An exciting opportunity to work on the monitoring and evaluation of Trenčín as European Capital of Culture (ECoC) 2026, led by Dr Rafaela Neiva Ganga, in partnership with Trenčín City Council, Trenčín City Region, Slovakian Minister of Culture, and European Commission.  
 

We are looking for a Research Fellow in Data Science with an interested in cultural mega-events, interdisciplinary and translational research. 
 

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The project has a duration of 5 years and aims to: 
 

• Evaluate the short, mid and longer-term impact of Trenčín 2026 

• Monitor progress of the contribution of culture to Trenčín Plan for Strategic and Economic Development; 

• Strengthen advocacy for culture in Trenčín region and Slovakia; 

• Inform evidence-based cultural policies; 

• Build capacity and a knowledge base for future research in cultural policy and cultural mega-events. 

 

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Main tasks: 

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• To provide scientific expertise on various projects that relate to the monitoring and evaluation of Trenčín as European Capital of Culture 2026.  

• To work across several themes related to the multiple impacts of the events (Economy, Tourism, Cultural Infrastructure, Urban Development, Environment, Cultural Participation, Culture and Creative Industries, Wellbeing, and Media); and more specific, the development/analysis of national, regional and local datasets. 

• To produce public digital interfaces to data or data related outputs.  

• To lead and support high impact publications with international significance; and be involved in the preparation of competitive funding bids. Furthermore, you will be involved in several other academic and non-academic outputs, such as, periodic reports to the European Commission, vlogs & podcasts, conferences and networks. 

• Responsibility for the data collection. 

• Active collaboration with the Programme Department of the Cultural Institute Trenčín, collaboration with colleagues within the Culture Living Lab Trenčín and non-academic partners. 

• Active collaboration with Slovak universities to support university’s students data collection. 

 

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The right candidate should have: 

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• Specialisation in data analytics, data science and/or evaluation, including the collection, integration, analysis, presentation and interpretation of data for social science research/ cultural policy.  

• Working experience of Slovakian Data Services, ONS, Eurostat or OECD data or similar datasets on cultural policy would be an advantage. This could include research involving comparative national and international statistics on cultural participation, culture and creative labour markets and industry structures at the regional level, census data, urban development, tourism and local and regional cultural policy governance. 

• Strong background on statistical / quantitative experience in the analysis of large datasets/big data. 

• Extensive experience in programming /statistical programming (e.g. R / Python). 

• Experience in manipulating large datasets, visualizing large datasets, social network analysis, geographical mapping. 

• Track record in project delivery/completion. 

 

Education: PhD in Computer Science or similar, Science, Quantitative Social Science or other related quantitative discipline  

 

Personal Attributes and Circumstances:  

 

• A high degree of motivation and initiative, and able to conduct independent research, plan and manage own workload, with guidance from colleagues as required. 

• Collaborative team member, able of  productive working relationships with internal and external partners 

• Ability to organise and prioritise own work and organise research deliverables within a project timetable. 

• Excellent interpersonal (e.g. tact, interpersonal sensitivity, assertiveness and an ability to interact positively) 

• Ability to solve problems and come to practical solutions in areas where there are no clear guidelines. 

• Ability to maintain accurate and up-to-date records. 

• Ability to synthesise information for academic and non-academic audiences 

 

 

Other requirements:  

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• Lead and support high impact publications with international significance (track-record) 

• Prepare and submit competitive funding bids (track-record of submitted and funded research)  

• Excellent communication skills (fluently orally and in writing in English and Slovakian) 

 

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We offer: 

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• Salary: 2050 eur brutto/month 

• Full-Time Contract 

• 5 sick days per year 

 

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Please send your CV in PDF, motivation letter in PDF and personal data consent to sona.vislocka@trencin2026.eu until January 31, 2023. Please write the name of the position to the email subject. Please note that we will only contact candidates who match our requirements. 

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Note: The Culture Living Lab Trenčín
 

The position is hosted by the purposed-developed Culture Living Lab Trenčín. The Culture Living Lab Trenčín is committed to the following principles for the monitoring and evaluation of Trenčín 2026 project: 

• Citizen-driven research brings together an Open Research & Innovation Group formed by academics, policy makers, citizens, third sector and culture and creative industries. 

• Independent research and critical validation ensured with ethical and international peer-review processes. 

• Process-focussed methodology to capture inputs (e.g. cultural programme), processes (e.g. governance mechanisms), and outcomes (e.g. cultural participation). 

• Open-source datasets and findings enable further Trenčín 2026 legacies analysis