Assistant Professor (Associate Senior Lecturer) Law in AI or Sustainability

Lund University is a full-scale and research-intensive university, and is the only Swedish university in the strong international networks League of European Research Universities (LERU) and Universitas 21 (U21). Lund University has partner universities in almost 70 countries, and attracts the most international students of all Swedish universities.

The Faculty of Law is characterised by internationalisation, the intertwining of education and research, interdisciplinarity, as well as close and boundary-crossing collaboration with wider society. The Faculty’s research environment and PhD-education are markedly international and, alongside the professional law degree, the Faculty offers several international Master’s programmes. Lund University and the Faculty of Law offer an inclusive work environment that fosters development within the broader dynamic research and innovation area of the Öresund region.

If you want to become the research leader of the future, with groundbreaking projects and research ideas, you have the chance to start as an assistant professor (associate senior lecturer) at Lund University. You may qualify for 4 years and can then, after assessment, be promoted to a permanent position as a senior lecturer.

You will receive five weeks of training in teaching and learning in higher education and, if necessary, you will have the opportunity to learn Swedish through the university's Swedish teaching for new international employees. If you have a family, they will get new contacts and support through Lund's International Citizen Hub.

The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), Sweden's largest scientific funders, will announce attractive funding for associate senior lecturers with an international background at the turn of the year 2025/2026. Lund University is now making a joint announcement that also aims to find candidates that the university can nominate to the Swedish Research Council by the end of 2025.

You can read more about the Swedish Research Council here: https://www.vr.se/ .

Read more about the University's joint announcement:
https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/shape-future-research

Subject

Law specialising in AI or sustainability

Subject description

The Faculty of Law intends to employ a person as an Assistant Professor (Associate Senior Lecturer) in a subject area that is linked to either of the overarching subject areas of law specializing in AI or sustainability.

The subject area of law specializing in AI is an interdisciplinary field in law with links to several traditional legal research subjects. As AI technology becomes increasingly powerful, regulations of this technology are evolving at national, regional and international levels. When AI is used in decision-making processes affecting individuals, groups and society, questions arise about responsibility, transparency, and the risk of bias and discrimination, among other things. AI can be misused for criminal purposes and used in warfare. AI also affects and raises issues related to academic freedom, the legal status of AI entities, human rights, data protection, digital services, free movement of goods and services, information security, ownership of AI-generated material, etc.

The subject area of law specializing in sustainability is a cross-border field related to several traditional legal science subjects. Legal frameworks, systems, regulations, technologies and institutions play central roles in achieving sustainability and sustainable development at a local, national and international level. Sustainability refers to development that satisfies the needs of the present without jeopardising the ability of future generations to satisfy their needs (Brundtland Report, 1987). In recent years, the concept of sustainability has been concretised through the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and includes ecological, social or economic sustainability. Legal issues include, among other things, the effectiveness and relevance of law and institutions in achieving environmental objectives such as biodiversity and climate adaptation, social justice including human rights, peaceful inclusive societies including access to justice for all, and stable economic growth without undermining the environment or society.

Tasks

The position as Assistant Professor (Associate Senior Lecturer) is a career development position that will provide the opportunity for pedagogical and scientific qualifications in law. The position must to a significant extent provide scope for qualifications in research, and the main task is to conduct research of high quality. The research will result in national and international publications. The Assistant Professor (Associate Senior Lecturer) must also formulate applications for external research funding, initially special funding from the Swedish Research Council's investment in Assistant Professors (Associate Senior Lecturers).

As an Assistant Professor (Associate Senior Lecturer), you will have the opportunity to focus on challenging research questions in the subject in the long term. In order to qualify as an Assistant Professor (Senior Lecturer), you also need to develop your teaching skills during your time as an Assistant Professor (Associate Senior Lecturer), learn Swedish for teaching, be a good colleague and show that you are good at collaboration with the surrounding society. Of course, you also participate in the day-to-day work and development of the department.

The duties also include teaching and examining at first, second, third-cycle level, in the law programme, the faculty's two master's programmes and within the framework of the faculty's distance and contract education. Some administrative and coordinating work is included. The faculty's researchers and teachers are expected to contribute to a vibrant research environment and the faculty's other activities and mainly conduct their work in the workplace.

Within the framework of the employment, the opportunity is provided for training in teaching and learning in higher education corresponding to at least five weeks.

Eligibility for the position of Assistant Professor (Associate Senior Lecturer)

To be eligible for employment as an Assistant Professor (Associate Senior Lecturer), the applicant must have completed a Doctor of Laws degree or a foreign degree deemed equivalent to a Doctor of Laws degree or have achieved equivalent scientific competence. In the first instance, we will prioritize the applicants who have completed a doctoral degree within the last 5 years, counted from the application date for the position. If you have documents that prove that there are special reasons, such as parental leave, military service or illness after graduation, that prevented you from working as a researcher, the degree in the subject may have been completed earlier.

