Job opportunities

Location : FRB – Cesab, 5 rue de l’École de Médecine, 34000 Montpellier.
Duration : 24 months fixed term, full-time.
Salary : 2620 to 2801€ gross per month commensurate with experience.
Starting date : Flexible, between October 2024 and January 2025.
Application closing date : Wednesday, 31st July 2024.

• The Dragon Project

 
The project focuses on odonates (dragonflies and damselflies), a charismatic and important taxonomic group that offers a unique opportunity to study the effects of anthropogenic pressures on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. In this project, we will mobilise and use opportunistic and standardised odonate data from across Europe to determine temporal trends in population and species distributions at different spatial scales. These trends will be analysed in the context of various anthropogenic pressures, including climate change, land use change and pollution to identify and better understand the drivers of change and derive new indicators for environmental monitoring.

• Job description:

 
The post-doc is expected to :

• Assemble and harmonise European datasets on odonates and anthropogenic pressures.
• Design analyses of opportunistic and standardised datasets to estimate population and distributional trends at different spatial and temporal scales.
• Analyse population and community changes and how they relate to species’ life-history traits.
• Investigate how anthropogenic pressure impacts the status and trends of odonates.
• Work with stakeholders to co-develop a European platform to standardise data and calculate relevant and robust indicators (e.g., vulnerability scores for species or functional groups for different habitat types) to inform applied conservation, monitor and mitigate the impact of anthropogenic pressure on biodiversity.
• Actively participate in the development of grant proposals.
• Lead and coauthor scientific publications in international journals With the support of Principal Investigators (PIs) and the CESAB team, the postdoctoral researcher will also be expected to organise the scientific activities of DRAGON consortium workshops at CESAB in Montpellier (one-week twice a year, with one being online), facilitate communication within the consortium and actively engage with various stakeholders.

• Requirements :

 
PhD in ecology, conservation, or a related field, with a strong background in ecological modelling, statistics, spatial, and quantitative analyses. The ideal candidate will be highly motivated and have prior experience working with collaborative scientific teams or consortia.
 
Essential skills :

• Strong quantitative skills: data analysis and statistical modelling applied to large datasets.
• Programming skills (R, Python or Julia) for data processing.
• Experience with spatial analysis and geo-computing (GIS).
• Ability to synthesise information and translate ideas and concepts to multiple audiences, verbally and written.
• Good team player, able to work independently and coordinate with larger interdisciplinary teams.
• Willingness to engage and collaborate with diverse stakeholders (scientific experts, NGOs, landscape managers, policy makers, etc.).
• Fluency in English, both written and verbal.

 
Preferred : 

• Experience working with consortium and collaborative science.
• Experience working with version control and cloud, or cluster computing.
• Experience with data management and databases (e.g. PostgreSQL).
• Competency with Bayesian statistics and hierarchical occupancy modelling.
• Experience with odonates, freshwater ecology and/or conservation issues.
• Knowledge of French can be an asset.

 
 
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Application instructions :
Applicants should send
1) a cover letter,
2) a curriculum vitae, and
3) the names and email addresses of three references
to colin.fontaine@mnhn.fr and retoschm@ceh.ac.uk Applications must be submitted no later than Wednesday, July 31, 2024. Interviews are expected to be held in early September, with a starting date between October 2024 and January 2025.
 
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