Post-graduate Researcher (holding MSc or PhD degree): Operationalizing Ecosystem Services with Stakeholders in the European Wine Industry
Limit of tenure: 2 years
Extent: 100 %
Location: Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies, LUCSUS, Lund
First day of employment: As soon as possible – Negotiable (latest September 1, 2015.)
Official Records Number: PEPA 2014/994
Job Description:
We invite applications for a two-year early-career research position for a candidate currently holding either a masters or doctoral degree, based at the Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS) in Lund, Sweden. The applicant will be part of the European FP 7-funded research project OPERAs (www.operas-project.eu). OPERAs is a consortium of 27 academic, civil society, and private partners working together with business, policy, and non-profit partners to help bring ecosystem services tools and approaches into decision-making processes. The position will be based within the Wine Exemplar of the OPERAs project. This exemplar is one of a dozen case studies where stakeholders are actively involved in research processes and the co-production of knowledge to develop and test theories, tools and instruments for ecosystem services management and decision support. In particular, the applicant will lead the implementation of the Wine Exemplar, which seeks to combine tools ranging from life-cycle analysis to economic modeling to cultural valuation through surveys and close collaboration with stakeholders. The applicant will also be involved in an analysis of governance issues related to ecosystem services.
Main supervisor:
Kimberly Nicholas, Associate Professor at LUCSUS and OPERAs Task Lead for Exemplars. More information: www.kimnicholas.com
Co-supervised by Lennart Olsson, Director of LUCSUS. Collaborations envisioned with Torsten Krause, current Postdoc on OPERAs project.
Job assignments:
Research Focus (80% time):
*Lead Wine exemplar: Identify and establish cooperation with relevant wine industry stakeholders (growers, winemakers, associations, etc.), identify their research needs, and develop and implement research to meet those needs to improve ecosystem seevices decisionmaking. Current collaborations exist with the wine industry in the Alentajo region of Portugal, with others envisioned.
*Help to coordinate between Exemplars (case studies across Europe) and across tasks within OPERAs (e.g., applied and theoretical research, instrument development and outreach/dissemination).
*Maintain communication within research team for Wine Exemplar, within OPERAs project, and outreach with the public (e.g., blog posts, policy briefs, social media).
*Test a governance typology of ecosystem services being developed at LUCSUS within the Wine Exemplar, and coordinate with application in other Exemplars.
*Contribute to research design, analysis, interpretation, and write-up for peer-reviewed publications
Administrative and Service Focus (20% time):
*Project management and reporting, particularly Interim and Final Exemplar reporting for EU Deliverables.
*Coordinate Exemplar management (e.g., schedule and run bimonthly Skype calls, disseminate notes from meetings, provide research support to Exemplars as needed)
*Teaching responsibilities: Serve as teaching assistant in master’s courses, with the aim to eventually co-teach the Earth Systems Science, a 10-ETCS credit, 7-week course on the natural science foundations of sustainability challenges, focusing on Planetary Boundaries, experimental design, and programming in R.
*Eventual potential to co-supervise MSc student theses, especially those working within OPERAs.
Required Qualifications:
*Completed master’s degree in related field (geography, sustainability, ecology, environmental science, environmental studies, etc.)
*Project management experience
*Background in natural science sufficient for contributing to teaching introductory master’s course in Earth Systems Science
*Demonstrated research record, including record of successful collaboration and co-operation with others, particularly interdisciplinary collaboration.
*Fluent written and spoken academic English
Preferred Qualifications:
*Completed PhD degree in related field (geography, sustainability, ecology, environmental science, environmental studies, etc.).
*Experience in computer programming (e.g., R, Matlab)
*Experience in the wine industry
*Additional language proficiency relevant for wine regions in Europe (e.g., Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, German) are a benefit
For more information regarding project design and job specifics, please contact: Kim Nicholas, Associate Professor Kimberly.nicholas.academic@gmail.com
