DC04 - Cyber Risk assessment for agri-data

Host Organisation: National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM), Ireland

PhD awarding University: National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM), Ireland

About the Host Organisation:

NUIM, founded in 1997 is a constituent university of National University of Ireland. The University has 9,900 Undergraduates; 2,160 Postgraduates (masters and doctoral students); 500 Academic and Research Staff; €23m Research Income per annum.

EnTrust will be hosted at the Innovation Value Institute that has developed a solid partnership with industry-leading companies and worldwide academia. IVI was co-founded in 2006 by Maynooth University. IVI is currently coordinating the MSCA ETN Perform (grant agreement No. 765395). The School of Business is actively engaged in several interdisciplinary research and training programmes.

To read more about the National University of Ireland please check the website.

Eligibility

The applicants need to meet several requirements to be eligible for this position.

Mobility rule: Researchers can be of any nationality, but they are required to undertake physical, transnational mobility (i.e., move from one country to another) when taking up their appointment. Consequently, applicants for this position will have to move their centre of life to the greater area of host beneficiaries’ country. Additionally, researchers shall not have resided or carried out their main activity in the country of their host organization for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date. Time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention97 will not be considered for the mobility rule.

Doctoral Researchers (DC) rule: Applicants at the date of recruitment, must be in the first four years (full-time equivalent research experience) of their research careers and have not been awarded a doctoral degree.

Criteria

• Hold a Master’s degree
• Meet the admission requirements of the doctorate degree program of the corresponding university of this position
• Language Skills: Applicants should have professional knowledge in (Scientific) English language and ideally basic knowledge of Italian
• Knowledge of the following will be considered preferential: Big Data, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, Data Provenance, Data Ownership, Data Sovereignty; Programming in a language for data science.

How to apply?

All Candidates must apply electronically and follow the instructions to fill the details and compile the documents in one pdf file, following the order:

• Completed application form (available at above online link)
• Cover Letter
• A detailed Curricula Vitae (CV) of maximum 3 pages
• Master’s degree transcripts that are validated
• Any additional documents that prove the eligibility for the corresponding doctorate degree program
• Proof of sufficient English language skills
• Two Letters of Recommendation
• Proof of current residency/residence country (i.e., official document with the applicant’s name, surname, and address).

Note 1: Please be informed that the application must be written in English.
Note 2: Applicants can apply for up to a maximum of three Doctoral positions.

Employment

DC04 will be recruited for a period of 12 months, will receive full-time employment contracts, will be enrolled in a PhD programme and actively participate in the Entrust Training Programme. 

Important Note: Depending on the availability of further funds, this post may be extended. The successful candidates, however, will have to pay for the additional three years tuition fee to complete their PhD degree at Maynooth University. The selected candidates must, therefore, provide a letter of acceptance of these requirements in order to be considered for this post.

The candidate is supposed to study and pass successfully numerous of doctoral courses over and to design and execute an advanced research project that will constitute the doctoral dissertation

Supervisors:

Dr. Zohreh Pourzolfaghar – National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM), Ireland

Professor Markus Helfert – National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM), Ireland 

Secondment Plan:

1. Secondment to Airfield Estate DAC in month 8 for 1 months – Risks classification and co-creation workshop

Intersectoral Secondment Supervisors:

T0 be confirmed

Contract Type: Fixed term- 12 months
Contact Term: Full-time

Opening of the Online Application: 1 July 2025
Application Deadline: 15 July 2025

For more information, please contact:
Assistant Professor Zohreh Pourzolfaghar – zohreh.pourzolfaghar@mu.ie