National Centre for Scientific Research | Postdoc opportunity on dynamics and collective decisions

General information

• Offer title : Dynamiques et décisions collectives M/F (H/F)
• Acronyme : DyDéCo
• Reference : CPJ-2025-022
• Supporting establishment : National Center for Scientific Research
• President and CEO : Antoine PETIT
• Site concerned : Aix Marseille Provence Méditerranée Lyon Saint-Étienne
• Academic region : PACA
• Envisaged partner institution : Aix-Marseille Université (AMU),École normale supérieure de Lyon (ENS de Lyon)
• Date of publication : 16 June 2025
• Type of Contract : Tenure Track Position
• Contract Period : between 3 and 6 years depending on the research project and the profile of the scientist
• Proportion of work : Full Time
• Remuneration : Annual salary from 54 600 Euros to 57 800 Euros depending on professionnal experience.
• Scientific theme : Humanities and social sciences

Profile Required

Holders of a doctorate or a PhD or equivalent degree or applicants who have gained scientific qualifications or carried out scientific work deemed to be of an equivalent level.There is no restriction on the age or nationality of applicants. All CNRS positions are accessible to people with disabilities, with special arrangements for tests made necessary by the nature of the disability.

Institution Strategy

The CNRS upcoming objectives, resources and performance contract for 2024-2028 sets out the organisation’s six cross-disciplinary challenges. One of these, ‘Societies in Transition’, focuses on the scientific issues brought up by the climatic, ecological, demographic, digital, epidemiological and other transitions our societies are currently undergoing. Deeply interdisciplinary research is required to enhance our understanding of the dynamics and collective decisions involved and also to anticipate, prevent or support such transitions.

In response to the importance of this challenge, this chair (CPJ CNRS DyDéCo) jointly supported by CNRS Humanities and Social Sciences and CNRS Physics aims to attract a talented researcher to work in one of the four host laboratories to help reinforce the interfaces between economics, sociology and geography on the one hand and statistical and non-linear physics on the other. The challenge for the chair will be to develop original interdisciplinary approaches made possible by access to and analysis of large quantities of data, dedicated experiments and surveys, and by the capacity of physical models to take the full diversity of interactions and spatio-temporal scales involved into account.

The themes likely to benefit the most from a scientific approach at the interface between physics and the humanities and social sciences include, but are not limited to, collective human dynamics - whether social (the emergence of communities, collective choices, the dynamics of opinion) or material (crowd movements, migrations) - and their simplified models; social networks and the behaviour these are likely to influence; exchange, distribution or communication networks; reactions and adaptations made following disasters; or collective decision-making and its links with public policy.

Host Lab Strategy

The role of the person recruited will be to create or strengthen the interface between the humanities and social sciences and physics on the site of his/her host laboratory (Aix Marseille Provence Méditerranée or Lyon Saint-Etienne) through his/her research. Each of the host laboratories possesses its own specific features and expertise to base the research project on. AMSE is studying the economic analysis of networks. EqCo develops research on conflicts over the exploitation of natural resources based on satellite data analysis, particularly in Africa. EqCo also analyzes the various dimensions of urban dynamics; the dynamics of information beliefs and voting choices. CPT and LPENSL analyze and model complex systems of various types, particularly economic and social systems.

International Strategy

The Chairholder will be expected to implement actions and set up partnerships in the given thematic field and particularly to commit to submitting a project in the framework of European calls for proposals like ERC, Horizon Europe Consortium, etc. during the 5 years of his/her contract. The aim of the CNRS’s international policy is to increase the impact and relevance of the organisation’s research by promoting exchanges with teams of researchers from all over the world. In particular, the laboratories involved can turn to European or international interdisciplinary communities and networks that cover the interface between the humanities and social sciences and physical modelling to attract the best candidates. The person recruited for the DyDéCo CPJ will be able to develop scientific exchanges and collaborations with the same communities and networks.

Summary of the scientific project

DyDéCo will study collective dynamics and collective decisions in a context of global change and transitions. The objective of this CPJ is to better predict, understand or control complex systems such as interaction or communication networks, urban structures and how these evolve, economic or financial markets and their crises, or crowds and their collective behaviour.

DyDéCo will develop and apply an interdisciplinary approach at the frontier between physics and humanities and social sciences, combining observational data, behavioural experiments or surveys, and physical models building on concepts from non-linear physics, disordered systems or on active matter.

Within this broad range, the project holder may decide to study collective dynamics in normal situations or those requiring adaptation; social networks and the dynamics they influence; collective decision-making processes, collective intelligence and the links between these and public policy.

Summary of the teaching project

Teaching (28 hours of lectures or 42 hours of practical work or tutorials) will be discussed according to the site which the successful candidate is assigned to. He/she will be involved in teaching on existing courses at each site.

Scientific dissemination

The results will be disseminated via world-class scientific advances reported in all output forms (productions like publications, software, patents, etc.) The project will also communicate with a wide range of target audiences including the scientific community, the media, decision-makers, the general public, schools, etc., applying an appropriate schedule. Specific tools may be developed like websites, newsletters, meetings, international conferences, summer schools and other conferences.

Open Science

The CNRS has adopted a strong policy in favour of open science. Open science consists in making research results “as accessible as possible and as closed as necessary”. To achieve this, the CNRS objective is for 100% of the texts of publications resulting from the work of its units to be in open access, particularly through researchers submitting them to HAL. The data produced should also be made available and reusable unless specific restrictions apply. In addition, the guidelines on the individual evaluation of researchers have been revised to conform with the DORA declaration, to be more qualitative and to take all facets of a researcher’s work into account.

Source and more details: https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CPJ/CPJ-2025-022/Default.aspx?lang=EN