Job Openings

Sufficiency Agora Lead

Sufficiency Agora Coordinator

WSL is launching a network of Sufficiency Agoras as pioneering local spaces for dialogue, experimentation, and collective action on sufficiency. The first pilot initiatives will be held in France, helping to develop, test, and refine a model that can be replicated across municipalities and regions. In the coming months, WSL aims to expand the Sufficiency Agora network to Switzerland and other European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain, fostering a growing transnational community of practice around sufficiency and democratic innovation.

Conceived as both a place and a programme, the Agora will serve as a welcoming community space where sufficiency can be explored, debated, and experienced in practice. Through citizen dialogues, deliberative processes, workshops, and public events, it will bring together residents, local organisations, public authorities, and researchers to collectively explore pathways towards more sustainable, equitable, and resilient ways of living.

WSL is seeking a Sufficiency Agora Coordinator(s) to play a pivotal role in launching and developing this initiative.   

Mission: 

Under the supervision of the Executive Director of the French Sufficiency Lab and in close collaboration with WSL's Dialogues & Politics team, the Sufficiency Agora Coordinator will lead the practical development and day-to-day implementation of the Agoras in pioneering local authorities.

The successful candidate will transform the Agora from a concept into a vibrant community space and programme by developing local partnerships, designing and facilitating participatory activities, conducting a territorial metabolism study, and documenting lessons learned to support replication across the World Sufficiency Lab network.

This role offers a unique opportunity to work at the intersection of research, democratic participation, territorial innovation, and ecological transition, while making a visible and lasting contribution to one of WSL's most ambitious initiatives.      

Key Responsibilities

  • Develop and Establish the Agora.
  • Identify, secure, and coordinate a suitable venue or recurring community space in partnership with the municipality and local organisations.
  • Co-design the physical and social environment of the Agora to ensure it is welcoming, inclusive, accessible, and representative of the diversity of the local authority.
  • Contribute to establishing governance principles, participation mechanisms, and operating processes for the initiative.

Design and Deliver the Programme

  • Co-design and implement a programme of citizen dialogues, deliberative sessions, workshops, exhibitions, and public events focused on sufficiency-related challenges, including energy, housing, mobility, food systems, and urban/economic development.
  • Translate WSL research into engaging and accessible formats that encourage participation and collective learning.
  • Facilitate activities directly or coordinate external facilitators and speakers.
  • Plan schedules, logistics, communications, materials, and participant engagement.

Community Engagement and Partnership Development

  • Map and engage key local stakeholders, including residents, community groups, educational institutions, public authorities, cultural organisations, and local businesses.
  • Build and sustain relationships that foster trust, participation, and long-term collaboration.
  • Develop outreach strategies that actively engage underrepresented groups and strengthen inclusivity.

Urban and Territorial Metabolism Study

    • Design and conduct an interdisciplinary study of the local authority's urban and territorial metabolism, analysing the flows and stocks of energy, materials, water, food, goods, mobility, waste, and associated financial resources.
    • Combine quantitative and qualitative methods, including data analysis, mapping, interviews, field observations, and participatory inputs.
    • Identify key actors, governance arrangements, structural barriers, opportunities for transformation, and local sufficiency levers.
    • Produce accessible outputs, including maps, visualisations, dashboards, and briefing reports.
    • Contribute findings to WSL's research agenda, participatory indicators, Sufficiency Gap Reports, and local policy discussions.

    Documentation, Learning, and Communication

    • Document activities, participation levels, outcomes, and lessons learned.
    • Collect participant feedback and contribute to evaluating the impact of the Agora.
    • Develop a practical "Sufficiency Agora Toolkit" to support replication by National Sufficiency Labs and partner organisations.
    • Contribute to communicating the initiative through articles, social media content, photography, and event promotion in collaboration with WSL's communications team.

       Profile and Qualifications

      • Master's student or final year Bachelor's student eligible to undertake a convention de stage with a French higher education institution.
      • Background in social sciences, political science, urban studies, environmental studies, geography, community development, sustainability, or a related field.
      • Strong interest in sufficiency, ecological transition, social justice, and participatory democracy.
      • Excellent interpersonal, facilitation, and stakeholder-engagement skills.
      • Comfortable interacting with diverse audiences and facilitating collective discussions.
      • Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage multiple activities simultaneously.
      • Proactive, resourceful, and entrepreneurial mindset, with the ability to work independently and take initiative.
      • Fluency in French and good working proficiency in English.

      The following would be considered strong assets:

      • Experience in community organising, participatory processes, citizen engagement, or local development.
      • Experience designing or facilitating workshops, public events, or deliberative processes.
      • Quantitative and qualitative research skills, particularly in territorial analysis, resource-flow analysis, GIS, mapping, interviews, or fieldwork.
      • Familiarity with local contexts.
      • Experience producing communication materials, visualisations, or reports.
      • Strong alignment with the mission, values, and vision of the World Sufficiency Lab.

      Internship Conditions

      • Framework: French internship (stage) under a tripartite convention de stage between the intern, WSL, and the host educational institution.
      • Duration: Approximately six months.
      • Working time: Full time
      • Allowance: Statutory internship compensation (gratification de stage) and applicable benefits in accordance with French regulations and WSL policy.
      • Location: WSL's Paris office and the Agora site, with occasional remote work arrangements where appropriate.
      • Some evening and weekend availability may be required for community events, with corresponding time off in lieu.
      • All activities are conducted in accordance with WSL's Code of Conduct, Ethics Framework, and Safeguarding Policy.

