15 funded PhD positions in AI, organisations and the future of work: EMANAIRE MSCA Doctoral Network

About this position

How can people continue to shape their working lives as artificial intelligence becomes part of everyday organisational practice?

EMANAIRE is recruiting doctoral researchers for 15 connected PhD projects examining human agency in AI-augmented work. Funded through the European Union’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and coordinated by BI Norwegian Business School, the network brings together participating universities and secondment partners to investigate how AI changes decisions, working practices, relationships and professional development.

About the research

AI can expand what people are able to do, while also changing whose judgement counts, who carries responsibility and how expertise develops. Organisations face choices about how to introduce these technologies while preserving people’s ability to understand decisions, question them and influence their working lives.

EMANAIRE, Empowering Human Agency in AI-Augmented Futures of Work , examines these choices through research in organisational settings. Its doctoral projects address four connected themes:

• Leadership and governance: How do organisational ambitions for AI translate into everyday decisions, and how should authority and responsibility be shared?
• Work practices and workflows: How does AI change tasks, roles and routines, and what helps people shape these changes?
• Social dynamics and collaboration: How does AI affect trust, communication and relationships, and who retains a voice in shared work?
• Skills and careers: What do today’s choices about AI mean for learning, professional expertise and future career opportunities?

Together, the projects will develop evidence to help organisations make informed decisions about AI and sustain people’s capacity to shape change.

Participating universities

Doctoral researchers ( DCs ) will be recruited and supervised at the following universities:

• BI Norwegian Business School , network coordinator, Norway — DC03, DC09 and DC14
• Stockholm School of Economics , Sweden — DC01 and DC05
• University of Ljubljana , Slovenia — DC02 and DC07
• Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich) , Germany — DC04
• Hanken School of Economics , Finland — DC06 and DC10
• University of Zurich , Switzerland — DC08
• Technical University of Munich (TUM) , Germany — DC11 and DC13
• Aarhus University , Denmark — DC12
• Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam , Netherlands — DC15

Practice and secondment partners

EMANAIRE connects doctoral research with public institutions, international organisations, companies and professional communities. Planned secondments provide opportunities to undertake research and training outside the recruiting university.

The network’s practice and secondment partners include:

• SSE Business Lab , Sweden
• Region Stockholm , Sweden
• Slovenian Academy of Management , Slovenia
• TOMRA , Norway
• Navel Robotics , Germany
• Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten) , Sweden
• United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) , Switzerland
• International Labour Organization (ILO) , Switzerland
• GovTech Deutschland , Germany
• Volkswagen AG , Germany
• KPMG , Netherlands
• RTL , Netherlands
• European Commission Joint Research Centre, Seville , Spain

These are planned arrangements and remain subject to confirmation or revision. For international organisations, the country identifies the participating office recorded in the project materials and does not necessarily determine the eventual placement location. Individual project descriptions and university announcements will provide the confirmed arrangements.

The 15 doctoral projects

Each project examines a distinct organisational question within EMANAIRE’s shared research programme. The following summaries identify the host university for each project. Secondment arrangements will be confirmed in the relevant university announcements and project descriptions.

Note : the following network overview and the EMANAIRE website provide only information and links; they do not receive applications. All the following positions will be open for applications during the autumn 2026.

DC01: Top-down and Bottom-up Rulemaking around AI: From Policy to Practice

Host university: Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden.

Examines how formal AI policies and employees’ local experimentation interact as organisations create, negotiate and implement rules for everyday work. The project traces how high-level requirements become workable practices and how experience from the workplace feeds back into governance.

DC02: Leadership and Work Design for Meaningfulness in the Age of AI

Host university: University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Investigates how leadership and work-design choices help employees retain agency, purpose and belonging as AI changes their tasks and responsibilities. The project connects employees’ experiences with the ways work is allocated, coordinated and managed.

DC03: Leader Legitimacy in Augmented Leadership

Host university: BI Norwegian Business School, Norway.

Studies how leaders build, lose and regain legitimacy as AI becomes involved in decision-making, coordination and oversight. It examines employees’ responses to changing decision rights, transparency and human oversight, alongside leaders’ own experiences of authority and responsibility.

Where to apply : Handelshøyskolen BI Programområdet - Doktorgrad - PhD specialisation in Communication- EMANAIRE project: Leader Legitimacy in Augmented Leadership

Application deadline: 1. November 2026

DC04: AI Companions and Caregiver Workflows in Inclusive Care

Host university: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany.

Investigates how AI companions affect the agency and wellbeing of people receiving care, including people living with dementia. The project also examines care relationships, caregiver workflows and the design and governance choices needed to protect consent, privacy and meaningful human involvement.

Where to apply : Research Assistant (PhD Candidate) in Digital Work (m/f/x) | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | 4571

Application deadline: 12. October 2026

DC05: Human-AI Co-existence and Role Changes in High-Trust Workplaces

Host university: Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden.

Examines how AI redistributes tasks, job boundaries and responsibilities in high-trust workplaces. It follows how employees experience changing roles and the conditions under which AI is treated as a helper, partner or monitor.

Where to apply : MSCA Doctoral Position - Handelshögskolan

Application deadline:15. January 2027

DC06: AI Co-Creation, Morality, and the Inner Good in Creative Industries

Host university: Hanken School of Economics, Finland.

Uses ethnographic research to examine how AI changes creative co-creation, practitioners’ values and the moral questions surrounding creative work. The project investigates how employees, freelancers and organisations negotiate what makes creative practice worthwhile as human and automated contributions become intertwined.

