Vacancy: Junior Scientist in Land Use System Modeling

WASCAL (West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use) is a research and education-focused institute designed to help tackle the climate change challenge and thereby enhance the resilience of human environmental systems.  It does so by strengthening the research capacity and infrastructure in West Africa related to climate change by pooling the expertise of ten West African countries and Germany.  The West African countries include: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d‘Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo.

WASCAL has its headquarters in Accra, Ghana from where it coordinates 10 graduate schools at different universities in the region. WASCAL also has a Competence Centre in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, where it manages the climate research activities.

In WASCAL, we are dedicated to the integrated assessment of socio-cultural, economic and environmental effects of land use and land use changes under climate change. A main aim of integration in WASCAL is to (a) consult policies for CC adaptation including also a sensitivity analysis of competing environmental and land use policies and (b) to put the knowledge gathered by different disciplines in highly consistent way into action. Therefore, WASCAL seeks to employ integrated assessment modeling (IAM) to link disciplinary research findings with a focus on vulnerability-resilience-climate risk assessment.

The position will be based  at the Competence Centre in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

The main tasks of this position are:

• Evaluate different integrated modeling approaches that support the assessment of environmental policies on the functioning and resilience of socio-ecological systems at different scales.
• Contribute  to the development of standards for harmonizing different knowledge types as basis for integrating modeling.
• Develop participation strategies at different scales for supporting integrative modelling and impact assessment
• Develop scenarios combining qualitative and quantitative approaches
• Supervision of Doctoral and Msc. students from WASCAL partner countries.

This research should be based on integrated modeling and consider  social, economic, environmental and policy dimensions, and develop a multi-scale approach.

Qualification and experience

• Doctoral degree in computer science, environmental - natural, geography, agriculture, or economics or related subjects is required
• Methodological knowledge in participatory modelling
• GIS and geostatistics
• Data base management
• Considerable experience in networking with regional and national agencies is expected.
• Excellent communication skills
• Fluency in English and conversant in French.

WASCAL offers competitive salary and other fringe benefits.  All applications, including curriculum vitae, a list of publications, a statement of motivation, and the names and contact information of three referees should be emailed to  (candidature@wascal.org).  Please indicate  ‘LU Mod’ in the subject line.

For further information, please contact Dr. Mahamadou BELEM (belem.m@wascal.org) and PD Dr. Christine FÜRST (cfuerst@uni-bonn.de) .

The closing date for applications is  September 30, 2014.  WASCAL encourages women to apply for this position.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Veuillez noter que cette information a expiré.