Senior Research Fellow/Public Governance (80%)

Job title: Senior Research Fellow
Place of work Basel, Switzerland
Employment rate: 80%
Start date: 15 April 2019, or as soon as possible thereafter
Contract type: Initially for two years with possibility of extension
Reporting: Head of Research/Public Governance

Basel Institute on Governance
The Basel Institute on Governance is an international and independent not-for-profit organisation working
worldwide with the public and private sector to counter corruption and other financial crimes and to
improve the quality of governance. Registered as a Swiss foundation with headquarters in Basel, the
Institute operates globally and maintains field operations in Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
The Basel Institute is an Associated Institute of the University of Basel.

Basel Institute Program of Work on Illegal Wildlife Trafficking (IWT)
Financial crime is a key facilitator of a wide range of serious criminal acts. Through our operations across
a large range of countries, this has become particularly obvious in relation to illegal wildlife trade (IWT),
where criminal networks are known to resort to financial crime at every stage of their trade. Bribes are
widely used by poaching networks to facilitate their illegal business and induce officials to look the other
way and be co-opted into their operations. IWT kingpins and their corrupt facilitators are depending on
functioning international money laundering systems in order to benefit from their crimes and re-invest
part of the profit in more IWT or other illegal trafficking activities. Corrupt institutions and socio-political
networks are major enablers of IWT and undermine any meaningful anti-IWT efforts; at the grassroots
level, this can lead to social acceptability of IWT.
We are convinced that the Basel Institute’s unique integrated operational approach to tackling financial
crime, involving financial investigation and asset recovery, Collective Action and applied research into
drivers and causes of corrupt behaviours, can be used more systematically to benefit global efforts to
combat IWT. As a consequence, the Basel Institute is establishing a new multi-disciplinary program of
work specialised in this area, to be implemented jointly by all operational divisions of the Basel Institute.

Public Governance Division Program of Work
The Division contributes to the Basel Institute’s overall mission by developing tailored strategies for
corruption prevention that are based on the findings of research, adopting innovative approaches and
methodologies that have shown promise regarding the advancement of anti-corruption practice. In doing
so, it often collaborates closely with the other divisions at the Basel Institute in projects that promote
anti-corruption efforts through a holistic approach, and in this spirit, the Public Governance Division will
lead one of the three key components of our new program of work on IWT.

Profile and responsibilities
The position of Senior Research Fellow is embedded in the Public Governance Division and advertised in
the context of this new program of work on IWT; the portfolio of projects which this role will be involved
in however is wider than IWT and can evolve over time. The Senior Research Fellow will report to the Head
of Governance Research. Key responsibilities include, but are not necessarily restricted to:
Basel Institute on Governance
Steinenring 60 | 4051 Basel, Switzerland | +41 61 205 55 11
info@baselgovernance.org | www.baselgovernance.org

• Develop and implement research plans to undertake social network analysis and other quantitative
  approaches in support of research and technical assistance projects of the Public Governance Division
  or of cross-divisional projects of the Basel Institute. This includes field research activities overseas.


• Collaborate in the design of mixed-methods approaches to address particular research questions.


• Collaborate in the writing of new research or technical assistance proposals.


• Write scientific reports (such as articles to be submitted to peer reviewed journals) based on research
  findings as sole author or in collaboration with the Public Governance research team;


• Contribute to preparing research reports and other project deliverables for research or technical
  assistance projects and.


• Represent the Basel Institute at relevant international policy, networking and other promotional events
  and conferences.


• As guided by the Head of the division, take on and support program management and coordination
  tasks

Requirements

• Doctoral degree in sociology, economics, political science or related fields with strong skills in
  quantitative methods of statistical analysis; 2-3 years of post-doctoral work experience is desirable.


• Expertise in social network analysis techniques and proficiency in the use of software tools relevant to
  network analysis;


• Substantial knowledge of topics related to development cooperation, and in particular financial crime,
  organised crime and/or governance processes, is a definite advantage, as is interest in or previous
  work exposure to issues related to environmental crimes and/or illegal (wildlife) trafficking.


• Some exposure to the literature on behavioural sciences is desirable.


• Ability to work independently on concrete tasks while also interacting with an interdisciplinary team.


• Availability to travel and conduct field research activities overseas.


• Perfect fluency in written and spoken English; other languages a definite advantage.

Offer
We offer an interesting and rewarding working environment with a proactive, dynamic and international
team spirit. The work is both routine and varied and offers scope for initiative and innovation. The
Senior Research Fellow will be encouraged to develop his or her own research proposals and funding
applications aligned with the Institute’s substantive areas of interest. The salary is competitive.

Application
Please send your written application (CV, letter of motivation, reference letters and contact details of
three professional references; all documents merged in one PDF file), at your earliest convenience, but
no later than 15 March 2019 by email to: application@baselgovernance.org

For further information, please contact Claudia Baez Camargo, Head of Governance Research, Basel
Institute on Governance (claudia.baez-camargo@baselgovernance.org).
2