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Project Consultant

OVERVIEW

Parent Sector : Social and Human Sciences Sector (SHS)

Duty Station: The Project Consultant may work remotely, travelling to UNESCO when their presence is required by the project.

Job Family: Social and Human Sciences

Type of contract : Non Staff

Recruitment open to : External candidates

Application Deadline (Midnight Paris Time) : 29-APR-2024 (Extended)

 

 

 

UNESCO Core Values: Commitment to the Organization, Integrity, Respect for Diversity, Professionalism

 

 

 

 

 

BACKGROUND

This Project aims for UNESCO to provide support to the Dutch Authority for Digital Infrastructure, and to the members of the Dutch and European Working Groups of Competent Authorities on AI, to enhance their competencies and capacity to supervise AI in compliance with the forthcoming AI Act and other relevant legislation and international standards, such as UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of AI.

While there is a general agreement on the need to govern artificial intelligence (AI), the global governance landscape for AI technologies is highly complex and rapidly transforming, with new developments and releases of AI systems giving rise to challenges on a regular basis. The fast proliferation of generative AI models such as ChatGPT, Midjourney and DALL·E 2 has underscored the urgency for European Union (EU) Member States to ensure effective supervision of the AI industry in compliance with the forthcoming AI Act, existing sectorial legislation (e.g. Medical Devices Regulation – MDR, the Radio Equipment Directive – RED, and Machinery Products Regulation - MPR, etc) and other international instruments, most notably the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Recommendation on the Ethics of AI.
 
Regulators globally are working to acquire the necessary capabilities to confront these challenges, and EU Competent Authorities seek to enhance their capacities to govern AI technologies through the EU’s forthcoming AI Act. When entering into force, the AI Act will put specific frameworks and mechanisms in place to ensure that AI systems are safe and respect existing laws, fundamental rights, and European values. Among those mechanisms are requirements pertaining to accountability, transparency, human oversight, and data quality. The array of mechanisms involved, and the multiple cross-checking points, will require competent authorities to build up a unique set of skills and capacities, to utilize different assessment tools and develop frameworks for ensuring that the requirements of the forthcoming AI Act will be implemented in a cohesive manner. 

As part of its commitment to enhancing the capabilities to govern the rapidly evolving AI domain, the Dutch Authority for Digital Infrastructure has initiated and currently chairs both the national and European working group of Competent Authorities on AI. Both these collectives seek to address the complex and varied challenges associated with overseeing AI technologies.

The primary goal of this project is to enhance the capacity of the Dutch Authority for Digital Infrastructure and the larger collective of Competent Authorities on AI to define and implement strategies that effectively regulate and enforce AI in alignment with the forthcoming AI Act, and other relevant legislations and international standards. Key to this endeavour are two primary areas of focus: (i) the development of requisite skills, and (ii) the optimization of collaborative efforts to leverage resources and knowledge. 

The Project Consultant will work under the overall authority of the Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences Sector (ADG/SHS), and the Chief of Bioethics and Ethics of Science and Technology Section in the headquarters of UNESCO and the direct supervision of the Project Coordinator.

SCOPE OF WORK

 

The aim of this Project Consultant role is to assist in the development of research, case study and policy outputs of the project. More specifically, the Project Consultant will be responsible for contributing to the delivery of the following outputs:

 

a. Assist the Project Coordinator in the development of a comprehensive report on the state of play and existing practices of AI supervision in Europe and beyond, with a particular focus on the converging elements of the UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, the EU AI Act and the Council of Europe Convention on AI

Activities include: 

  1. A detailed comparison of general elements and obligations for public administrations on the different normative instruments; 
  2. A detailed comparison of governance mechanisms between these normative instruments;
  3. A benchmark of UNESCO’s Ethical Impact Assessment (EIA) with similar instruments and paying particular attention to the conformity assessment procedure under the EU AI Act and the EU New Legislative Framework.

 

b. Assist the Project Coordinator in the development of case studies on AI supervision.

Activities include: 

  1. Assessing and writing descriptions on selected problem for several sectoral agencies and link those cases to their relevant legal context;
  2. Assist in identifying a solution and outcome;
  3. Compile recommendations in writing; 
  4. Assist in piloting UNESCO’s Ethical Impact Assessment in the selected cases studies.

 

c. Monitor EU digital legislation, non-binding guidelines, and interpretative documents and summarise them to inform the project team and produce training material.

Activities include: 

  1. Regularly summarize findings to integrate them into the different work streams of the project.
  2. Regularly summarizing findings and preparing briefs on selected topics for the Ethics of AI unit.

 

d. Assist in the development of relevant material for the purpose of training public authorities in the context of the project.

 

e. Assist the Project Coordinator and the secretariat on AI ethics with other related tasks.

Activities include: 

  1. Participating in project meetings and participating in consultation with stakeholders (such as interviews and focus groups).
  2. Writing blogs and other media content to enhance the visibility of the project in English.
  3. Supporting the secretariat with preparing different materials such as speeches.

The duration of the contract is 16 months with a break of 1 month in month 12.

Deliverables and timeframe:

  • A monthly report updating the activities conducted during that month and the progress of the different aspects of the mandate.
  • July 2024: Delivering the report for activity (a.1 and a.2)
  • September 2024: Delivering the report for activity (a.3)
  • Exact deadlines to be determined together with the secretariat and the broader project team for deliverables such as policy documents for activity (b.1, b.2, b.3, b.4, d.1 and d.2)
  • At least 5 blogposts (1000 words) on the topics concerning the project, exact deadlines and topics to be determined together with the Project Coordinator.
  • A final comprehensive report on the consultant's activities 15 days before the end of the contract.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

 

Education

  • Advanced university degree (PhD preferred, Master’s or equivalent required) in governance of artificial intelligence, ethical and social implications of artificial intelligence or digital technologies, law and technology, or other related fields. 

 

Work experience

  • A minimum of 3 years of professional experience in the ethical, legal, social and governance issues of artificial intelligence and related digital technologies, at national and/or international level.
  • Proven experience in producing high-quality research and policy-oriented reports in related fields, preferably on topics related to AI.

Skills/Competencies

  • Very good understanding of the ethical, legal, social and governance issues of artificial intelligence and related digital technologies.
  • Excellent knowledge about the dynamics of governance of AI, including policies, legislative and regulatory frameworks, institutional mechanisms, organizational structures and processes.
  • Very good understanding on supervision and enforcement mechanisms at national/international level.
  • Familiarity with UNESCO’s AI Readiness Assessment Methodology and UNESCO’s Ethical Impact Assessment tool.
  • Familiarity with the AI Act and/or UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of AI.
  • Familiarity with the EU AI landscape governance dynamics.
  • Proven ability to work on multiple interrelated outputs.
  • Proven ability to draft clearly and concisely and to produce high quality policy-oriented analysis and synthesis documents.

 

Languages

  • Excellent knowledge of English. Other language skills are an advantage..

APPLICATION

Interested candidates should click on “Apply Now”, then download and complete the Employment History form (Word file). At the end of the Word file, insert extra pages with the following required information:

  • A one-page statement laying out how their qualifications and experience make them suitable for the assignment, and explaining how they would approach the work;
  • The salary expectations for the assignment, which should be quoted in US dollars on a monthly basis for a 16-month period (full-time working).

Upon completing the Word file with all the requested information above, upload the file at the “My Employment History Form / My Documents” section of the online application form. Only applications with the above requested information will be considered.

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