PhD Position in Technology Ethics

The increasing integration of data-intensive and Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems into everyday life has made digital identity a pervasive and inescapable reality. Every time we engage in digital transactions—whether placing a food order or accessing an online service—we generate and share a wealth of personal data. This includes usernames, passwords, contact information, device identifiers, purchase history, and more. However, this growing reliance on digital identity raises pressing ethical, political, and legal questions: Who owns and controls our data? How should our digital and real-world identities be related? What kind of digital infrastructure is needed to regulate data flows in data spaces?

At the heart of these issues lie tensions between the interests of individuals, states and supranational political unions, and private corporations. Two major approaches have emerged in response to these challenges. The first approach is the self-sovereign identity (SSI) model (Allen, 2016), which proposes a decentralized framework where individuals retain full control over their identity data, determining who can access it without reliance on central authorities such as governments, corporations, or platform providers (e.g., Google or Facebook). This model leverages cryptographic technologies—such as blockchain and W3C’s Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs)—to enhance privacy, security, and user autonomy. While SSI is often championed by cyberlibertarians, it has also been defended on human rights and kantian ethical grounds, and may be compatible with less individualistic moral and political frameworks. The second approach focuses on strengthening political sovereignty over data flows, exemplified by the European Union’s push for European Data Spaces—regulated digital environments designed to facilitate a European Digital Single Market while safeguarding citizens’ rights and promoting economic and societal benefits. The EU increasingly supports both political sovereignty over data and self-sovereign identity, yet it remains unclear whether these two visions—centered on different loci of sovereignty—are fully compatible or whether they will ultimately serve the same ethical and political values.

Doctoral Research Objectives

The selected DC will explore these foundational questions by undertaking the following research objectives:

1. Conceptual Analysis of Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI):

• Compare, categorize, and evaluate different conceptions of SSI as found in EU policy documents, scholarly literature, the private sector, and activist movements.
• Examine the underlying moral and political theories supporting different visions of SSI (e.g., libertarian, kantian, communitarian, republican, etc.).

1. Foresight Analysis of SSI and Emerging Data Governance Structures:

• Employ foresight methodologies (which the candidate will master at UT) to anticipate and classify potential risks to SSI arising from new data flows and technologies.
• Assess how the European Common Data Spaces—once implemented—may interact with, complement, or threaten the principles of SSI.

1. Development of an Anticipatory Ethical Framework (with a political philosophy component):

• Construct a normative framework for evaluating and resolving potential conflicts and trade-offs between:
• SSI,
• Data sovereignty at national and European levels,
• Fundamental rights and democratic values.
• Consider how foreseable geopolitical shifts—such as the rise of illiberal states, techno-nationalism, techno-authoritarianism, and techno-feudalism—may impact the governance and future of SSI;
• Analyze the role of personal data voluntarily injected into Data Spaces, evaluating whether these environments could function as new surveillance infrastructures and whether SSI offers a form of resistance against corporate and state overreach.

The DC will be encouraged to develop their own theoretical approach to these questions and to draw upon relevant moral and political theories of their choosing.

Possible secondments: Rathenau Institute (3 months, remote , on societal impact), VUB (6 months in Brussels, on fairness, accountability, transparency, and ethics in data processing related to SSI).

The project will be supervised by prof. dr. Philip Brey (Promotor, UT), Dr. Yashar Saghai (first daily supervisor, UT), and Dr. Gloria González-Fuster (second daily supervisor, VUB).

Requirements:

We look for a highly motivated, enthusiastic researcher who is driven by curiosity and has:

• a Bachelor’s degree (BA or BS) and Master’s degree (MA or MS), one of which should be in philosophy;
• interest in interdisciplinary work at the intersection of philosophy/ethics, law, data science and AI;
• must not have a doctoral degree (PhD) at the date of their recruitment;
• must work exclusively for the project;
• must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the Netherlands for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before their recruitment date. Compulsory national service, short stays such as holidays, and time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention are not taken into account;
• must enroll in at the University of Twente doctoral programme before October 1st 2025;
• -must be willing to undertake physical, transnational mobility (i.e. move from one country to another) when taking up their appointment;
• can be of any nationality;
• [for non-native English speakers] Applicants who have not had secondary or tertiary education (undergraduate or graduate) in English can only be admitted with an IELTS-test showing a total band score of at least 6.5, internet, a TOEFL test (TOEFL-iBT) showing a score of at least 90, or a Cambridge CAE-C (CPE).

Salary Benefits:

We encourage high responsibility and independence, while collaborating with colleagues, researchers, other university staff and partners. We follow the terms of employment by the Dutch Collective Labour Agreement for Universities (CAO). Our offer contains: a fulltime 4-year PhD position with a qualifier in the first year; excellent mentorship in a stimulating research environment with excellent facilities; and a personal development program within the Twente Graduate School. It also includes:

• Gross monthly salary of € 2.901 in the first year, increasing each year up to € 3.707 in the fourth year;
• Excellent benefits including a holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary, an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%, and a solid pension scheme;
• 29 holidays per year in case of full-time employment;
• A training programme as part of the Twente Graduate School where you and your supervisors will determine a plan for a suitable education and supervision;
• A green campus with free access to sports facilities and an international scientific community;
• A family-friendly institution that offers parental leave (both paid and unpaid);
• A full status as an employee at the UT, including pension, health care benefits and good secondary conditions are part of our collective labour agreement CAO-NU for Dutch universities.

38 - 40 hours per week

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