Senior Research Officer (ARISE), Department of Government in Colchester

We are offering an exciting postdoctoral Senior Research Officer opportunity in the Department of Government at the University of Essex. You will work in a world-ranked political science department and contribute research to the ground-breaking ARISE project, “Advancing Resilience and Innovation for a Sustainable Environment”. ARISE is a £3 million research initiative that studies how to develop resilience within coastal seas and communities, working with local stakeholders to design and test different ‘interventions’ related to climate change, sea level rise, and environmental, political, and social threats.

At the end of the project, we will have a powerful and practical toolkit that informs policy and public management scholars and practitioners on how to address the challenges facing our coasts, particularly those posed by the effects of climate change on the natural, human, and built environments. The ARISE project is led by Professor Gina Yannitell Reinhardt, who will jointly supervise the postdoctoral research with Prof Philip Leifeld (University of Manchester).

Duties of the Role

You will study the policy networks enabling or hindering effective governance, community resilience, and implementation of place-based measures in the areas of climate adaptation, infrastructure, heritage and culture, health and wellbeing, public goods, and other issues affecting the resilience of local communities. You will enjoy interacting with coastal community residents, coastal managers, and policy makers, collecting policy network and observational data. You will conduct interviews with decision makers in communities in the east of England, analyse these data, and contribute to, with the opportunity to lead on, academic publications in the areas of environmental policy and administration, political networks, environmental communication, and sustainability. Your work will also involve conceptual, theoretical, and empirical research on the drivers of resilience in coastal communities across issue areas. You and your professional development will thrive as you contribute to co-authored and team-based publications and methodological development.

Qualifications and Skills required

The successful candidate will have a keen interest in environmental politics or policy and a PhD (or be in final stages of studies) in politics or another social science discipline or project-related disciplines, such as environmental science or STEM. We seek strong writing skills, data management skills, and experience with some methodological aspects of the project, such as network analysis, structured interviews, systems mapping, or statistical analysis. The ideal candidate will also have academic working papers under review or publications related to the themes of the project and familiarity with statistical software and/or programming. This is a fixed-term, full-time research post until 31 December 2027 in line with the grant funding.

At the University of Essex, internationalism and diversity is central to who we are and what we do. We are committed to being a cosmopolitan, internationally oriented university that is welcoming to staff and students from all countries, faiths and backgrounds, where you can find the world in one place.