Temporary Contract. Postdoctoral Researcher
Centre d’Estudis Demogràfics (CED)
Ref. R203/2026
Project: Beyond Low Fertility: Is the Intention to Remain Childfree Increasing in Europe? (Fundación BBVA)
This project addresses one central research question: Is the intention to remain childless increasing across Europe, rather than individuals simply postponing parenthood?
Using either longitudinal panel data or pseudo-panel data, the project will examine intentions to have or not have children and how individuals revise these intentions over the life course. Fertility intentions are not fixed preferences but adaptive plans formed under conditions of uncertainty. Individuals update their reproductive intentions as they encounter new constraints and opportunities throughout their lives. This perspective raises several additional research questions: At what ages do women and men shift from postponing parenthood to intending to remain childless? Once this transition occurs, are these intentions stable over time? And which factors are associated with the intention to remain childless across the life course?
Conduct independent and collaborative research on fertility intentions, reproductive trajectories, childlessness, and family formation from a life-course perspective.
Develop and empirically investigate research questions concerning the formation, revision, and realization of fertility intentions, including the role of employment, partnership trajectories, family background, and socioeconomic conditions.
Analyse longitudinal and cross-national survey data to study reproductive and family trajectories, using appropriate life-course and event-history approaches.
Develop and implement quantitative research designs, including sequence analysis, longitudinal/panel-data methods, fixed-effects models, and other multivariate techniques as appropriate.
Work with harmonized and comparative demographic datasets and contribute to the construction, harmonization, documentation, and quality assessment of research datasets.
Contribute to ongoing research projects and publications, including literature reviews, data preparation, statistical analyses, interpretation of results, manuscript preparation, and responses to reviewers.
Prepare research outputs for publication in international peer-reviewed journals and present findings at international conferences and workshops.
Contribute to grant applications and the development of new research projects, where appropriate.
Maintain transparent and reproducible research workflows, including version control, code documentation, and reproducible statistical analyses.
Participate in the academic life of the research group, including seminars, workshops, reading groups, and collaborative meetings.
Essential requirements
A PhD/DPhil in Sociology, Demography, Population Studies, Social Statistics, or a closely related discipline, or equivalent research experience.
Demonstrated research experience in fertility, family demography, reproductive behaviour, fertility intentions, or related areas of population research.
Strong quantitative research skills and demonstrated experience analysing longitudinal and/or life-course data.
Experience working with large-scale survey or population datasets, preferably including cross-national or longitudinal data.
Excellent knowledge of R and/or Stata and demonstrated ability to develop and maintain reproducible analytical workflows.
Experience with sequence analysis, panel-data methods, fixed-effects models, event-history analysis, or related longitudinal methods.
Ability to formulate research questions independently and translate them into rigorous empirical research designs.
Demonstrated ability to write for international peer-reviewed journals and communicate research findings effectively in English.
Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in an interdisciplinary research environment.
Desirable qualifications
Expertise in fertility intentions and their realization, childlessness, reproductive careers, or family formation.
Experience with life-course research and sequence analysis.
Experience using datasets such as GGS, SOEP, HILDA, NLSY, pairfam, BHPS/Understanding Society, or comparable longitudinal demographic datasets.
Experience conducting cross-national comparative research.
Knowledge of fertility and family-demographic theories, including approaches to fertility intentions and reproductive decision-making.
Experience with data harmonization, data documentation, and reproducible research.
Experience disseminating research at international conferences and workshops.
Experience contributing to collaborative publications and externally funded research projects.
Contract type: Full-time position, starting on 1 January 2027.
Duration: 2 years (Januany 2027–December 2028).
Gross annual salary: €34,080 (€33,660, according to the CED salary scale R2 level + €420 mobility allowance).
Workplace: Centre d’Estudis Demogràfics (Barcelona). The selected candidate must reside in Spain during the contract period and hold a valid work permit.
Interested candidates should submit their application and the required materials through the application form.
Required documents
Curriculum Vitae (CV)
Cover letter (maximum 1 page)
One example of scientific work authored by the candidate as sole author or lead author.
The deadline for submitting applications is 25 November 2026 at 12:00 noon (CET).
For any questions regarding the position, please contact: [email protected]
Further information about CED: https://ced.cat