Lecturer / Research Fellow – Rural Policy Centre
Permanent
SRUC King’s Buildings, Edinburgh
£36,777 - £40,561 per annum (under review)                 Ref: ACF/REES/097/21

SRUC is unique in Scotland and one of the largest organisations of its kind in Europe. The Rural Economy, Environment and Society (REES) Department is one of the largest groups of economists and social scientists working in the rural, agricultural and land based sectors in the UK.

The Rural Policy Centre is seeking to recruit an experienced Lecturer/Research Fellow to complement the skills and expertise of current staff and to help manage and deliver our current and planned research activities.

We are seeking to appoint an individual with a proven track of managing and contributing to research projects focused on rural development in Scotland, the UK or the EU/OECD countries. More specifically, we are looking to recruit an individual who has a particular interest and existing expertise in issues relating to land, including land ownership, land reform, land values and/or land management, and an understanding of the legislative and policy context for land reform in Scotland. The individual should have proven mixed method research skills with a particular emphasis on qualitative approaches, including interviews and participatory methods.

We require an ambitious researcher seeking to deepen our knowledge and understanding of various rural land issues, within the context of broader rural and regional development issues and economic, social and environmental change in Scotland, the UK, EU or OECD countries. They will also be expected to have an interest in developing new research techniques and approaches, as part of a team of well-established and experienced socio-economists. The research to be undertaken by the postholder is highly policy relevant and as such provides an opportunity for immediate impact, thereby helping build on SRUC’s and University of Edinburgh number one ranking for research power in agriculture, food and veterinary sciences in the recent Research Excellence Framework (2021). 

The postholder will be a key member of the team of researchers delivering work in new projects on land ownership, land reform and land values (that commenced in April 2022) funded by the Scottish Government’s Strategic Research Programme in agriculture, natural resources and the environment (2022-27). The individual will also work on a number of other projects, including on rural community and rural economy/business issues, and contribute to the creation of our new Rural Exchange, a web portal for large-scale citizen science on rural issues and for disseminating work undertaken as part of the Strategic Research Programme. 

The postholder will be expected to proactively bid for new research funding from a diverse range of research funders, and to publish in highly ranked academic journals.  They will be expected to deliver a small amount of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and student supervision. They will also be expected to contribute to high profile policy-focused knowledge exchange (KE) activities including writing policy briefings, opinion pieces/blogs and web and social media work. 

The successful candidate will be based in Edinburgh (Kings Buildings) and will be a key member of the Rural Policy Centre team, and wider Department of Rural Economy, Environment and Society (REES). 

In August 2022, all academic roles will be assimilated to a new job families structure.  Details are contained within the Job Particulars document.

Further details on the requirements of this role can be found in the Job Description document which you must read before applying for this role. This is downloadable when you click the APPLY link.

Closing date: 26 June 2022

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