Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Grassland Landscape Multifunctionality

UiB - Knowledge that shapes society

UiB shall be among Europe's leading universities, internationally recognized for high quality in research and education. As a societal institution, we shall contribute to sustainable and democratic development and be an attractive and inclusive place to study and work.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow position

At the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Bergen, there is a vacancy for a postdoctoral research fellow position within the field of landscape multifunctionality. The position is for a fixed-term period of 3 years. The position is affiliated with the Horizon project GrassConnect funded by the European Commission.

About the project/work tasks:

As a postdoc within a large international and interdisciplinary team you will use spatial modelling techniques to investigate the impact of grassland management practices on the ecosystem service multifunctionality of European agricultural landscapes. This will require the establishment of a spatially explicit farm-scale multifunctionality model and the parameterisation of this using a combination of open remote sensing data, ecological plot-level data and social science data from European agricultural landscapes, including the Multi-Actor Grassland Hubs (MagHubs) of the GrassConnect consortium project. The impact of a range of management practices on biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services, and the corresponding impact of these changes on grassland stakeholders, will then be investigated in simulations.

The end-product will be detailed knowledge on how different management practices affect grassland multifunctionality and the identification of strategies that promote sustainable production and multifunctionality in European agricultural landscapes. By actively involving farmers and other relevant stakeholders throughout the research process we also aim to increase the relevance and adoption of the solutions identified.

The work will also provide opportunities to develop fundamental understanding of the drivers of landscape multifunctionality, e.g. theory development. The postdoc will be supported by the lab group of Prof. Peter Manning, the Terrestrial Ecology group of UiB and the GrassConnect consortium.

Qualifications and personal qualities:

• Applicants must hold a degree equivalent to a Norwegian doctoral degree (PhD) within ecology, geospatial analysis, ecosystem services, agronomy or another relevant field, or must have submitted his/her doctoral thesis for assessment prior to the application deadline. It is a condition of employment that the PhD has been awarded.
• Experience and understanding in advanced statistical analysis and/or spatial analysis is a requirement.
• Experience in using relevant software to perform complex tasks, e.g. R, ArcGIS, and Python is a requirement
• Experience in the mapping and modelling of ecosystem services is an advantage
• Knowledge and understanding of European farming systems and/or the ecosystem services of agricultural landscapes is an advantage
• Experience of interdisciplinary research spanning ecology, social science and agronomy is an advantage
• The capacity to produce work of a high academic standard for publication in leading scientific journals, as evidenced by existing publications and/or via demonstration of written and technical skills (e.g. in analysis and figure creation), is a requirement
• Applicants must be able to work independently and in a structured manner and be able to collaborate successfully with others within an interdisciplinary and pan-European team.
• Applicants must have good written and oral English skills.

Personal and relational qualities will be emphasized. Research experience, ambitions and potential will also count when evaluating the candidates.

Special requirements for the position

The University of Bergen is subjected to the regulation for export control system. The regulation will be applied in the processing of the applications.

We can offer:

• a good and professionally stimulating working environment
• enrolment in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
• position as postdoctoral fellow (code 1352 in the basic collective agreement) and a gross annual salary of NOK 685 900 upon appointment. Further increases in salary are made according to length of service in the position. A higher salary may be considered for a particularly well-qualified applicant.
• good welfare benefits

Your application must include:

• a brief account of the applicant's research interests and motivation for applying for the position.
• a detailed justification of your qualifications in relation to the listed requirements, explaining how you meet each criterion. Additionally, you should address the "advantages" mentioned above, as these will be taken into account when ranking the candidates.
• the names and contact information for two referees. One of these should be the main advisor from the PhD programme.
• CV
• transcripts and diplomas. If you have not yet completed your PhD degree, please submit a statement from your institution confirming that the thesis has been submitted.
• relevant certificates/references
• list of any works of a scientific nature (publication list with links)

The application and appendices with certified translations into English or a Scandinavian language must be uploaded at Jobbnorge