Postdoctoral position in agricultural and natural resources economics

About the Position

The Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) is offering a full-time postdoctoral research position to support activities within a Horizon Europe project. The project focuses on developing innovative crop rotations as a nature-based solution to help agriculture adapt to climate change (www.transform-rotations.eu). This research will be conducted within BC3’s research line 4 on Adaptation to Climate Change.

About the Project

The project aims to accelerate innovation in crop rotations as nature-based solutions that deliver multiple economic, social, and environmental benefits, thereby ensuring sustainable and resilient agricultural adaptation to climate change. Project partners work closely with stakeholders to design and understand adaptation needs. This includes formulating agricultural adaptation roadmaps, identifying farmers’ preferences for crop rotations, predicting the economic, social, and environmental benefits and costs, and evaluating these against regional roadmap objectives to select rotations that best meet societal needs and preferences. The project will provide tools and methods-such as workshop designs, serious games, agronomic and agroecological models under climate change scenarios, choice experiments, and mapping-to support regions and farmers in adapting to climate change.

Responsibilities

• Model crop choice and agricultural practice decisions, and test them using econometric analyses of survey questionnaires.
• Design and conduct interviews/focus groups: Engage with farmers and other stakeholders to explore climate change adaptation strategies.
• Contribute to research activities: Support various aspects of the project’s research endeavours.
• Write manuscripts and disseminate results.

Requirements

• Main Requirements/Skills:
  • PhD in economics and possibly with experience in disciplines like ecology, agronomy, behavioural economics.
  • Strong analytical skills, strong knowledge of econometric and statistics (choice experiments).
  • Fluency in Spanish language.
  • Proficiency in English language.
  • Experience or interest in learning participatory research methods.
  • Experience in conducting work with farmers.
  • Ability to teamwork.
  • Availability to travel.

IMPORTANT: Applications including links or references to previous works/projects/initiatives that show how the applicant meets these requirements will be given priority.

We Offer

• Interdisciplinary and inspiring work environment. The researcher will join an interdisciplinary research centre of empirical and theoretical economists, environmental scientists, ecologists and computer scientists.
• Quiet and spacious workspaces.
• Possibility of participating in internal training and academic activities of the centre.
• 35-hour week work calendar.
• 30 days of vacation per year.

Term of Contract

Starting in winter/early spring 2025, the position will be for 3 years, with a 6-months’ probation period based on performance.

Salary

The position will carry competitive salary, matching the academic and professional profile of the applicant, and excellent work conditions.

Location

Basque Centre for Climate Change, Leioa, Spain.

As an HR Excellence awarded institution, BC3 is committed to conciliating research-academic requirements and family duties. BC3 is particularly concerned with creating equal opportunities for people independently of gender, culture, and race. Anyone with relevant qualifications is therefore strongly encouraged to apply for the position.

Application Procedure

Fill the form below and upload one PDF document with the following information:

1. Letter of application/motivation
2. CV
3. The names and email addresses of two referees

Deadline

31 January, 2025 (CET 15:00).

Informal enquiries can be made to Dr. Sébastien Foudi ([email protected]) noting in the subject of the message “POSTDOCTORAL POSITION”.

Please consider that only applications sent through the form included at the bottom of the BC3 web page will be considered (https://info.bc3research.org/job-offers/).

TRANSFORM has received funding from the European Union under the Horizon Europe grant agreement No. 101155748. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor REA can be held responsible for them.