and art law, social security law, and foundations of
law/jurisprudence. This faculty is especially pleased to offer a transnational legal
studies program with an extensive curriculum in English, as well as a "global
campus" where professors and students from around the world make work and study
at Lucerne a truly exceptional experience.
Salary and Benefits
All recruited researchers will be Marie Curie fellows and will be entitled to all Marie
Curie benefits, including a fixed salary of approximately EUR 40’000 per year, plus
mobility, travel and career exploratory allowances subject to national tax regime
(social and pension costs), and depending on the individual circumstances (family
status and place of origin) and are calculated in Euros.
Researchers will be appointed on a full-time temporary (42 hours per week, 5 weeks
leave per year) contract for a period of three years, including a six-month internship
at an organisation which is an associated partner in the DREAM Network, namely the
Mental Disability Advocacy Centre, Budapest, Hungary.
DREAM Network partners welcome and encourage applications from qualified
individuals with a disability and women.
Applications should include
•
Clear indication of the position or positions applicant is applying for.
•
Motivation letter.
•
Curriculum Vitae.
•
Certified transcripts of results of Masters’ degree in relevant discipline or
equivalent degree or experience (depending on position applied for, law,
humanities or social sciences).
•
Two recent reference letters sent directly by the referees via mail.
•
All non-native English speakers must pass the academic IELTS (minimum
score: 7.5) or TOEFL internet-based (minimum score: 113) tests.
How to apply
Formal applications should be sent as online application to the DREAM Initial
Training Network consortium dream@nuigalway.ie (not to the Swiss Paraplegic
Research). Any personal information or evidence submitted may be shared with
members of the DREAM Supervisory Board as well as with Swiss Paraplegic
Research and the University of Lucerne.
Closing date: Thursday, 31 July 2011
Details of the application process and more information about the DREAM ITN will be
available at: www.nuigalway.ie/dream or can be obtained by emailing
dream@nuigalway.ie
The final decision will be taken by Swiss Paraplegic Research and the University of
Lucerne, in consultation with the DREAM Supervisory Board.
If you wish further information please contact:
Prof. Jerome E. Bickenbach
Swiss Paraplegic Research
Disability Policy Unit
Tel.: +41 (0)41 939 65 81
Tel.: +41 (0)41 939 65 83 or 84
E-mail: jerome.bickenbach@paranet.ch
Additional Nationality and Mobility Requirements
Marie Curie Researchers are normally required to undertake trans-national mobility
(i.e. move from one country to another) when taking up their appointment. At the time
of selection, researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity
(work, studies, etc.) in Switzerland for more than 12 months in the last 3 years.
Although we are primarily searching for EU researchers, applicants from outside the
EU will also be considered.