For an Assistant Professor (Associate Senior Lecturer), the general eligibility requirement is to be suitable for and have the ability in general needed to fulfil the duties in the position in question.

Requirements – what you need to have in order to perform the tasks

We hope that one of your first tasks will be to run an innovative research project funded by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet). That is why we are looking for you who:

• Have not received a salary or scholarship from Sweden since December 31, 2021.
• Have a good ability to initiate, develop and carry out high-quality research
• Have a good teaching skill
• Have current experience from research in AI or sustainability outside Sweden
• Have a completed project description for an innovative project in AI or sustainability research, which you submit with your application
• Have documented good leadership qualities, for example through positions of trust, leadership training and assessed leadership skills
• Have good communication skills
• Have a very good level of spoken and written English
• Have good motivation and the ability to learn new languages

When appointing an Assistant Professor (Associate Senior Lecturer), both research and pedagogical skills must be taken into account. The focus of the assessment shall be on research skills.

Particular emphasis will be placed on subject knowledge in AI or sustainability.

Emphasis will also be attached to:

• ability to formulate research applications for external funding.
• documented international research and teaching experiences, for example in the form of publications, research and teaching visits abroad, research collaborations and conference presentations.
• documented ability to apply interdisciplinary methods in research in the subject areas of law with a focus on AI or law with a focus on sustainability.
• broad subject competence in both research and teaching in the subject areas of law with a focus on AI or law with a focus on sustainability.

Merits – what we would like you to have as well

We would like you to enjoy working with us and be able to make the most of your time at the Faculty of Law, therefore we would like you to also be able to show that:

• You contribute in a positive way to the work environment
• Have or have had a postdoctoral position
• You have been granted research funding from funders outside Sweden

Promotion to Assistant Professor (Senior Lecturer)

An Assistant Professor´s (Associate Senior Lecturer's) work and qualifications should be evaluated halfway through the employment period. The employee shall receive instructions in which areas he or she needs to develop in order to be promoted to a permanent position as a senior lecturer.

An Assistant Professor (Associate Senior Lecturer) shall, upon application, be promoted to a position as an Assistant Professor (Senior Lecturer) for an indefinite period of time if he or she has the qualifications for such a position and is also deemed suitable in an assessment in accordance with the eligibility requirements and assessment criteria set out below. An Assistant Professor (Associate Senior Lecturer) can only apply for promotion on one occasion.

The application must be submitted to the Faculty of Law no later than after 3 years and 6 months of employment.

Promotion – what is required for you to be promoted to Assistant Professor (Senior Lecturer)

When you are an Assistant Professor (Associate Senior Lecturer), you may apply to be promoted to a permanent position as an Assistant Professor (Senior Lecturer). You will go through a special assessment to determine whether you meet the requirements that the faculty has in order to be employed as an Assistant Professor (Senior Lecturer). It is important that you know that you can only apply for promotion once and that you must apply for promotion at least six months before your employment as an Assistant Professor (Associate Senior Lecturer) ends.

When you apply for promotion, you will be assessed based on whether you have:

• Progressed in your field during your time as an Assistant Professor (Associate Senior Lecturer)
• Good national and international level as a researcher
• Good teaching skills, which means a good ability to conduct, develop and lead teaching and other educational activities at different levels and with varying teaching methods.
• Ability to participate in the supervision of doctoral students in studies leading up to a doctoral degree.
• Ability to interact with the surrounding community and to provide information about their activities.
• Ability to lead and develop activities in general.
• Ability to teach in Swedish or another Scandinavian language and English in the law programme is a requirement.

Type of employment and terms

The position is a fixed term (4 years) full time post. The term is regulated in the Higher Ordinance Ac (HF), chapter 4, Section 12, with the possibility of promotion to a permanent position as an Assistant Professor (Senior Lecturer). The University applies individual salary-setting. You are welcome to state your salary expectations in your application.

Instructions for applying

Applications for the position are submitted electronically via Lund University's applicant portal. Supplements in the form of hardcover publications/equivalent, should be sent in three (3) copies to: The Faculty of Law at Lund University, attn: Jenny Lindskog, Box 207, 221 00 Lund.

Interviews are scheduled to take place on Tuesday, November 11.

The application must be in English and must include the following:

• Cover letter
• Curriculum vitae with appendices (max. 10 pages of appendices)
• Full list of publications
• A list of the doctoral thesis and the other three scientific works that the applicant wishes to cite. State the DOI code for each publication, if available.
• The scientific works
• Description of the planned research activities (including time and publication plan) and research ambitions (max. 5 pages)
• Brief account of teaching qualifications (such as summary of the pedagogical activities, brief pedagogical self-reflection, pedagogical curriculum vitae (max 3 pages))
• Other documents on which the applicant wishes to rely
• Please note that documents submitted or drawn up as a result of this vacant employment position (such as applications, expert opinions and minutes) as a general rule are public. The documents may thus (with the exception if a document is classified as confidential) be read upon request.