Faculty or Department: Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Based at: Cranfield Campus, Cranfield, Bedfordshire
Hours of work: 37 hours per week, normally worked Monday to Friday. Flexible working will be considered.
Contract type: Fixed term contract
Fixed Term Period: For 24 months or until 14 November 2026, whichever is sooner
Salary: Research Assistant (if close to completing PhD): Full time starting salary is normally £34,450 per annum; Research Fellow (if PhD obtained): Full time starting salary is normally in the range of £37,337 to £41,406 per annum
Apply by: 15/09/2024

Role Description

Research Fellow or Research Assistant in Understanding Green Infrastructure Barriers and Enablers

We are seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral Research Fellow or Research Assistant, in Understanding barriers and enablers for effective green infrastructure interventions.

About the Role

Urban ecosystems are extensively fragmented by grey infrastructure, leading to a disconnect between the habitat fragments that support biological species and ecosystem resilience at landscape scales. Green and blue spaces in cities, and the functional biodiversity they support, help to improve urban resilience through services such as air quality improvement and reduced flood risk. However, we still do not know how best to configure green-blue-grey infrastructures at local (street or park) scales to optimise multiple benefits at landscape (neighbourhood or city) scales.

The NERC funded Defragmenting the fragmented urban landscape (DEFRAG) project aims to deliver new knowledge on how fragment size, shape, composition, and connectivity affects biodiversity, biological processes, and the ecosystem services derived from them.  DEFRAG is also working with stakeholders across Bedford, Luton and Milton Keynes to identify real-world enablers and reduce barriers to including green and blue interventions in urban planning. This understanding is crucial for the design of healthier, more resilient towns and cities in the future.

You will contribute to the following aspects of the DEFRAG research:

• Semi-structured interviews with local urban planners, infrastructure operators, and national level organisations, investigating green infrastructure implementation opportunities and constraints.
• Mixed methods surveys quantifying gaps between decision-makers and residents’ perceptions of acceptance/resistance to green infrastructure.
• Surveys and experiments testing the application of behavioural interventions in overcoming barriers to green infrastructure interventions.
• Development of a vision and roadmap for future green infrastructure implementation in the three study areas, including the identification of key enabling mechanisms required to achieve them.
• Support the development of the integrated modelling of fragmented urban landscapes. This includes including working with data scientists at the Alan Turing Institute to develop, validate, and evaluate, models of social acceptance and alternative green infrastructure intervention scenarios.

About You

We are seeking someone with a keen interest in, and broad understanding of, environmental social sciences, green infrastructure interventions, and environmental decision-making for this role. You will be experienced in, and comfortable with, applying mixed methods social science approaches, multi-disciplinary research, and engaging with stakeholders and local communities.

The role involves close collaboration with academics at Cranfield as well as project partners at Sheffield University, the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and the Alan Turing Institute, and stakeholder and community groups in the study areas. As a result, the role requires excellent interpersonal and teamworking skills. You will also have excellent written and verbal communication skills, as well as an ability to produce high quality research outputs.

About Us

As a specialist postgraduate university, Cranfield’s world-class expertise, large-scale facilities and unrivalled industry partnerships are creating leaders in technology and management globally. Learn more about Cranfield and our unique impact here.

The focus of Cranfield Environment Centre is to transform the science of environmental solutions through a systems approach, spanning sensor and measurement technology, systems modelling, environmental informatics, data and decision science. The Centre covers research on air quality and climate change, soil quality, crop growth and monitoring, natural capital, resilience ecosystems goods and services.

Our research spans across projects funded by diverse UK and other national and international funding bodies for practical and innovative science applications. We are particularly effective at translational research, in which we develop bespoke solutions supported by our core research to benefit our governmental, non-governmental and industrial partners and clients.

Cranfield’s Decision Science Group undertakes applied research to support evidence-based decision-making in uncertain and complex situations, taking a transdisciplinary approach to research, integrating expertise and methods from across different disciplines. Our strength is bringing different concepts and techniques together to support improved evidence-based decision making. The research conducted by the Decision Science Group is critical for supporting decision-makers tasked with addressing emerging and increasingly complex forms of environmental challenges, particularly those associated with global change and complex socio-technical systems.

Our Values and Commitments

Our shared, stated values help to define who we are and underpin everything we do: Ambition; Impact; Respect; and Community. Find out more here.

We aim to create and maintain a culture in which everyone can work and study together and realise their full potential. We are a Disability Confident Employer and proud members of the Stonewall Diversity Champions Programme. We are committed to actively exploring flexible working options for each role and have been ranked in the Top 30 family friendly employers in the UK by the charity Working Families. Find out more about our key commitments to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Flexible Working here.

Working Arrangements

Collaborating and connecting are integral to so much of what we do. Our Working Arrangements Framework provides many staff with the opportunity to flexibly combine on-site and remote working, where job roles allow, balancing the needs of our community of staff, students, clients and partners.

How to apply

For an informal discussion about this opportunity, please contact Dr Simon Jude, Reader in Environmental Decision Making, on (T): 01234 754295 or (E): s.jude@cranfield.ac.uk

Please do not hesitate to contact us for further details on E: peoplerecruitment@cranfield.ac.uk. Please quote reference number 4903.

Closing date for receipt of applications: 15 September 2024

Please note that we reserve the right to close this advert prior to the stated closing date should we receive sufficient numbers of applications. Therefore, we would encourage you to complete and submit your application as soon as possible.