PhD Candidate in Digital Sovereignty

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NTNU is a broad-based university with a technical-scientific profile and a focus in professional education. The university is located in three cities with headquarters in Trondheim.

At NTNU, 9,000 employees and 43,000 students work to create knowledge for a better world.

You will find more information about working at NTNU and the application process here.

   

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About the position

The central theme of this PhD is to investigate, from a sociotechnical perspective, how Norwegian public-sector agencies and private companies navigate digital sovereignty challenges arising from increasingly centralized and platformized digital infrastructures.

As digitalization accelerates, debate has shifted from societal consequences to understanding how organizations become dependent on systems and services they do not control, and how such digital dependencies affect their capacity for independent decision-making. In Europe, these concerns have driven major regulatory developments, notably the EU AI Act and related digital sovereignty initiatives, which introduce risk- and rights-based approaches but often leave underlying digital dependencies unaddressed.

Even with clear legal frameworks, the dependencies that Norwegian organizations develop on global platform companies, cloud providers, and proprietary software vendors remain difficult to identify and assess. These dependencies arise not only from technical limitations but also from interactions among algorithms, data flows, platform architectures, workflows, and contracts, leaving organizations unable to switch providers, access their own data, or modify systems without significant cost or disruption.

Addressing these challenges requires new expertise, assessment methods, and governance models capable of identifying where power is concentrated and how it might be reconfigured to preserve organizational autonomy and national digital sovereignty. While principles such as transparency, fairness, and accountability are widely endorsed, they offer limited operational guidance for exercising meaningful choice over digital dependencies, creating a gap between sovereignty as a regulatory ideal and sovereignty as practical capacity.

This PhD project aims to address this gap by investigating how Norwegian public and private organizations can develop strategies to reconfigure digital dependencies through governance arrangements, architectural alternatives, and collective action to achieve and maintain digital sovereignty. The project will contribute to a growing community of researchers examining digital sovereignty. Its disciplinary home is Information Systems (IS), as the sociotechnical challenges of digital sovereignty require knowledge beyond the technical to unpack the infrastructural, legal, organizational, and ethical dimensions of digital sovereignty in the Norwegian context.

As a PhD Candidate, you will work toward your doctorate while gaining experience that qualifies you for a further career in research, in and outside academia. Your immediate leader will be the head of the AIT group.
 

Duties of the position

• Complete the doctoral education until obtaining a doctorate
• Carry out and publish research of good quality within the framework described above
• Participate in the national research community on digital sovereignty
• Participate in international activities such as conferences and/or research stays at foreign educational institutions

Be prepared for changes to your work duties after employment.

Required selection criteria

• You must meet the requirements for admission to the faculty's PhD program in Computer Science, see Section 6-1 of the PhD regulations for more information.
• You must have a relevant Master's degree in information systems or interdisciplinary background within computing, social sciences, law or equivalent. Your degree must include a major independent project (minimum 30 ECTS) equivalent to a master’s thesis
• You must have a strong and relevant academic background from your previous studies and have an average grade from your Master's degree study, or equivalent education, which is equal to B or better compared to NTNU's grading scale. If you do not have letter grades from previous studies, you must have an equally good academic foundation. If you have a weaker academic background, you may be considered if you can document that you are exceptionally suited for a PhD education, for example through relevant work experience and/or peer-reviewed academic works.
• You must have demonstrated knowledge in sociotechnical traditions.
• You must have demonstrated expertise in qualitative research methods.
• You must have good written and oral English language skills.

PLEASE NOTE: For detailed information about what the application must contain, see paragraph “About the application”.
 

The appointment is to be made in accordance with NTNUs guidelines for recruitment positions for general criteria for the position.

Preferred selection criteria

• Documented experience from research on digital sovereignty or related topics will be considered an advantage
• Prior publications on digital sovereignty or related topics will be considered an advantage
• Documented skill in oral and written Norwegian (or another Scandinavian language) will be considered a strong advantage. 
   

Personal characteristics

To complete a doctoral degree (PhD), it is important that you are able to: 

• Work independently and collaboratively in a team
•  Engage with practitioners and stakeholders to collect data and communicate scientific results
• Present and discuss your research with other professionals
• Be flexible and open to adjusting the plan for the project as needed

Emphasis will be placed on personal qualities.

We offer

 

• An exciting job with an important mission in society
• Developing tasks in a strong and international professional environment
• Career guidance and follow-up during the PhD period
• Open and inclusive working environment with committed colleagues
• Favorable terms as a member of the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund (SPK)
• Free Norwegian language training at a basic level (A2)

As a PhD Candidate at NTNU, you will have access to employee benefits.

