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

Subject description

Linking effects on individual behaviour to changes on population and community level metrics for integration into ERAs (CHRONIC). Low-level chronic exposure to emerging pollutants, such as pharmaceuticals, may have profound effects on functional traits like behaviour. Despite their potential influence on population and community dynamics, effects on functional traits are rarely acknowledged in environmental risk assessments despite their potential importance. Using sediment exposure of gastropods to pharmaceuticals, this project will:

1) Test putative links and propagation of effects between biomarkers (e.g. for neurotoxicity and oxidative stress, and specific biomarkers like serotonin levels) and gastropod behaviour (predator-prey responses, avoidance, learning, and behavioural syndromes), life-history (survival, fecundity, growth) and community dynamics;
2) Quantify effects of behavioural changes on individual life history traits to estimate and validate effects on population (e.g. intrinsic rate of increase) and community level (e.g. competition and predator-prey) models;
3) Assess interactions of chemical stress and biotic (perceived and realized predation pressure) and abiotic (pH) stressors on behaviour, population growth rate and community dynamics in response to low chronic exposure.

Work duties

The PhD position is part of the CHRONIC project - “Chronic exposure scenarios driving environmental risks of Chemicals”, which is an Innovative Training Network (ITN) funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) grant No. 956009.

While conducting your individual research project, you will be joined into a network of 13 PhD Fellows (ESRs) at academic institutions across Europe all aiming at developing tools and approaches to identify nonstandard modes of toxicity for long-term, low-dose chemical exposure and their interactions with other environmental stressors.

All CHRONIC partners have extensive experience in education and training and a high state-of-the-art scientific and technical expertise and infrastructure. The programme will therefore lay the basis for an integrated approach to environmental risk assessment. Being part of CHRONIC offer you an excellent opportunity to work within a strong, interdisciplinary and intersectoral network including leading Universities and research institutions across Europe as well as industry, consultancy, governmental and non-governmental institutions in Europe and Canada. COVID-19 pandemic allowing you to be able to undertake research placement at partner institution involved in the CHRONIC project from across Europe, as well as attending project training event and international conferences.

The execution of the workplan for the project plans for the research to undertake periods of secondment for a total of 6 months at Roskilde University (Denmark), UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (United Kingdom) and Green Transition (Denmark) where you will be trained in specific models and methods beneficial to you project.

Qualifications and specific competences

• You must hold a master’s degree or equivalent within environmental science, ecotoxicology, ecology, biology or corresponding.
• Fluency in English (working language) is a requirement.
• Experience in aspects of environmental science, analytical chemistry, ecology, and ecotoxicology especially with exposure experiments with invertebrates will be especially valued. However, excellent students with specific skills in other areas of quantitative and biological research (e.g., mathematics/statistic, molecular biology, medical biology, computer science) wishing to apply their skills in the field of environmental chemical management and ecotoxicology are also invited to apply.
• You are required to be enterprising and to possess good communication skills and to be a visible, involved participant in the department’s daily activities, in addition to being willing to engage in disciplinary and interdisciplinary collaboration across the department and in the CHRONIC network.

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 EU ITN project aim to attract candidates worldwide. Thus, there are certain eligibility criteria that candidates must fulfil. First, the applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Sweden for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the recruitment date. Short stays, such as holidays, are not taken into account. Secondly, the applicants for the MSCA fellowship must have no PhD and less than 4 years of full-time equivalent research experience from the award of the degree that entitles them to undertake a doctorate (either in the country in which the degree was obtained or in the country in which the applicant is to be recruited). These eligibility requirements are non-negotiable and ineligible applicants will not be considered.

Admission requirements 

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.

Application

You must apply for the position online. Only applications in English are accepted. Applications must include:

• Cover (motivation) letter
• CV
• Documentation of education including grades from Master’s programme or equivalent
• 2 letters of recommendation
• If applicable: Documentation for any research experience, work experience or publications