      Application Process

      • Applications are open until September 30, 2026
      • Please send your CV and a short cover letter to info@thesufficiencylab.org with the subject line: "Sufficiency Agora Lead - [Candidate Name]".
      • Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. 
      • Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
      • The World Sufficiency Lab reserves the right to close the recruitment process before the stated deadline if a suitable candidate is identified.      

      PhD on Sufficient Health Systems

      The doctoral project will be carried out under the co-supervision of Yamina Saheb, Director of the WSL, and Sihem Jouini, Associate Professor at HEC Paris, Director of the Innovation and design Project Major and the Executive MBA Major "Innovate as an Entrepreneur"

      Project context

      The 3S project (Sufficient Health Systems / Systèmes de Santé Sobres) is part of the WSL's strategy of co-producing and sharing scientific knowledge with relevant stakeholders on priority sufficiency-policy issues.

      The doctoral candidate will develop an innovative action-research approach with French health system actors[1] to support the metamorphosis of their business models to the future health needs of the population, in the context of demographic ageing and the worsening ecological crisis.

      To our knowledge, no current research project specifically aims to prepare the French health system for the systemic transformations it will inevitably face.

      This multidisciplinary research will mobilise robust scientific tools (systematic literature review, modelling, focus groups, machine-learning techniques) to co-create, with sector actors, public-policy proposals facilitating the transformation of the French health system.

      Research objectives

      The principal objective is a forward-looking exercise aimed at co-identifying, with relevant stakeholders, the changes required for the French health system to meet the future needs of the population in the face of the ecological crisis and demographic ageing.

      The doctoral candidate will analyse the business models that can guarantee equitable access to quality healthcare services, their financing, their socio-economic and environmental impacts, and the actors involved in these new models.

      Specifically, the doctoral candidate will identify:

      Business models guaranteeing universal access to quality health services while avoiding or limiting the overshoot of planetary boundaries.

      The necessary financing as well as the training needs of health personnel. The socio-economic and environmental impacts of selected models, estimated through a modelling exercise.

      Public-policy proposals promoting the development of the selected models.

      Research questions

      The research will address the following four questions:

      1. What changes are required for the French health system to protect the population, and particularly elderly people, in a digitalised world and an overheating planet?
      2. What contribution can sufficiency make to the resilience of the French health system?
      3. What role could current actors in the health system play in the future? What transformations of the business models of the main health-system actors in France and Europe are possible?

      Methodology

      The project mobilises a multidisciplinary approach combining quantitative and qualitative methods drawn from scientific research: Systematic literature review on health systems and sufficiency.

      Modelling of the socio-economic and environmental impacts of selected business models. Focus groups and workshops with health system actors (mutuelles, ministries, healthcare practitioners, elected officials). Machine-learning tools supporting evidence synthesis and stakeholder analysis. Ahead of the doctoral work, Francophone Assises of Sufficiency will be organised to bring together sufficiency actors from France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland and mobilise them on cross-cutting issues, in particular health.

      Target audiences and intended impact

      The research will inform and engage senior staff of administrations and ministries, particularly those of Health, Labour and Finance, the network of mutuelles, elected representatives (members of parliament and local officials), medical practitioners and health organisations. The objective is to engage decision-makers and sector professionals in a transition toward a more resilient and sustainable health system, ensuring equitable access to prevention and care adapted to tomorrow's challenges.

      Deliverables and timeline

      The thesis will run for three years. The doctoral candidate will produce:

      • An intermediate progress report six months after the start of the thesis.
      • An end-of-Year-2 progress report. Three peer-reviewed scientific articles submitted to international journals.
      • The thesis manuscript at the end of Year 3, ideally structured as a synthesis of the three articles.

      Governance:

      A steering committee bringing together the financial partners, institutional partners and research partners will meet every four months to associate funders fully with the governance of the thesis. Co-supervision discussions between the doctoral candidate and the funders will be organised throughout the thesis to feed and disseminate the work.

      Funding and conditions

      WSL has already secured funding for the project through its partnership with the insurance sector and will apply for complementary funding from the ANRT once the candidate has been selected.

      Duration: three years, with an effective start date no later than September 2026 and an end date no later than 31 December 2029.

      Location: Paris, with possible missions in France and Europe in connection with the steering committee and fieldwork.

      Candidate profile:

      Required qualifications:

      • Master's degree (or equivalent) in health economics, public health, environmental economics, ecological economics, political science, economics, sociology or a related field. Demonstrated interest in sufficiency, planetary boundaries, ecological transition and/or health-system transformation. Strong quantitative and qualitative research skills; familiarity with systematic literature reviews and modelling techniques is a plus. Excellent command of French and English (written and oral). Capacity for autonomy, interdisciplinary dialogue and stakeholder engagement.

      Considered an asset:

      • Prior experience with the French health system, mutuelles or public health administration.
      • Knowledge of integrated assessment modelling, input-output analysis or machine-learning tools.
      • Publication record (working papers, peer-reviewed articles or policy briefs).

      How to apply

      Applications should be submitted as a single PDF file including:

      • A cover letter (max. two pages) explaining the candidate's motivation and fit with the 3S project.
      • A detailed CV. A research statement (max. three pages) sketching the candidate's preliminary approach to one or several of the research questions above.
      • Transcripts of Master's-level grades. Contact details for two academic references.

      Application deadline: August 31, 2026

      Send applications to: info@thesufficiencylab.org with the subject line "3S PhD Application - [Candidate Name]".

      Selection process: shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview with the co-supervisors and representatives of the funding consortium.  

      [1] WSL has developed several partnerships with the French health insurance sector and research institutes on ageing.