Garmisch Summer School on Land Use and Ecosystem Change

Research Assistant in the nexus between biodiversity, climate, water, food and health at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany

We are seeking a Research Assistant to undertake an assessment of the interactions among biodiversity, climate, water, food and health (the nexus). You will contribute to the European Commission funded (Horizon Europe) BIONEXT project (The Biodiversity Nexus: Transformative Change for Sustainability), and to the IPBES nexus assessment1. The position will be held within the Land Use & Climate Change Research Group (https://landchange.imk-ifu.kit.edu/) of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), located at KIT’s attractive ‘Campus Alpin’ in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Your specific tasks will be to:

1. Support knowledge and science brokerage for IPBES assessments and EU environmental policy, including,

• Analysing the implications of transformative change in the biodiversity nexus for EU environmental policy options,
• Communicate and collaborate with IPBES bodies;

2. Act as a Chapter Scientist within chapter 3 (Future interactions across the nexus) in the IPBES nexus assessment, including,

• Undertaking a review and assessment of the literature on biodiversity nexus scenarios;
• Supporting the assessment authors in writing and editing text and managing bibliographies.

The position will also entail small contributions to teaching and group administration.

Two postdoctoral researchers in land-based, climate change mitigation modelling for the European forest sector (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)

Overview

We are seeking two postdoctoral researchers in the field of land-based, climate change mitigation modelling for the forest sector in Europe. The positions will contribute to the European Commission funded (Horizon Europe) ForestPaths project, held within the Land Use & Climate Change Research Group (https://landchange.imk-ifu.kit.edu/) and the Global Land Ecosystem Modelling Group (https://lemg.imk-ifu.kit.edu/) of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), located at KIT’s attractive ‘Campus Alpin’ in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Specifically, we seek to employ:

• A land use modeller to further develop, test and apply the CRAFTY agent-based model of land use change (see: https://landchange.imk-ifu.kit.edu/CRAFTY) in evaluating land-based, climate change mitigation scenarios and policy options for the forest sector in Europe. You will contribute to the coupling of CRAFTY with the LPJ-GUESS vegetation model within the LandSyMM modelling framework (https://landsymm.earth/) and use the model to explore policy pathways, including engaging with key policy stakeholders (ref: FP-LUCCG);
• An ecosystem modeller to further develop, test and apply the LPJ-GUESS vegetation model (https://lemg.imk-ifu.kit.edu/themes/land-climate-interactions) in evaluating vegetation dynamics and carbon cycling for the forest sector in Europe. You will contribute to improving and testing forest management implementation in LPJ-GUESS and explore, for a range of scenarios, how these affect carbon uptake as well as habitat structural diversity (ref: FP-LEMG).

Your specific roles will be to contribute to the further development and application of these models individually, but also in an integrated way within the LandSyMM modelling framework (https://landsymm.earth/). The positions will also entail small contributions to teaching and group administration. We offer a multi‐disciplinary, highly collaborative and friendly team, well connected to national and international research networks and activities. Salary and benefits will be based on the Collective Agreement for the German Public Service Sector (TV‐L EG13). The positions are available from June 2022 for 2 years initially with the potential for extension beyond this period.

Qualifications

You will have a PhD degree in a relevant discipline and strong quantitative skills in computer modelling and coding (e.g., Fortran, C, C++, Java, Python) and the analysis of large-scale datasets in the environmental sciences (GIS experience alone is insufficient). Depending on the position applied for, experience with statistical analysis, scenario analysis, ecological economics, ecosystem modelling, computational social sciences and/or computer programming is desirable. You will need to have proficiency in the English language, both spoken and in writing and preferably a working knowledge of German. Willingness to travel to interact with consortia partners is required. Further information can be obtained from Prof. Mark Rounsevell (mark.rounsevell@kit.edu) for FP-LUCCG and Prof. Almut Arneth (almut.arneth@kit.edu) for FP-LEMG.

