Senior Research Associate in Tropical Forest Ecology and Global Change

News from Lancaster University: https://hr-jobs.lancs.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=A813


Lancaster Environment Centre
Salary:   £31,331 to £36,298 
Closing Date:   Wednesday 13 November 2013
Interview Date:   Wednesday 20 November 2013 
Reference:  A813
An exciting opportunity exists for an experienced researcher to play a lead role in a NERC (UK) & FAPESP (Sao Paulo, Brazil) funded research project ECOFOR, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning in degraded and recovering Amazonian and Atlantic Forests. This NERC funded position will start in January 2014 to September 2017 (with a possible extension to December 2017).

This post will be jointly funded by Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, and Lancaster Environment Centre, but will also communicate regularly with Brazilian project members. The project involves collecting data on ecosystem carbon cycling and plant traits. Core duties include a) planning and managing data collection in undisturbed, logged, burned and secondary Amazonian forests, b) data analysis, c) assisting with the supervision of students, d) reporting to the research team and e) disseminating results through high impact scientific publications. You will be expected to undertake the planning phase of the project at Lancaster and will spend a significant period of time conducting and managing fieldwork in the Brazilian Amazon, before moving to Oxford in the latter stages to oversee the analysis and publication of key findings.

You should hold a PhD in an appropriate area (such as Ecology, Environmental Science or Plant Physiology) and  have research expertise in tropical forests and some experience of project management. You will be self-motivated, collaborative and hold strong communication and interpersonal skills. Ability to work independently is also essential. Good knowledge of Portuguese is also highly desirable.

For EU/UK nationals the Research positions are a full-time role but the post-holders will be given two separate part-time contracts of employment, one with Lancaster University and one with the University of Oxford. The two contracts will run in parallel for a fixed term of 4 years. For non-UK nationals an alternative contractual arrangement would be undertaken to comply with UK Border Agency rules, consisting of an initial 2-year contract with Lancaster very likely to be followed by a 2-year contract with Oxford.

Informal inquiries may be directed to Jos Barlow jos.barlow@lancaster.ac.uk, Yadvinder Malhiyadvinder.malhi@ouce.ox.ac.uk & Carlos Joly cjoly@unicamp.br

Interviews will be held on 20 November 2013. Interview by Skype is possible for individuals unable to travel to Lancaster on that date.  This post is available from January 2014.