University Assistant Predoctoral in Regulatory Burden and Innovation

The University of Vienna seeks a University Assistant Predoctoral (30h/week) to join the Technology and Innovation Management Research Unit. The role focuses on expanding the Bürokratieindex (Bureaucracy Index), a data-driven measure of regulatory volume in German federal legislation. The successful candidate will develop automated pipelines to collect legal texts from national and EU sources, construct restrictiveness indicators, analyze cross-reference network complexity, and map regulatory text to industries. The position involves empirical analysis linking regulatory burden to innovation outcomes (patenting, firm entry, R&D investment) and teaching master-level courses aligned with the research agenda. The employment is initially limited to 1.5 years with automatic extension to 4 years if performance criteria are met. Candidates must finalize a doctoral thesis within 12–18 months.