Call for Expressions of Interest

The Systemic Risk Centre (SRC) at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) invites expressions of interest from potential postdoctoral researchers to apply jointly with a supervisor from SRC to the European Commission’s MSCA Individual Fellowship scheme. Selected candidates will be hosted in SRC.

Award
MSCA Individual Fellowships supports mobility, training, career development activities within and beyond Europe for up to 2 years (European Fellowships) or 3 years (Global Fellowships). As stated by the scheme guidance, ‘the goal of Individual Fellowships is to enhance the creative and innovative potential of experienced researchers wishing to diversify their individual competence in terms of skill acquisition at multi- or interdisciplinary level through advanced training, international and intersectoral mobility’.

The final deadline to submit an application to the European Commission is 14th September 2016. Expressions of interest should be submitted to SRC by 20th June 2016.

All expressions of interest must meet the eligibility criteria of the scheme, which can be accessed here. Applicants must not have resided or carried out their work and studies in the UK for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the deadline for submission of proposals to the EC.

Research Areas
The Systemic Risk Centre (SRC) was set up in 2013 to study the risks that may trigger the next financial crisis and to develop tools to help policymakers and financial institutions become better prepared.

The primary goal of the SRC is to build up research findings across the broad area of systemic risk and to use these to construct practical tools for policymakers and private institutions to achieve a better understanding of the risks they face. The unifying principle of the Centre’s agenda is endogenous risk – the notion that financial risk is created by the interaction of market participants.

The SRC is rooted in a multidisciplinary approach, bringing together experts from computer science, law, political science and the natural and mathematical sciences, as well as from finance and economics. This enables our researchers to investigate how risk is created through feedback loops within and between the financial, economic, legal and political systems.

For further details of the activities of the Centre, please visit the SRC website.

SRC welcomes expressions of interest in the following research themes that build on current SRC research strengths and on SRC’s access to unique data sets:

  • systemic risk emanating from over-the-counter derivatives markets
  • securities lending and the impact on systemic risk
  • model risk and model uncertainty and the impact on micro- and macro-prudential regulations
  • the political economy of macroprudential regulations
  • systemic risk in dynamic networks models

How to send in your Expressions of Interest
Your EOI pack should consist of the following:

  • Research Proposal Summary of no more than two pages. This proposal should outline the main research question, research context, research methods, and a brief project plan
  • Copy of your CV
  • Covering letter, outlining in particular how the proposed research links with SRC’s wider research agenda

Please submit your expression of interest pack via email to Ann Law, Centre Manager (a.law1@lse.ac.uk) by 5pm BST Monday 20th June 2016. Late submissions will not be considered.

Expressions of interest will be selected on the quality of the research idea and the scheme’s eligibility criteria. The decisions will be communicated by 11th July 2016. The candidate(s) will be invited to make a formal application with the SRC supervisor to the European Commission on the call’s actual deadline (14th September 2016).

For more information on the MSCA scheme please visit this link.