Quebec Sustainable Social and Community Housing Living Lab
Funded PhD position in the School of Community and Public Affairs
Last updated: April 14, 2026, 10:42 a.m.
Supervisory details
Supervisor: Marguerite Mendell
Department: School of Community and Public Affairs
University: Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
Start date: Fall 2026
PhD Fellowship: 35K CAD per year for 4 years
Project overview
This transformational Quebec Living Lab advances decarbonization and electrification in social, affordable, and low-income housing. It combines technical innovation with community engagement to deliver scalable solutions for a sector often excluded from market-driven retrofits.
The project includes four living labs:
- Longueuil (cooperative housing retrofit) – In partnership with the Centre de transformation du logement communautaire (CTLC)
- Montreal-Nord (Black community housing project)
- Hochelaga (social housing project) – In partnership with the Centre opérationnel de transition écologique (COTÉ)
- Montreal (public social housing project) – In partnership with the Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal (OMHM)
Role description
- Conduct desk research on participatory and community-led energy transition models
- Analyze social economy and solidarity finance approaches in housing and energy
- Evaluate financial tools supporting retrofit and electrification in social housing
- Develop policy recommendations for equitable energy transition
- Create stakeholder-specific roadmaps (policy, finance, governance) for living labs
- Document co-governance frameworks emerging from the project
- Analyze policy and regulatory contexts affecting social housing transformation
- Conduct impact assessment (baseline, implementation, post-retrofit)
- Develop long-term community-led monitoring and evaluation frameworks
- Engage stakeholders to validate findings and refine outputs
- Prepare policy briefs, reports, and dissemination materials
- Social finance
- Impact investing
- Co-construction of public policy
- Commons and collective resources
- Karl Polanyi studies
- Social and solidarity economy
- Master’s degree in Economics, Public Policy, Political Science, Development Studies, Sociology, or related field
- Experience with policy analysis and qualitative research (literature reviews, case studies) Experience analyzing financial mechanisms (e.g., social finance, public funding)
- Familiarity with social economy or community economic development
- Experience with participatory or community-based research approaches
- Experience developing policy recommendations or strategic frameworks
- Knowledge of housing policy or energy transition policy
- Experience with impact assessment or program evaluation
- Strong writing skills for policy and stakeholder audiences
- Experience working with public sector, NGOs, or community organizations
- Ability to work independently and in interdisciplinary teams
- Fully funded PhD position, including tuition coverage and a competitive stipend
- Opportunity to work on real-world social housing projects across multiple living labs in Québec
- Direct engagement with community organizations, public agencies, and social finance actors
- Experience contributing to policy development, financial tools, and co-governance frameworks Interdisciplinary research environment combining policy, economics, and community-based research
- Support for publications, conferences, and knowledge mobilization activities
- Access to Volt-Age training programs (leadership, communication, applied research)
Please combine the following documents into a single PDF file:
- Letter of intent clearly aligned with the professor’s research domain
- (You may also review their recent publications and highlight relevant experience.)
- Academic CV Unofficial transcripts with CGPA and course names
- Names and emails of 3 referees
- Publications with embedded links, if any
- Any other supporting documents that strengthen your application
Send your PDF file to volt-age.recruitment@concordia.ca with the subject as:
Social economy_Your name
Deadline to apply
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
Questions/contact
For all questions, please contact Alisa Makusheva at alisa.makusheva@concordia.ca.
Volt-Age is funded by a $123-million grant from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.
