Senior Design Researcher for Transdisciplinary Innovation in Dutch SME's

Senior Design Researcher for Transdisciplinary Innovation in Dutch SME's

Are you a designer, interested in understanding and accelerating the potential for innovation of physical work processes in Dutch small and medium enterprises?

Job description

For a 1-year transdisciplinary innovation project with Dutch small-medium enterprises (SME’s), we are looking for senior (post-PhD) talent to form a transdisciplinary team of five senior researchers, to start working by March 15th 2025. The project is a policy experiment (“beleidsexperiment”) assigned by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs to a consortium led by transdisciplinary research and innovation centre FRAIM, with partners Bouwend Nederland, MetaalUnie, FME, Techniek Nederland, TNO, fieldlab RoboHouse and TU Delft.

The goal of the experiment is to explore how to accelerate innovation in physical work processes for SME’s in the construction and metal sectors, using a transdisciplinary approach: close and continuous integration of perspectives from engineering, design, work psychology, organisational science and innovation. There is also a project manager to help out with the challenge of scheduling the work with multiple stakeholders: 6 months with several SME’s in one sector, and then 6 months in the other sector. The nature of the work will be oriented more towards practice than academic output, and will involve visits to the workfloor, spending time with the other team members and jointly understanding potential for innovation and providing links to academic research.

The specific position for senior design researcher requires you to represent the design perspective in the team. Your role will be to explore the potential for both emergent design practices (including links to academic research in design) and more readily applied design approaches (pragmatically relevant and feasible at shorter timescales).

Job requirements

General profile for all senior researchers in the transdisciplinary team

The ideal candidate (regardless of specific discipline)

• has a track-record within the academic discipline within which the PhD was obtained
• has experience with interdisciplinary research: the ability to alternate between working within and across academic disciplines
• has some experience with (or strong interest in) working with pragmatic ways of knowing (e.g., participatory methods, stakeholder engagement, experience outside of academia), or working in transdisciplinary research and innovation
• feels comfortable working closely with four others senior researchers from different disciplinary perspectives, and working through difficulties in scheduling, alignment of perspectives and uncertainty
• is open to working on personal growth and transformative learning – in self and in others
• is able to understand and speak Dutch, given the fact that most interactions at the workfloor will be in Dutch
• is able and willing to align schedules with the other team members, and commit to starting March 15th 2025 and taking main holidays during summer (during the Dutch “bouwvak”)

Engineering specific requirements

In addition to the general requirements, the ideal candidate for this position

• possesses a completed PhD in design, industrial design engineering.
• brings experience in for example: developing co-creation sessions, speculative design, human-centered design, systemic design
• is keen on applying and advancing their disciplinary skills within a transdisciplinary context
• demonstrates a curiosity for developing their critical, practical, academic, and social mindsets in innovating the future of work through robotic systems.

TU Delft (Delft University of Technology)

Delft University of Technology is built on strong foundations. As creators of the world-famous Dutch waterworks and pioneers in biotech, TU Delft is a top international university combining science, engineering and design. It delivers world class results in education, research and innovation to address challenges in the areas of energy, climate, mobility, health and digital society. For generations, our engineers have proven to be entrepreneurial problem-solvers, both in business and in a social context.

At TU Delft we embrace diversity as one of our core values and we actively engage to be a university where you feel at home and can flourish. We value different perspectives and qualities. We believe this makes our work more innovative, the TU Delft community more vibrant and the world more just. Together, we imagine, invent and create solutions using technology to have a positive impact on a global scale. That is why we invite you to apply. Your application will receive fair consideration.

Challenge. Change. Impact!

Faculty Industrial Design Engineering

Matching the evolution of people with the speed of the revolution of technology. This is the focus of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE). Delft designers act as a bridge between advances in technology and the needs of people, organisations and society to create products, services and systems with purpose.

IDE is a leader in design research across the application areas of mobility, sustainability and health, as well as its development of design tools and methods. A 350-strong research team and over 2,000 students work together in our inspiring hall, labs and studios.

In close cooperation with industry, the public sector and NGOs we rehearse possible futures in research and education to design for a complex future.

Conditions of employment

• Duration of contract is 1 year Temporary external finance
• An excellent pension scheme via the ABP.
• The possibility to compile an individual employment package every year.
• Discount with health insurers on supplemental packages.
• Flexible working week.
• Plenty of opportunities for education, training and courses.
• Partially paid parental leave
• Attention for working healthy and energetically with the vitality program.

Additional information

If you're interested in learning more, please email to info@fraim.nl.