Offer Description
Call for Expression of Interest
ERA Chair in Regional Competitiveness and Industrial Transformation
Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague
Pre-proposal phase for HORIZON-WIDERA-2027-02-WIDENING-01: ERA Chairs
The Faculty of Science at Charles University invites an outstanding senior researcher to explore a unique leadership opportunity: to lead the creation of a new research group and advance research on Regional Competitiveness and Industrial Transformation in a Changing Global Economy.
We invite expressions of interest from researchers ready to collaborate on an ERA Chair proposal under Horizon Europe WIDERA and, if successful, to build and lead this group in Prague.
The ERA Chair will establish an internationally visible research programme on how regions adapt to industrial and technological change, reposition within global production networks and create new development paths. It will examine how European regions, industries and firms can withstand shocks, reduce structural vulnerabilities and remain competitive in a rapidly changing global environment. Global value chains, innovation systems and transition studies will provide complementary perspectives.
Who We Are Looking For
We are seeking an outstanding and internationally recognized senior scholar (R3/R4 level) whose primary profile is in economic geography or regional development, with:
- A strong international track record in economic geography, regional development, or a closely related field
- Demonstrated expertise in regional competitiveness, industrial or technological transformation, or the restructuring of global value chains and production networks
- Expertise in regional upgrading, innovation systems, foreign direct investment, industrial policy, or sustainability transitions as a strong asset
- Experience in leading research teams and securing competitive international funding
- A strong publication record and the ability to connect advanced conceptual research with rigorous empirical analysis and policy relevance
- The motivation and capacity to build a high-impact research group at a leading Central European university
Candidates of all nationalities are eligible. ERA Chair holders may not have an existing contractual relationship with Charles University.
Key parameters
- Funding scheme: Horizon Europe, WIDERA, topic HORIZON-WIDERA-2027-02-WIDENING-01
- Project duration: 5 years
- Project budget: approx. 2.5 million €
- Proposal deadline: 14 September 2027
- Working language: English
Why This Position Matters
Unique Role, European Impact
Founded in 1348, Charles University is the oldest and most prestigious university in Central Europe and one of the leading research universities in the region. The Faculty of Science provides a strong interdisciplinary environment for research on geography, environment, society, economy and spatial development.
The Department of Social Geography and Regional Development has a long-standing tradition in research on regional development, urban and rural change, economic transformation, migration, social inequalities, governance and spatial processes. The ERA Chair will build on this foundation and create a new internationally visible research group with a distinctive focus: how regions and firms adapt, upgrade and build durable competitiveness amid industrial, technological and geopolitical change.
European regions face converging pressures from technological change, geopolitical fragmentation, shifting trade and investment, supply-chain restructuring, decarbonisation and renewed industrial policy. These changes create opportunities, but also expose critical dependencies and risks of technological exclusion, industrial decline and labour-market disruption. Explaining these uneven outcomes is essential for European competitiveness, cohesion and economic security.
A Distinctive Research Agenda
Regional competitiveness can no longer be understood only in terms of productivity, firm performance or investment attraction. It increasingly depends on whether regions can develop and absorb new technologies, diversify their economic base, mobilise skills and institutions, connect local firms to changing production networks and retain a meaningful share of the value created by industrial transformation.
Within this agenda, resilience will be understood in concrete terms: as the capacity of regions, industries and firms to absorb shocks, reconfigure production and innovation networks, reduce critical dependencies and create new development paths. The aim is not to preserve existing structures, but to explain when adaptation leads to upgrading, diversification and socially sustainable transformation.
The ambition is to make Prague a recognized Central European hub for research on regional competitiveness and industrial transformation in a changing global economy.
Research Focus and Methodological Ambition
The ERA Chair will develop a cutting-edge research programme centred on the mechanisms that shape regional competitiveness, industrial transformation and adaptive capacity. Priority research questions may include:
- How regions diversify, upgrade and create new development paths as technologies, industries and markets evolve
- How the restructuring of global and European value chains, foreign investment and multinational enterprise strategies reshapes regional opportunities and dependencies
- How regional institutions, skills, firm networks and innovation systems enable technology absorption, knowledge creation and local value capture
- How digitalisation, artificial intelligence, decarbonisation and other technological shifts generate uneven industrial and regional outcomes
- How regions, industries and firms strengthen their adaptive capacity by reducing vulnerabilities, reconfiguring networks and combining external linkages with endogenous capabilities
- How European, national and place-based industrial policies can support competitiveness, cohesion and successful transformation across different regional contexts
Methods may include comparative regional analysis, spatial and firm-level data, network and value-chain analysis, longitudinal research, case studies, mixed methods, policy evaluation, or computational approaches. Internationally comparative research is strongly encouraged.
Expected Impact of the ERA Chair
ERA Chairs are among the most prestigious individual research grants under Horizon Europe. The successful candidate will drive a transformative step forward in research on regional competitiveness and industrial transformation at Charles University and in Czechia. The ERA Chair holder will build a permanent, high-performing research group fully integrated within the Department.
Expected impacts include:
- Establishment of a new internationally visible research group in regional competitiveness and industrial transformation
- Publication in leading international journals in economic geography and regional studies, contributing to global value-chain, innovation and transition debates
- Stronger participation in European research consortia on competitiveness, industrial transformation, economic security, cohesion and technological change
- Policy-relevant evidence on how European regions, industries and firms can reduce dependencies, strengthen adaptive capacity and pursue higher-value development paths
- Integration of cutting-edge research into teaching, doctoral training and early-career mentorship
- Improved capacity to compete successfully for further EU and international funding
Why Prague and Charles University
Prague offers a distinctive setting for research on industrial and regional transformation. Central and Eastern European regions combine deep integration into European manufacturing networks, strong exposure to foreign investment, uneven innovation capabilities, and the legacies of post-socialist restructuring. Their competitiveness is now being reshaped by automation, artificial intelligence, decarbonisation, geopolitical change and European industrial policy.
The ERA Chair will connect this regional setting with broader debates on how industrial and foreign-investment-dependent regions can move towards higher-value, innovation-driven and more adaptable development. This combination of a clear thematic focus, strong economic-geography foundations and a strategically important empirical context is the position's central added value.
Get In Touch
Interested candidates are invited to send us a short email with their CV to get in touch and start the conversation. We are happy to discuss the opportunity informally before any commitment.
Contact person: Kateřina Chmelíková, Head of the Department of International Projects, Charles University, Faculty of Science, Albertov 6, 128 00 Prague 2, www.natur.cuni.cz/en, phone: +420 776 577 447.
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