Postdoc position in ecological evaluation and integration of european solar parks characteristics

Characteristics

• Location: IMBE - Avignon University, IUT. Regular travel to CESAB in Montpellier required
• Duration: 24 months, full time
• Salary: approx. € 2,700 gross per month
• Deadline for receipt of applications: 2nd May 2025
• Starting in September 2025

Project and job description

Renewable energy infrastructure can damage ecosystems and contribute to biodiversity decline. However, through appropriate design and management, renewable energy sites may also enhance biodiversity and create win-win scenarios for both climate and biodiversity. Recent research has expanded the evidence base for Nature Positive outcomes of solar farms. However, the data are patchily distributed across Europe and scientific understanding remains limited. A better ecological understanding is needed including an evaluation of impacts on microclimate, biodiversity and ecosystem services. Moreover, there is an increasing need to connect ecological outcomes to policy and practice prompting a need for robust biodiversity indicators that provide the basis for financerelated reporting and underpin further potential developments in biodiversity credit markets.

The postdoc position is part of the ESEB project on “Impacts of European Solar Energy infrastructure on Biodiversity” integrating existing knowledge to enable Nature Positive management. 

The major objectives of the project to advance the state-of-the-art in solar biodiversity across both ecological and policy perspectives: 

1. integration and analysis of solar biodiversity datasets across Europe; 
2. evaluation of the application of biodiversity-related financial reporting and biodiversity credit schemes to solar farms; 
3. development of a standardised biodiversity and ecosystem service monitoring protocol for solar farms;
4. development of a framework for enhancing solar park biodiversity through evidence-informed decisions on location, design and management.

ESEB is an international project with partners from the UK, Germany and France.

The successful candidate will in particular work on the integration and analysis of data sets from different project partners and countries. With the partners, the successful candidate will further work on the synthesis and meta-analysis of data on the ecological impact of solar parks, their management and restoration approaches. The successful candidate will contribute to the development of indicators for biodiversity reporting and credit schemes and straightforward monitoring protocols.. The working place will be at Avignon University (IUT-Agroparc) but regular travel to the CESAB in Montpellier is necessary to collaborate with other postdocs and data science experts.

CESAB is the Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis is a flagship program of the French Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB) who is co-funding the project. It aims to carry out innovative work on the synthesis and analysis of existing biodiversity datasets. The project is further supported by the National Research Program on Transport and energy Infrastructure, Territories, Ecosystems and Landscapes (ITTECOP).

Skills and qualifications

• PhD in ecology or a related field of research
• Excellent writing and communication skills, in particular in English
• French speaking or the willingness to learn French
• Experience in the analysis and management of large environmental data sets from different sources
• Experience in R, Python, or similar
• Strong expertise in ecology and biodiversity research
• Experience in collaboration with a range of non-academic partners would be an advantage
• Experience in project management is desirable
• Motivation to work in an international, multidisciplinary consortium

How to apply

Applicants should send the following documents to the email addresses below:

• A cover letter specifying your interest in the post and how your skills match the profile (< 1 page)
• Your curriculum vitae (including contact details of 2 referees).

Contacts: Alona Armstrong, a.armstrong@lancaster.ac.uk; Armin Bischoff, armin.bischoff@univavignon.fr; Sandra Dullau, sandra.dullau@hs-anhalt.de

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