The Department of Business & Management (DBM) at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) invites applications for one or more 30-months Post Doc position(s) in Foresight and Innovation Management.

The PostDoc will teach within innovation, organization, or strategic management and contribute research time for one of the following projects:

• “Facilitating collective climate future envisioning among the youth in the Danish-German border region: Shaping actionable strategies and common initiatives” (FUSION)“Anticipating STRAtegic Long-term challenges” (ASTRAL).

• The positions are located at SDU’s Campus in Odense and are vacant from 1st September 2025 or soon thereafter.

JOB DESCRIPTION

The applicant is expected to hold a PhD degree relevant to the topics like business, management or organization studies with a preference for candidates knowledgeable about foresight and innovation. Candidates about to complete their PhD will also be considered and should attach a statement from their supervisors or their university administration regarding their impending completion.

The positions are embedded in the Center for Integrative Innovation Management (C*I2M) and the SDU Climate Elite Center “Mobilizing Post-Anthropocentric Climate Action: A New Root Narrative” (PACA).

• The research in C*I2M is cross-disciplinary integrating management, marketing, and technology for a more comprehensive understanding of innovation. We seek to understand and promote capabilities for innovation from foresight to initial idea to the fully commercialized or implemented innovation.
• The research in PACA is dedicated to identifying post-anthropocentric root narratives to mass-mobilize societal actors for climate action. It assesses the extent to which such practices and beliefs can provide a positive narrative for a new organization of production and consumption practices and, finally, the role of universities as mediators of the emergent post-anthropocentrism.

Both centers are integrated and currently hiring several younger researchers for various projects ensuring a vibrant research environment.

In both the FUSION and ASTRAL projects, the C*I2M and PACA themes are integrated into a unique perspective on how organizations can use foresight to help societal actors develop long-term visions and strategies for the future, enabling them to address major challenges such as climate change or digitization.

• FUSION empowers young people from the Danish-German border region to drive societal innovation to tackle climate change. Climate requires well aligned actions across nation states as it can only be mitigated through collaborative collective efforts and behavioral changes of all citizens. At the same time, many high school students in the Danish-German border region suffer from climate anxiety and a lack of positive outlook that makes them feel powerless. FUSION aims to break the paralysis in which these students are trapped, educate them in the collective imagination of positive climate futures, and empower them to develop and implement joint climate change initiatives across borders in the program region. It is a collaborative project involving two university and seven school partners from Denmark and Germany. To reach these overarching objectives, FUSION will develop an innovative education format: A teaching module for English language education at secondary education institutions. This module includes creative future fiction writing, in-class analysis, and a cross-border camp where common climate change initiatives and future job profiles will be developed. FUSION further develops a learning platform that ensures open access to all produced teaching material, (anonymized) stories, and automized story overview summaries.
• ASTRAL is investigating how universities can train high-tech SMEs in long-term foresight and strategy development for a sustainable future. This involves engaging in responsible innovation and basing strategy on a positive root narrative of a sustainable future. The project aims to broaden our understanding of what positive futures are imagined by actors in SMEs, and to develop a training that can be used by higher education institutions to guide them in the process of developing a sustainable long-term strategy towards a desirable future. This European project includes further Higher Education Institutions, VETs and industry partners from Germany, Spain, France and The Netherlands.

The Post Docs will be involved in all parts and activities of the research projects. The workload will be geared towards

• participation in coordination activities,
• data collection and data analysis,
• learning/ training material development
• participation in the design and conduction of events with the project stakeholders,
• outreach, dissemination and publication of project results,
• evaluation of the effectiveness and impact of the project output.

The successful candidate will also be expected to teach at the Centre for Integrative Innovation Management in topics related to innovation, organization, or strategic management. Moreover, the candidate will participate in the various activities within the department and is expected to be present on a daily basis.
For further information, please contact Professor and Principal investigator of FUSION and PACA, Patricia Wolf pawo@sam.sdu.dk, Professor and Head of Research at C*I2M Mette Præst Knudsen mpk@sam.sdu.dk or Associate Professor Bryan Yazell yazell@sdu.dk

Please refer the Job description for details