ReCIPE Research Officer
Full time, permanent position
Reports to Research Lead and ReCIPE Research Director
Location: Paris | Primary working language: English
Position Start: Autumn 2024
Overview
The Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) is looking to recruit a dynamic, dedicated individual with an interest in cutting-edge, policy-relevant research in development economics for a full-time Research Officer position within its brand-new Reducing Conflict and Improving Performance in the Economy (ReCIPE) programme. This forms part of a suite of programmes CEPR is managing for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) under the Growth Research Platform, the other programmes being Private Enterprise in LICs (PEDL - https://pedl.cepr.org/) and Structural Transformation and Economic Growth (STEG - https://steg.cepr.org/).
Key Objectives
ReCIPE is a joint research initiative of CEPR and the UK FCDO and is led by Professor Dominic Rohner (University of Lausanne). ReCIPE will support rigorous and quantitative research that investigates issues such as how important is economic growth (or lack of growth) for fuelling conflict and fragility; how do different types of institutions and economic development paths contribute to conflict; and how can economic policies be used to mitigate conflict. ReCIPE will fund this research in a variety of ways, principally via a series of open calls for proposals. The programme also aims to make progress towards identifying practical economic policies that can help reduce conflict, and so will engage closely with the policy community through pro-active, targeted uptake activities and policy products.
As the grant giving within the programme will not commence until 2025, there is presently no website available for additional information. There is a short information page available here and questions relating to the programme can be directed to [email protected].
Key Tasks
- Coordinate and organise key stakeholder engagement activities in partnership with the Research Lead and ReCIPE Research Director. This is particularly important in the period before grant giving commences.
- Assist in the organisation of programme events, including large-scale conferences and smaller workshops, and development of the programme website, initial social media content, and grant guidance documentation.
- In collaboration with senior CEPR staff, produce reports for FCDO outlining the programme’s progress and achievements against its original timeline and objectives and identifying key policy-relevant projects to highlight.
- Assisting in the supervision of junior research staff.
- Once the grant giving within the programme commences:
- Pre-award evaluation of research projects: screening each submission for scientific merit and policy relevance, which entails a careful analysis and grading of each proposal, before being passed to the ReCIPE Research Director for further evaluation.
- Assessing scientific progress and (when available) reviewing outputs and results of active research projects from an academic standpoint.
- Disseminating information and the results from awarded projects by writing project summaries, editing researchers' policy briefs, and managing website and social media content.
- Communicate with FCDO regarding coordination activities and research requests, for example sending FCDO ReCIPE's best publications for internal circulation.
- Supporting overall programme management by helping to smooth the grant application progress and track the progress of the programme.
- Liaising between researchers, the ReCIPE Research Director and the CEPR Grants Coordination team.
- Ad hoc requirements, as agreed.
Person Specification
Essential
- Postgraduate degree in economics with an in-depth understanding of econometric techniques.
- Strong understanding of economics in conflict-affected settings.
- High critical abilities for identifying scientific value in research projects and a solid understanding of the issues related to rigorous identification in economic research.
- Excellent writing skills, with the ability to translate research results into non-specialist terms.
- Excellent organisational and project management skills and ability to prioritise among competing tasks.
- Excellent interpersonal communication skills and the ability to work in a team.
- Ability to take initiative and work autonomously.
- Right to work in the EU, with ability to undertake restriction-free travel to the UK.
Desirable
- Research experience (e.g. Research Assistance experience).
- Skilled in building and sustaining relationships with researchers.
- Experience managing websites and social media.
- Experience working in developing countries.
- Proficiency in French preferred.
About the Centre for Economic Policy Research
With offices in Paris and London, CEPR is an independent, non‐partisan, pan‐European non‐profit organization. Its mission is to enhance the quality of policy decisions through providing policy‐relevant research, based soundly in economic theory, to policymakers, the private sector and civil society. The results of the research conducted by the Centre's network of over 1,800 affiliated researchers are disseminated through a variety of publications, public meeting, workshops, and conferences.
To Apply
Applications should be made by submission of a CV and cover letter to [email protected]. The deadline is 11:59pm on Monday 24 July, however, applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Please state when you are available to start work. You will need to have the right to work in the EU in order to be considered for this position.
