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Student Assistants Project GAPS

2026-10-01

The Research Group Governance and Sustainability (Prof. Newig) at Leuphana University Lüneburg is seeking to appoint

Student Assistants / Studentische Hilfskräfte (SHK)

(with or without Bachelor degree)

to support

Systematic literature/case search and AI-assisted case-based meta-analysis

in the ERC Advanced Grant project

GAPS – Global Assessment of Participation in Sustainability Governance

with around 30 to 80 hours per month.

GAPS delivers the first global, theory-guided assessment of public participation in sustainability governance. The project asks how, and under what conditions, the involvement of citizens and organised groups in public decision-making can advance sustainability, democracy, and justice across diverse political systems, cultures, and levels of development. To answer this, we are building a global database of some 3,000 documented participation cases from all world regions and across five decades, meticulously coded for systematic comparison.

A distinctive feature of GAPS is its methodological approach: the project pioneers the use of pretrained Large Language Models (AI chatbots such as Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and others) to code large volumes of qualitative case studies at an unprecedented scale, combining large-N cross-case analysis with in-depth qualitative work. As an SHK, you will be part of this innovative research and will contribute to all phases of the project.

Your tasks:

  • Searching for and identifying relevant case studies of public participation across scholarly databases, case repositories, and grey literature, including backward/forward snowballing and AI-assisted search strategies.
  • Screening publications for relevance and “codability” and consolidating multiple publications relating to the same case.
  • Reading and coding case studies by applying the project codebook, drawing substantially on current AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.), with careful attention to reliability and consistency.
  • Supporting quality control, such as benchmarking AI-assisted coding against human coding and checking for model drift.
  • Assisting with database maintenance and documentation, and with the organisation of international project workshops.

Work hours are largely flexible. While office space is available, working from home is also possible. Positions can start as soon as possible or at a later stage; the workload can be arranged between 30 and 80 hours per month by agreement.

Your profile:

  • You are enrolled as a student (Bachelor or Master) at Leuphana university; a background in political science, sociology, sustainability or environmental science is welcome.
  • You work independently, reliably, and conscientiously, and demonstrate initiative and commitment.
  • An interest in, or research experience with, sustainability governance and/or public participation is an advantage.
  • Experience with coding case-study data or with systematic literature/meta-analytic work is an advantage.
  • Confidence in working with AI tools / LLM chatbots is an advantage.
  • Knowledge of MS Excel and of statistical or bibliometric methods, and experience with statistical software (e.g., R, SPSS), is an advantage.
  • Excellent English is required. Given the multilingual corpus of cases, additional language skills (e.g., Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic, or others) for quality controls would be an additional asset.

Please send your application (CV, very short motivational letter, copy of your high school diploma and, if applicable, degree certificates, and a current transcript of grades) – combined in one PDF – to Prof. Dr. Jens Newig (jens.newig@leuphana.de). Informal inquiries in advance are welcome via e-mail.

Application deadline: 12 October 2026. Interviews of short-listed candidates will likely be held on October 15.