PhD Position 100% – AI Literacy & Regulatory Learning

About the role

The Institute of Law and Economics (ILE-HSG) at the University of St. Gallen offers a full-time PhD position within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network REGULAIRE, which includes an international cohort of 15 doctoral candidates across ten European universities. The research focuses on AI governance, law and technology, and regulatory learning.

Key responsibilities

• Examine how AI-literacy frameworks build absorptive capacity in public bodies and support regulatory learning.
• Use case studies and pre/post assessments to measure how literacy interventions affect evidence generation, procurement choices, escalation paths and the circulation of lessons.
• Build an inventory and typology of AI-literacy frameworks, validate interventions, report on their effects and develop guidance for integrating literacy with procurement and review cycles.
• Refine research questions with the supervision team, prepare ethics, data-management and open-science materials, write the thesis and related publications.
• Take part in REGULAIRE training, network reviews, dissemination, practitioner engagement, summer schools and monthly paper-development seminars.
• A planned three-month secondment to a partner organisation, with a sectoral mentor at the host.

Required profile

• Master's degree (or equivalent) in public administration, political science, learning sciences, information systems, communication, law or a related field, completed by the start date.
• Interest in AI literacy, public administration, AI governance and interdisciplinary research.
• Excellent written and spoken English; reliable, independent and analytical.
• Willingness to engage in international mobility and the planned secondment.
• Eligible for enrolment in the doctoral programme and MSCA eligibility conditions; no doctoral degree at the start of the MSCA.

Required skills

• Demonstrable interest in case studies and intervention research, including pre/post assessment designs.
• Knowledge of the MSCA mobility rule (no more than 12 months of residence or main activity in Switzerland in the 36 months before the start date).

What we offer

• Cross-institutional supervision, network-wide methods training, three residential summer schools and monthly paper-development seminars.
• An interdisciplinary research environment with opportunities to join national and international research and policy networks.
• A planned three-month secondment.

Applications via the University of St. Gallen portal are open until 07.11.2026 and require a motivation letter, CV, transcripts, two reference letters and a short research proposal.