1 Research Fellowship in climate change, saltmarsh resilience and coastal policy in UK | Cardiff University

The School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at Cardiff University invites applications for a 30 month, full-time Research Fellowship to evaluate the implications of climate change and saltmarsh resilience to the provision of ecosystem service values as well as to investigate the further implications for coastal governance and policy. The scale and uncertainty associated with salt marsh resilience and distributional shifts provide coastal planning with a particularly difficult problem, which it is hoped the Fellow can help address. The Fellowship is with the RESILCOAST project (Integrating ecosystem resilience into coastal planning for the persistence of natural flood protection and wetland ecosystem services) - a multi-disciplinary research cluster with seven academic institutions in the UK and Netherlands - which studies the dynamics of salt marsh regime shifts and resilience and the implications of these to coastal management and planning. The Fellowship will examine how changes in natural shoreline dynamics, particularly those associated with salt marshes, influence ecosystem service provision as well as assessing the implications of such changes for coastal governance and policy development.

The Fellowship provides an ideal opportunity for an ambitious individual to demonstrate leadership in high-impact research. It comes with an independent research budget, including funds for training, and an expectation to contribute to further research-grant applications to promote the project and the Fellow's personal career. The Fellow will be based in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at Cardiff University but may spend periods at partner institutions to suit research needs.

The Research Fellow's work will link with two PhD studentships (Bangor and Swansea Universities), and will liaise with a second Fellow working on ecosystems, resilience and bio-physical processes at Bangor University. Staff from Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Natural Resource Wales and Bangor Universities will liaise with the fellow over the details of the work programme.

The Fellowship comes with an independent research budget, including funds for training, and the expectation to contribute to further research-grant applications to promote the project and the Fellow's personal career. The Fellow will be based at the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at Cardiff University but may choose to spend periods at partner institutions to suit research needs.

Person specification

This post is an ideal opportunity for an ambitious individual to demonstrate leadership in high-impact research. We seek an interactive, driven and talented individual with a strong interest in multi-disciplinary research. To be considered, applicants must be 2-8 years into their postdoctoral careers and have a minimum of five publications in peer-reviewed journals. Applicants should have a background in relevant environmental research (environmental geography / governance / environmental economics and allied areas) and significant experience with designing and organising participatory research programmes. Experience with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and environmental economics application is expected. The position is open to non- European Union (EU) citizens.

Qualification and Education

• Postgraduate degree at PhD level in environmental geography/ governance/ environmental economics.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• An established expertise and proven portfolio of research (2 – 8 years) within any or all of the following research fields:

Environmental governance and policy

Ecosystem services provision

• High level skills in the design, development and application of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for research purposes.
• Growing national reputation within academic field.
• Proven record of publications in high-impact national journals (with a minimum of 5 publications).