PhD Position in Social Data Science

This fully funded four-year PhD position is part of the Vidi project “The economy of digital influence operations”, led by Associate Professor Jon Roozenbeek. The project investigates the market infrastructure that supports disinformation and influence operations in digital environments. Through a series of studies, you will be mapping out the “online manipulation economy” where fake accounts, engagement, and even sophisticated bot armies are readily for sale. You will look at who the buyers and sellers are within this marketplace, conduct interviews with key players to understand their motivations, and build bespoke analysis pipelines of social media and financial data to understand the downstream consequences of the buying and selling of these services.

The PhD will be supervised by Associate Professor Jon Roozenbeek, who directs the Influence and Technology Lab at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the University of Cambridge, along with Associate Professor Ivar Vermeulen (VU Amsterdam).

Your duties
As a PhD candidate, you will complete a cumulative dissertation within four years at one of the world’s leading Communication Science departments in Amsterdam. You will also have close links with Cambridge, where Dr Roozenbeek’s lab is partially based.

Working closely with your supervisory team, you will plan and execute empirical studies as envisioned in the project. You will design experiments, collect and analyse quantitative data (e.g., social media data, qualitative interviews), and publish your findings in top international journals, conference proceedings, and publicly accessible brief reports. You will also be responsible for building and maintaining public-facing outputs such as the Cambridge Online Trust and Safety Index (https://cotsi.org/).

You bring a strong foundation in experimental research within data science, quantitative psychology, or (behavioural) economics, and have experience with quantitative data analysis and scientific writing. Throughout the project, you will further advance these skills and refine your ability to report research according to international standards and open-science principles. All data and materials will be made reproducible and publicly available.

As a member of our vibrant, internationally renowned department, you will broaden your professional network and develop collaborations with scholars in related fields. As a PhD candidate, you will also take part in the Graduate School of Social Sciences (GSSS), which offers a wide range of courses for your further academic development (see website, ‘Starting your PhD trajectory’). More detailed information is available upon request.