Diversity

Diversity is a strength, and at NTNU we aim to be an employer that reflects the diversity in society and that makes use of the potential of the population's collective skills. Our vision is Knowledge for a better world and our values ​​are creative, critical, constructive and respectful. We believe that an organization that is equal, diverse and gender-balanced is essential for us to achieve our goals. 

We strive to attract employees with different skills, life experiences and perspectives to contribute to even better problem solving of our societal mission in research and education. 

If you think this position is relevant and interesting, we encourage you to apply, regardless of gender, functional ability and cultural background, or whether you have been out of work for a period of time.

At NTNU we want to increase the proportion of women in scientific positions. We have a number of measures to promote equality. 

Salary and conditions

In the position of PhD Candidate, code 1017, your gross salary will normally be NOK 580 000,-per annum depending on qualifications and seniority. A 2% statutory contribution to the State Pension Fund is deducted from the salary. 

The employment period is 4 years with 25% teaching duties for the right candidate. 

For employment as a PhD Candidate, it is a prerequisite that you gain admission to the PhD programme in Computer Science within three months of your employment contract start date, and that you participate in an organized doctoral programme throughout the period of employment.

As an employee at NTNU, it is important that you keep yourself up to date with academic and organizational changes and adapt to them.

For the necessary professional and social interaction, it is a prerequisite that you are physically present and available to the institution on a daily basis.

The appointment is carried out in accordance with the principles of the State Employees Act, and Export control (legislation that regulates the export of knowledge, technology and services). Candidates who, after assessment of the application and attachments, are considered to bein conflict with the criteria in the latter act, will not be able to be employed.

About the application

The attachments (including a description of your scientific work) must accompany the application as these documents form the basis of the application assessment. The documents must be in Norwegian or English.

Please note: the application will only be assessed on the basis of the information we have received by the application deadline. Therefore, make sure that your application clearly shows how your skills and experience meet the criteria described above. The application and all attachments must be sent electronically via Jobbnorge.no. If you are invited to an interview, you must bring certified copies of certificates and diplomas upon request.

The application must include:

• Transcripts and diplomas for Bachelor's and Master's degrees.
• CV.
• Copy of Master's thesis. If you have recently submitted your Master's thesis, you can attach a draft of the thesis. Documentation of a completed Master's degree must be presented before taking up the position.
• Research plan which describes relevant research question(s), theoretical perspectives, methodological design for the project and a progress plan for the position (maximum 1500 words/4 pages).
•  A short declaration of how AI was used in the research plan and letter of motivation.
• Short letter of motivation (400 words/1 page).
• If relevant, publications or other research work.
• Names and contact information of three relevant referees.
   

If all, or parts, of your education has been taken abroad, we also ask you to attach documentation of the scope and quality of your entire education, both Bachelor's and Master's education, in addition to other higher education. If your institution uses “diploma supplement” (normal for most European institutions), you must attach this. A description of the documentation required can also be found here. If you already have a statement from Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir), please attach this as well.

Joint work will be considered. If it is difficult to identify your contribution to joint work, you must attach a brief description of your participation.

When assessing the best qualified, we emphasize necessary qualifications such as education, experience and personal suitability. Motivation for the position, ambitions, and potential for research will also count when assessing the candidates.

NTNU recognizes a wide range of academic contributions and has committed itself to The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment and CoARA (responsible assessment of research and recognition of a greater breadth of academic contributions in accordance with NTNU's social mission).

General information

A public list of applicants with name, age, job title and municipality of residence is prepared after the application deadline. If you wish to be exempt from entry on the public applicant list, this must be justified. Assessment will be made in accordance with current legislation. You will be notified if the exemption is not granted.

If you think this position looks interesting and in line with your qualifications, you are welcome to apply.

If you have any questions about the position, please contact Associate Professor Thomas Østerlie, 98222181, [email protected].

If you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact our HR department at [email protected].
 

Application deadline: 04.10.2026

For practical information about working at NTNU, please visit this webpage. 

The city of Trondheim is a modern European city with a rich cultural scene. Trondheim is the tech capital of Norway with a population of 200,000. The Norwegian welfare state, including healthcare, schools, kindergartens and overall equality, is probably the best of its kind in the world. Professional subsidized day-care for children is easily available. Furthermore, Trondheim offers great opportunities for education (including international schools) and possibilities to enjoy nature, culture and family life and has low crime rates and clean air quality.