PhD Position in Subjective Well-Being Across the Life Course

Introduction

UNIL is a leading international teaching and research institution, with over 5,000 employees and 17,000 students split between its Dorigny campus, CHUV and Epalinges. As an employer, UNIL encourages excellence, individual recognition and responsibility.

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Presentation

The Institute of Social Sciences (ISS) and the LIVES Centre at the University of Lausanne invite applications for a PhD position in subjective well-being across the life course.
The successful candidate will contribute to the SNSF project “Subjective Well-Being Across the Life Course: A Global Research Program with 200+ Panel Datasets from 90 Countries,” under the direction of Dr. Nicolas Sommet and Prof. Daniel Oesch. The project aims to harmonize and analyze 206 already identified panel datasets measuring happiness or life satisfaction, covering 3.5 million participants across 90 countries over seven decades. It includes many understudied countries and is designed to test whether existing theories of subjective well-being generalize across diverse national contexts in both the Global North and the Global South. More specifically, the project will estimate age trajectories in subjective well-being across countries and examine how these trajectories vary as a function of country-year-level moderators. The successful candidate will be expected to enroll in the LIVES Doctoral programme and to develop a doctoral thesis related to the project.

Job information

Expected start date in position: September 1, 2026, or upon agreement

Contract length: 1 year, renewable twice, for a maximum total duration of 4 years

Activity rate: 100%, lower employment rates may be considered upon agreement

Workplace: University of Lausanne, Géopolis, Lausanne, Switzerland

Annual salary: 55'000 CHF (first year) with annual increase

Your responsibilities

The successful candidate is expected to:
• Contribute during the first 12 to 18 months of the project to (i) assembling and harmonizing the data, (ii) merging the harmonized data with country-year indicators, and (iii) assessing data quality
• Help develop reproducible workflows (e.g., R scripts) and documentation (e.g., codebooks)
• Collaborate closely with the project supervisors, a postdoctoral researcher, and student assistants
• Develop a doctoral thesis and related scientific publications based on the global dataset
• Present findings at international conferences
• Contribute to the intellectual life of the LIVES Centre

See specifications here (in French)

Your qualifications

• Master’s degree in psychology, sociology, or a related discipline. Applicants near completion of their degree may apply, provided that the degree is completed before the start date
• Solid quantitative skills, a good command of R and/or Stata, and a strong interest in statistical analysis
• Strong interest in data management and in working with large-scale secondary datasets

• Strong interest in longitudinal data analysis and related methods
• Very good academic record, especially in statistics, quantitative methods, or related coursework
• Interest in, and ideally some familiarity with, research on subjective well-being

• Collaborative attitude and interest in teamwork

• Fluency in English, which is the working language; knowledge of French is not required

What the position offers you

The position offers the opportunity to contribute to an ambitious global research project based in Lausanne, a vibrant city on Lake Geneva, surrounded by the Alps. It is hosted in a dynamic and international research environment at the LIVES Centre , with opportunities for professional development, collaboration, further training, and participation in international conferences.

Contact for further information

For further information, please contact E-Mail schreiben.

Your application

Deadline: 25 May 2026
Interviews: within the two weeks following the application deadline
Submit applications through the official UNIL website. The application, in English, should include:
1. A motivation letter detailing how the candidate’s profile is a strong fit for the project, both methodologically and theoretically
2. A CV
3. A copy of the Master’s degree, along with transcripts or grade records for the Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees
4. One piece of academic writing, such as a Master’s thesis chapter, seminar paper, or research report.
5. The names and contact details of two academic referees who may be contacted directly. Please do not submit reference letters.

Additional information

UNIL is committed to:
•    equality, diversity and inclusion within its community;
•    ensuring an open and respectful environment that is conducive to personal development;
•    offering working conditions that facilitate work-life balance;
•    supporting early career researchers.

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