Postdoc - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

We invite applications for a bright, creative, energetic postdoctoral scholar based at the Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies in Lund, Sweden. The applicant will be part of the Agromes project (http://www.kimnicholas.com/agromes.html), funded by the Swedish Research Council Vetenskapsrådet. The project goal is to map and model tradeoffs between environmental, economic, and social aspects of agriculture in Europe, with a goal to informing more sustainable agricultural policy.

In particular, the postdoc will lead the statistical and spatial analysis of data on the management, drivers, and outcomes of European farming systems to examine the social, environmental, and economic tradeoffs they represent, and use scenario analysis to model potential future policy changes to improve sustainability.

Postdoc Research Focus (80% time)

• Conduct meta-analysis of the literature to compare existing mapping schemes for European and global agriculture, identifying similarities and conflicts within current approaches.
• Collect European food systems data and conduct multivariate statistical analysis to identify patterns and explore relationships.
• Produce creative visualizations of spatial data to illuminate patterns of food production and consumption, and their impacts and implications.
• Identify “bright spots”- best practices in European food systems, where there is a good balance between social, environmental, and economic inputs and outputs in the food system. Potential to conduct case studies there to learn more from these models.
• Maintain excellent data and analysis records following open data practices.
• Lead analysis and writing of peer-reviewed publications.
• Contribute to stakeholder engagement and outreach at the Swedish and European level to involve government, non-government, and private interests in the research design through dissemination.
• Contribute to project management and reporting, including contributing to reports to funders, outreach materials for stakeholders, and regular website and social media updates.

Postdoc Administrative and Service Focus (20% time)

• Teaching responsibilities: Contribute to teaching in graduate courses, particularly Earth Systems Science, a 10-ETCS credit, 7-week course on the natural science foundations of sustainability challenges, focusing on Planetary Boundaries, experimental design, data analysis and visualization, and programming in R. Potential to develop teaching competencies through participation in Lund University professional development courses for teaching.
• Eventual potential to co-supervise MSc student theses, especially those working on ecosystem services and food systems.

Required Qualifications

• Completed PhD degree in related field (geography, sustainability, ecology, environmental science, mathematics, natural science, computer science, etc.). The applicant must have completed their doctorate within three years before the application deadline. The three-year limit can be extended based on parental leave , illness or equivalent events.
• Demonstrated research record, including record of successful collaboration and co-operation with others, particularly interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Excellent quantitative skills, including strong proficiency in spatial and multivariate statistical analyses and familiarity with working with large datasets. Please address these skills directly in your research proposal.
• Experience in a statistical programming language (R is preferred). Please address this directly in your research proposal.
• Ability to work creatively and independently in designing and leading research, while also taking direction as part of a team.
• Management experience of research teams (e.g., supervision of students or research assistants, managing lab group meetings).
• Excellent academic writing skills, including leading the development of well-argued and clearly written scientific manuscripts for peer-reviewed publication.
• Strong scientific integrity and ethics.
• Background in natural science sufficient for contributing to teaching introductory master’s course in Earth Systems Science.
• Fluent in written and spoken academic English.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in food systems and/or ecosystem services.
• Experience working with stakeholders in research.
• Experience in curation of large datasets and open data practices.
• Experience in popular science writing and communication (blog posts, social media).
• Website management and design.
• Additional language(s) (Swedish, Portuguese, Spanish, French) are a benefit.

A complete application consists of one PDF document with the following elements. (Additional information will not be considered.)

Cover page:
Short motivation of the applicant and connection with the position, including how this position serves future career goals. Include name and contact information of applicant (1 page max) 

CV:
Academic and professional background, detailing relevant experience, particularly research. Any publications (separate peer-reviewed, technical reports, and popular science or outreach). Any teaching experience. Include names and contact information for three academic or professional references who can speak to your professional and teamwork abilities. At least one should be a former or current research supervisor.

Research Proposal:
Project title (max. 20 words) Project abstract (max. 200 words) Main research proposal text (max.1200 words) Research question(s) or hypotheses, in the context of their relevance to Agromes goals Research plan, including methods and feasibility Expected outcomes and significance Include at least one figure showing a conceptual overview of your proposal, and any expected results. For inspiration, please see proposal writing tips here: http://www.kimnicholas.com/blog/turning-words-into-money-tips-for-making-research-grantwriting-less-painful