Postdoctoral Fellow para H2020 financiado por el projecto iSAGE – Innovation for Sustainable Sheep and Goat Production in Europe
CLOSED
The Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) opens a competitive call for applications for a Postdoctoral contract in the context of a project financed by the European Commission H2020 Program – iSAGE – Innovation for Sustainable Sheep and Goat Production in Europe.
iSAGE will assess the sustainability sheep and goat sector in Europe to future challenge such as climate change, food security, resource use efficiency and rural deprivation in marginal regions. Following the sustainability assessment, iSAGE will develop strategies to meet or prevent these challenges. Such strategies will include all levels of the industry including farmers, local populations, consumers, processors and retailers.
Among other tasks, BC3 is involved in different work packages (WP) related to (i) sustainability assessments (life cycle assessments) (WP1), (ii) development of meta-models for assessing climate change direct and indirect effects on small ruminants production systems (WP3) and (iii) the development of a new whole-farm model to asses sustainability currently and in the future of typical small ruminants production systems in Europe (WP4).
Tasks:
- Development of the animal sub-model for estimating energy and nutrient requirements for different breeds and type of production systems for small ruminants in Europe.
- Development of the different lactation and growth curves for different breeds and type of production systems for small ruminants in Europe.
- Contributing to the nitrogen and carbon nutrient cycling submodules in the new farm model.
- Contributing to the Life cycle assessment to estimate the overall environmental impacts of re-designed production systems, including pre and post-farm gate impacts if required
- Contributing to the simulation of sensitivity tests of important parameters to check the general behavior of the new farm model.
- Contributing to the publication of at least two scientific articles.
Essential qualifications and skills:
- PhD in agricultural engineering, Biological sciences, veterinary or environmental sciences
- A degree in agricultural engineering
- Strong background in the holistic assessment of sustainability in sheep or/and goats systems using economic, social and environmental indicators
- Demonstrable experience in the use of the life cycle assessment and/or carbon foot-printing of sheep or/and goats farming systems
- Experience in the assessment of soil carbon sequestration in grassland-based farming systems
- Experience in the development of tools for sustainability assessment in sheep or/and goats systems
- Good interpersonal as well communication skills (both written and oral) in English
Desirable qualifications and skills:
- Experience with more than one type of sheep or goat production system
- Programming skills
Term of contract
The position will be for a period of 12 months (with possible extension)
Salary
The position will carry competitive salary, matching the academic and professional profile of the applicant, and excellent conditions of work
Location
Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), Biscay (Spain).
Interested applicants are invited to send their application by email to the Human Resources department of BC3 – Basque Centre for Climate Change (hr@bc3research.org) with subject line: “Postdoctoral application for ISAGE project”. The application should include:
- A letter of interest up to 1000 words (2 pages) in English,
- Explaining the motivation for working in this project
- Explaining the applicant’s background and expertise, with a focus on the skills, knowledge and aptitude they would bring to the position
- A Curriculum Vitae, including: education (bachelor degree, master degree, PhD), courses taken as relevant for the position, peer-reviewed publications related to the topic, specific technical skills, and previous work related to the topic
- The contact details of two referees.
Informal enquiries can be made to Dr. Agustin del Prado (agustin.delprado@bc3research.org)
Deadline
15th of June, 2018. (CET: 17:00)