Post-doctoral research positions - Invitation to apply

PRoACC has identified a number of interrelated research topics and intends to provide 7 post-doctoral research fellowships, each for an estimated duration of 18 months.

During this period, the researchers are expected to spend almost 100% of their time on the project.

The researchers will work in close collaboration with key staff members of UNESCO-IHE and the partner institutes.

All researchers will be based part-time at a partner institute in their home country or another country and part-time at UNESCO-IHE in The Netherlands (generally 4 months).

Intended starting date is 15 October 2009.

The research projects will be formulated in detail with the selected post-doctoral researcher during an inception phase in The Netherlands. The following positions are planned, the project leader of UNESCO-IHE are given in brackets:

On river basin and coastal management issues in the Incomati-Maputo Basin in Southern Africa, four positions related to the following five fields:

• Hydrology: How can a river basin that is vulnerable to climate change adapt to minimize the impacts on hydrology? (Prof. S. Uhlenbrook)
• River morphology: The impact of climate change and adaptation measures on river morphology (Prof. N. Wright)
• Freshwater ecology: The ecological impacts of climate change in the river and the formulation of environmental flow requirements (Prof. J. O’Keeffe)
• Coastal engineering: The processes and physical changes of large and small scale morphodynamics of flood tide deltas and tidal inlets (Prof. D. Roelvink)
• Hydroinformatics: Downscaling of climate change scenarios and risk management modelling of vulnerabilities to climate change (Prof. D. Solomatine)

On urban water management issues in yet to be decided locations, two positions related to the following three fields:

• Waste water management: Design of wastewater systems which are more flexible to varying demands in terms of quality and quantity, both between years and between seasons of the year, taking into account the notion – from wastewater discharge to agricultural fields (Prof. P. Lens)
• Urban drainage: Design and modelling techniques that can make urban drainage systems more resilient and flexible over a larger range of future weather/climatic events. (Prof. D. Brdjanovic)
• Water supply engineering: Robust, natural water treatment approaches to deal with climate variability: bank filtration, aquifer recharge and recovery, and soil aquifer treatment (Prof. G. Amy)

On institutional issues (location to be decided) one position related to:

• Institutions for adaptation: How to assess the adaptive capacity of institutions, and how can the ability of social actors to deal with climate change be enhanced (Prof. J. Gupta)

The concept project descriptions and further information about PROACC are available at www.unesco-ihe.org/PRoACC.

Interested candidates are encouraged to email the overall programme coordinator: Dr. Rosh Ranasinghe (r.ranasinghe@unesco-ihe.org ) for more detailed information.

Qualifications required:

• Recent PhD degree (not more than 5 years since graduation)
• Demonstrated experience in conducting interdisciplinary research and a track record of publications in peer-reviewed journals
• Demonstrated ability to conduct research independently as well as in a team
• Demonstrated ability to liaise with a variety of sector organisations and government agencies
• Fluency in English

The post-doctoral researchers will be offered a fellowship through the partner institute, covering the salary costs (including indirect costs) for a period of 18 months and an additional allowance during the time in the Netherlands.

The project covers also research costs, a laptop, domestic and international travel costs.

Applications shall consist of a cover letter indicating the motivation and relevance of the applicant’s skills and experience and a detailed curriculum vitae. The application should be emailed to Ms Astrid Oosterling (a.oosterling@unesco-ihe.org) no later than 31 July 2009.