Where to apply : Doctoral Researcher: MSCA Doctoral Network EMANAIRE, DC 06: AI Co-Creation, Morality, and the Inner Good in Creative Industries

Application deadline: 29. October 2026

DC07: Human Agency in Distributed, Fragmented, and AI-Mediated Workflows

Host university: University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Studies how work distributed across people, teams, AI copilots and autonomous agents affects professional judgement, team cohesion and accountability. It examines task allocation, handovers and coordination arrangements that help people retain sufficient context and authority to act responsibly.

DC08: Balancing Individual AI-Augmentation with Organisational Stability

Host university: University of Zurich, Switzerland.

Examines how personalised AI workflows and informal or “shadow” AI use affect collaboration, oversight and organisational resilience. It investigates how individual experimentation can coexist with dependable shared practices, transparent handovers and organisational continuity.

Where to apply : UZH: MSCA Doctoral Position on Balancing Individual AI-Augmentation with Organisational Stability

Application deadline: 10. October 2026

DC09: Managing Team Communication in AI-Augmented Teams

Host university: BI Norwegian Business School, Norway.

Studies AI overreliance, disclosure and communication in teams. It identifies managerial and personal resources that help employees collaborate effectively while retaining critical judgement, and examines when delegating work to AI supports or weakens scrutiny and learning.

Where to apply : Handelshøyskolen BI Programområdet - Doktorgrad - PhD specialisation in Communication - EMANAIRE project: Managing Team Communication in AI-Augmented Teams

Application deadline: 1. November 2026

DC10: AI-mediated Communication and Collaboration Norms at Work

Host university: Hanken School of Economics, Finland.

Examines how AI-mediated communication changes collaboration norms, perceived authenticity, trust and social connection among colleagues. It follows how employees and teams negotiate expectations around AI-supported exchanges and how those practices evolve over time.

Where to apply : Doctoral Researcher: MSCA Doctoral Network EMANAIRE, DC10: AI-Mediated Communication and Collaboration Norms at Work

Application deadline: 29. October 2026

DC11: Human-Machine Communication in Hybrid Knowledge-Intensive Work

Host university: Technical University of Munich, Germany.

Investigates the communication practices through which people train, customise and interpret AI systems. It examines how these interactions reshape professional roles and the communicative work needed to sustain accountable human–AI collaboration.

DC12: AI and Workplace Inclusion

Host university: Aarhus University, Denmark.

Examines how organisational uses of AI can support workplace inclusion or reproduce inequalities in participation, belonging, learning and career opportunities. Applicants can develop a research question within this broad theme, addressing differences such as ethnicity, cultural or linguistic background, gender, age or disability.

DC13: Measuring Skills for Human–AI Collaboration among Young Professionals

Host university: Technical University of Munich, Germany.

Develops and validates assessments of the capabilities young professionals need for effective, responsible collaboration with AI. The project connects these capabilities with judgement, error detection, disclosure and oversight, with applications in education, recruitment and professional development.

DC14: Futureproofing Employee Careers in the Age of Generative AI

Host university: BI Norwegian Business School, Norway.

Studies how career adaptability and organisational and supervisory support shape employees’ responses to AI-related opportunities and threats. It examines the conditions that support effective reskilling, skill utilisation and career mobility as work changes.

Where to apply : Handelshøyskolen BI Programområdet - Doktorgrad - PhD Specialisation in Communication - EMANAIRE project: Futureproofing Employee Careers in the Age of Generative AI

Application deadline: 1. November 2026

DC15: Knowledge Creation and Sharing in Augmented Organisations

Host university: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Investigates how generative AI changes knowledge creation, sharing and validation, with particular attention to newcomers’ learning and the automation of entry-level tasks. The project examines how organisations can preserve opportunities to develop expertise through everyday work.

Where to apply : PhD Vacancy: Knowledge Creation and Sharing in Augmented Organisations | Werken bij VU

Application deadline: 18. October 2026

The doctoral experience

As an EMANAIRE doctoral researcher, you will develop your own project at the university hosting your position while participating in an international research community. The programme combines academic supervision with shared training, methods workshops, research seminars and opportunities to exchange findings across projects.

Planned secondments will connect doctoral research with other academic and professional settings. Depending on the project, a secondment may take place with a company, public institution, international organisation or another consortium partner. The relevant project description will explain its purpose and expected timing.

You will also receive support in developing your research, communicating its value and considering your future career.

Each university advertisement will set out the position’s salary, applicable allowances, employment conditions, contract duration and intended start date.

Who should apply?

We welcome applicants with a strong interest in the human and organisational implications of AI. Relevant backgrounds include management, organisation studies, psychology, sociology, communication, information systems and related disciplines. Specific academic and methodological requirements vary by project.

Applicants may be of any nationality. You must meet the host university’s doctoral admission requirements, satisfy the MSCA mobility rule and not hold a doctoral degree at recruitment. Researchers who have successfully defended their doctoral thesis are also ineligible, even if the degree has not yet been formally awarded.

In general, the mobility rule requires that you have not lived or carried out your main activity, such as work or study, in the recruiting country for more than 12 months during the 36 months immediately before recruitment. Full eligibility details appear in the individual advertisements and the official MSCA guidance .

How to apply

Explore the doctoral projects on the EMANAIRE website, then follow the link to the recruiting university’s official vacancy announcement. Vacancies will also be advertised on EURAXESS.

All applications must be submitted through the application procedure specified in the relevant university advertisement. This network overview and the EMANAIRE website provide only information and links; they do not receive applications.

You may apply to up to four EMANAIRE doctoral projects . Submit a separate application for each position and briefly identify your other EMANAIRE applications, including any you intend to submit, in each motivation or cover letter. Use the project numbers or titles and explain your interest in the particular project concerned.

Application windows, deadlines and start dates may differ between universities. Follow the requirements and deadline in each official vacancy announcement.

For questions about a particular position, use the contact details in its university advertisement.