Job Announcement : PhD Position "Futures Literacy, Capability-Building and Social Business Model Design for Territorial Social Entrepreneurship"

Host institution

Université Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC), AEI International School, France

Université Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC) invites applications for a Doctoral Candidate position within the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network SEIZMIC.

The position is hosted by the UNESCO Chair on the Futures of Education for Health and Living Well at AEI International School, UPEC, and is attached to Work Package 2 of the network.
The doctoral project examines how participatory foresight and educational capability-building processes can support the design, strengthening, and scaling of territorial and community-based forms of social entrepreneurship in contexts of socio-ecological transition and deep uncertainty.

The project lies at the intersection of :

• social entrepreneurship,
• social business model design,
• participatory foresight and futures literacy,
• anticipatory governance,
• sustainability and territorial innovation.

The successful candidate will explore how collective actors develop the capabilities required to imagine, design, and consolidate socially innovative initiatives over time. The project will pay particular attention to learning processes, participatory methods, and educational formats that can support long-term strategic action in social entrepreneurship.

The research will be based primarily on qualitative and participatory methods and may include literature review, interviews, participant observation, document analysis, and the co-design or facilitation of participatory foresight workshops.

The Doctoral Candidate will be supervised by Philippe Frouté (primary supervisor, UPEC) and Felipe Koch (co-supervisor, UPEC / SEIZMIC supervisor/UNESCO Chairholder). The position will also include international collaboration and secondments within the SEIZMIC network, including an academic secondment with Ramon Rispoli and collaboration with Eranos as non-academic partner.

The Research Project 
The PhD project is part of a network of 15 doctoral theses which all contribute to the overall goal of understanding social entrepreneurship (SE) scaling. This particular PhD thesis is part of a work package on “Social Business Model Design”. The position is focused on how social foresight can support social business model design and scaling for social enterprises (SE). Social foresight involves anticipating and understanding potential social changes and trends to inform decision-making and strategic planning. The research will begin with a critical review of social foresight as an element of SE scaling, followed by studying both retrospective and real-time cases to understand its application in business model design. The candidate will develop a social foresight toolkit for social entrepreneurs and propose a framework for integrating social foresight into SE business models. 

Required Secondments 
As required by the MSCA funding guidelines, the PhD candidate will have an academic secondment at one of the seizmic doctoral network members, namely Ramon Rispoli at the University of Napoli, as well as a non-academic secondment with Stéphane Hugon from Eranos, providing a blend of academic and practical perspectives. 
 
Host Organization : The AEI International School at UPEC, which offers the Graduate Research Program: International Transitions and the Enterprise of Tomorrow, is dedicated to training researchers in applied research in Management, Economics, or Law to help companies implement innovative solutions for tomorrow's challenges. The researcher will be hosted by the UNESCO Chair on the Futures of Education for Health and Living Well and will integrate the LIPHA lab.


About the seizmic Doctoral Network 
The seizmic Doctoral Network will develop an interdisciplinary theoretical framework explaining the factors influencing SE scaling through replication and imitation.

• It will evaluate the impact of social entrepreneurship business model design on scaling outcomes, combining quantitative and qualitative assessments. The focus is on identifying design competencies that facilitate scalability and examining how factors like social forecasting and impact measurement support scaling.
• Furthermore, the project will investigate the intentions and actual outcomes of impact investors in supporting SE scaling in Europe. This involves longitudinal case studies to understand how impact investments contribute to scaling, replication, and imitation of SE initiatives, as well as competencies needed by impact investors.
• Next, the seizmic doctoral network will develop an interdisciplinary model for professional learning and curriculum development to enhance SE scaling. This includes training SE educators, conducting longitudinal trials of SE education, and assessing the role of feedback in supporting learning among social entrepreneurs, ultimately contributing to entrepreneurship education.
• Finally, the network will propose and test a theoretical model on the role of digital ecosystems in SE scaling, exploring bottom-up creativity, digital data politics, and collaborative networks. This also involves training and implementing an AI model specialized in SE scaling.

DC16: 

About the Aurora European University Network
An important advantage of the seizmic doctoral network is that many of its partners belong to the Aurora European University Alliance (https://aurora-universities.eu/about/), an alliance of research-intensive universities financed by the European Union through the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Aurora is committed to equipping students with the skills and mindset to address key societal challenges through social entrepreneurship and innovation. Most seizmic supervisors already know each other from developing (bachelor and master level) interdisciplinary social entrepreneurship courses for Aurora which they deliver in many cases jointly. This has created a close-knit community of interdisciplinary social entrepreneurship scholars, which we are certain will transfer into a highly collegial and effective doctoral network in which supervisors collaborate closely with each other across all Aurora partners. The seizmic doctoral candidates will be able to attend regular Aurora events (such as the biannual Aurora conference or any of the Aurora blended intensive programmes (BIP)).

MSCA Application Requirements 
According to the mobility requirements of the MSCA guidelines candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the host organization (i.e. Denmark in this case) for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the recruitment date. 
 

Application and admission requirements 

To be considered the applicant should :

Candidate profile
Applicants should hold a Master’s degree or equivalent in management, social entrepreneurship, innovation studies, futures studies, sustainability studies, sociology, political science, international relations, development studies, anthropology, or another relevant field.

We are looking for candidates with :

• a strong interest in social entrepreneurship and social innovation;
• a solid interest in qualitative and participatory research;
• an openness to interdisciplinary work;
• an interest in foresight, futures literacy, sustainability, territorial development, or community-based innovation.

A good command of English is required. Knowledge of French and/or Portuguese would be considered an asset.
 

Employment and salary

The PhD scholarship runs for a period of three years and in addition to their academic PhD research the PhD student is expected to contribute to the deliverables of the seizmic project and their dissemination (for details see “The Research Project” above). The scholarship is a fully salaried position. The scholarship includes tuition fees, office space, course and travel costs. 
 

Recruitment procedures

Eligibility
Applicants must satisfy the eligibility conditions of the MSCA Doctoral Networks programme and be eligible for doctoral enrolment at UPEC.

Application

Application file (a single PDF document) must include :

• Cover letter
• Copy of ID card
• Credential transcripts for M1 and M2
• Minutes of the Master thesis defense
• Doctoral proposal (4 pages)
• Professional project after PhD completion (1 page)
• Curriculum vitae
• Recommendation letter from the previous supervisor (Master’s degree).

The expected start date is as soon as possible after completion of the amendment and recruitment procedure.
 

Contacts 

For further information on the project, prospective applicants can contact 
Felipe Koch, felipe.koch@u-pec.fr 

For questions about the application and HR process as well as the formal requirements of your application you can contact
Felipe Koch, felipe.koch@u-pec.fr 

For questions about the PhD programme, you can obtain details from 
Philippe Frouté philippe.froute@u-pec.fr
 

Online Information and Introduction Session:

Candidates can sign up for optional information and introduction sessions that will be held several weeks ahead of the submission deadline. These will be held virtually via MS Teams. At these sessions we will present the seizmic doctoral network, the Aurora European University Network, as well as answer any questions to help you assess if this position is a good fit for you.
If you are interested in this info session, please register your interest here and you will receive an invitation as soon as the date has been set : 
https://copenhagenbusiness.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0rNDnUcFEjn7seW 
Participation in the info session is not mandatory and applicants who cannot attend are still explicitly encouraged to apply. 
 

Application Deadline

Application deadline : 30th April 2026 
We aim for the applicant to start by 1st June 2026.

Application link
Email to felipe.koch@u-pec.fr and philippe.froute@u-pec.fr