Applications

Applications should be sent by email to Sylvia Kratz (sylvia.kratz@kit.edu) by Friday 18 March 2022, quoting the relevant reference, FP-LUCCG or FP-LEMG. Applications should be submitted within a single PDF document that includes your CV, publications list (with citations), a short (1-2 page) letter of motivation and contact details for 2 referees. The motivation letter should clearly state your computer modelling experience and how your research interests relate to the job specifications provided above. Please also indicate where you heard about this job opportunity. Applications that are incomplete or do not address these criteria will not be considered. Interviews will be held remotely on Thursday 31 March or Friday 1 April 2022. KIT strives to achieve gender balance at all levels of employment. We therefore particularly encourage female candidates to apply for this position. With appropriate qualifications, applications from persons with handicaps are treated preferentially.

Postdoctoral Researcher on the Impact of Climate Adaptation on Poverty Traps (University of Amsterdam)

Working with Debraj Roy and the Netherlands eScience Center, this position focuses on modelling feedbacks between climate change adaptation and poverty traps dynamics using spatial agent-based models. The focus is on cities in the Global South; collaborations with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre are foreseen.

The project focuses on modelling the feedbacks between climate change adaptation and poverty traps. Specifically, we study the role of adaptation in shaping risk using spatially explicit modelling of the socio-economic dynamics related to climate change adaptation (CCA), and how dynamics in poverty levels impact adaptive capacity. Spatial agent-based modelling (SABM), enabled by growing computing power, has been successfully applied to analyse macro-outcomes in a virtual society, emerging out of the actions and interactions of individual heterogeneous agents in a city or region. Agent decision-making is flexible and incorporates behavioural factors, bounded rationality, interactions, and learning. Although SABM is actively used to study social, economic, and environmental problems, including CCA, they have not yet been used to explore the mutual dynamics of adverse climate impacts and poverty traps. You are expected to make methodological advancements in understanding the role of CCA in the emergence of poverty traps.

What are you going to do:

• Develop and scale up a spatially explicit agent-based model to systematically explore the factors reinforcing poverty traps as climate change intensifies.
• Perform sensitivity analysis of the model. Develop and implement strategies for model calibration and validation.
• Collaborate with researchers at Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre to explore a wide range of real-world scenarios using the agent-based model.
• Publish in high level international journals, presenting at leading conferences and collaborate with PhD/Master/Bachelor students.
• Assure research data management following the FAIR data principles.
• You will have the opportunity to contribute to policy reports and translating scientific evidence to practical recommendations.

The deadline to apply is 1 April 2022. Apply here: https://www.academictransfer.com/nl/306813/postdoctoral-researcher-on-the-impact-of-climate-adaptation-on-poverty-traps/

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in High-Performance Social Simulation (TU Delft)

TU Delft has an opening for a postdoctoral research fellow at the intersection of social simulation and high-performance algorithms.  The goal of project is to develop methods to speed large-scale agent-based modelling (ABMs), for example by means of effective parallelization using High Performance Computing (HPC).  The use of machine learning for efficient ABM simulations will enable uncertainty and global sensitivity analysis of large ensembles of ABM runs.  The postdoc will use the HPC cluster newly established at TU Delft in 2021.

The successful candidate will work closely with faculty members at the TU Delft faculties of Technology, Policy and Management, and Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science.  Working with Prof Tatiana Filatova, Dr Jan Kwakkel and Dr Neil Yorke-Smith, the candidate will study how theory-informed meta-modelling and learned surrogate models can accelerate agent-based models.

This two-year position as a part of the EU project TAILOR (Foundations of Trustworthy AI, Integrating Reasoning, Learning and Optimization, tailor-network.eu) in conjunction with the TU Delft Institute for Computational Science and Engineering (DCSE, tudelft.nl/cse).  The TAILOR network is funded by the European Union to build the capacity of the scientific foundations for trustworthy AI in Europe, by developing a network of research excellence centres leveraging and combining learning, optimization and reasoning.  The successful candidate will have access to the TAILOR network, including travel and mobility funds.

The position is at the intersection of social simulation and high-performance algorithms, and links to two ongoing EU projects (TAILOR and ERC SCALAR).

Deadline for applications: 31 December 2021. Apply here:

 https://www.academictransfer.com/en/306558/postdoc-high-performance-social-simulation/apply/#apply