Doctoral student in Biology - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

This is a four-year PhD project in Environmental Science within the FORMAS-funded project Land4biomass: an interdisciplinary assessment of the production potential of agricultural biomass and policy instruments to promote a fossil-free society while meeting food production and environmental objectives. Using multiple methods, this PhD-project will identify the potential to use marginal land for bioenergy production as well as the biodiversity and ecosystem service consequences of doing so. The project is located within an attractive interdisciplinary research environment at the Department of Biology in close collaboration with the Centre for Environmental and Climate Research, with opportunities for collaboration with researchers across disciplinary boundaries.

Job assignments

Sustainably mobilizing agricultural biomass for bioenergy is a key component of pathways to a fossil-free society, but it remains unclear what the social and economic limitations for this are, which biodiversity and ecosystem services this would have and which policies are needed to mobilize agricultural biomass for bioenergy without harming food security and the environment. As part of a cross-disciplinary project, this PhD-project focus on assessing the potential for increased use of agricultural biomass and assessing the biodiversity and ecosystem service impacts of biomass feedstock production at local and landscape scales. To this end multiple methods will be used, including interviews to determine farmers’ willingness to use marginal land for bioenergy production, remote sensing to identify current land-use of such marginal land, and a combination of ecological field studies and modelling to determine the potential of such land for bioenergy production and effects of conversion to bioenergy production on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Requirements

We are looking for a person with a Master’s degree (including a degree project of 30 credits or more) in environmental science, ecology, geography, agronomy or similar areas. Documented knowledge of agro-ecology, landscape ecology and biodiversity are merits. We also value courses in or experience of using remote sensing and analysis of spatial data including GIS. We value experience in statistical analysis or processed based modelling, including skills in using R, Matlab and/or python. A driving license and proficiency in Swedish are requirements.

Eligibility
Students with basic eligibility for third-cycle studies are those who- have completed a second-cycle degree- have completed courses of at least 240 credits, of which at least 60 credits are from second-cycle courses, or- have acquired largely equivalent knowledge in some other way, in Sweden or abroad.

The employment of doctoral students is regulated in the Swedish Code of Statues 1998: 80. Only those who are or have been admitted to PhD-studies may be appointed to doctoral studentships. When an appointment to a doctoral studentship is made, the ability of the student to benefit from PhD-studies shall primarily be taken into account. In addition to devoting themselves to their studies, those appointed to doctoral studentships may be required to work with educational tasks, research and administration, in accordance with specific regulations in the ordinance.

Type of employment
Limit of tenure, four years according to HF 5 kap 7§.