Research Associate in the Economic and Societal Barriers of Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage Implementation

Location: South Kensington Campus

Job Summary

ATESHAC is a collaborative research project between Imperial College London, the British Geological Survey and the University of Manchester funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, aiming to overcome the technical, economic and societal barriers associated with the deployment of Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) for decarbonisation of heating and cooling in the UK.  

We are looking to appoint a Research Associate, to work on characterizing the economic and societal impacts of ATES and developing socially acceptable and economically viable ATES implementations. You will develop survey instruments, conduct semi-structured interviews with experts and stakeholders, and employ non-market valuation techniques to understand public preferences for characteristics of ATES interventions and assess tradeoffs between them. You will join an experienced multidisciplinary team of experts, including engineers, geologists, social scientists and economists, working to develop solutions for the decarbonization of heating and cooling in the UK.

The position will be based at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial College London.

Duties and responsibilities

You will:

• Conduct interviews with stakeholders
• Develop survey instruments
• Apply non-market valuation
• Contribute to writing reports and academic papers

Essential requirements

• PhD in Environmental Economics, Ecological Economics, Energy Economics, Environmental Social Science, Geography or similar
• Experience with working in multidisciplinary groups
• Experience with field work
• Demonstrable experience with environmental valuation techniques
• Demonstrable experience with econometric modelling

Desirable requirements

• Experience with semi-structured interviews
• Understanding of the energy sector

Further Information

This is a full time, fixed term contract for 12 months, starting in January 2023 or as soon as possible thereafter. You will be based at South Kensington Campus.

Should you require any further details on the role please contact: Yiannis Kountouris at i.kountouris@imperial.ac.uk

Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as a Research Assistant within the salary range £38,194 - £41,388 per annum.

The College is currently trialling a Work Location Framework until early 2023.  Hybrid working may be considered for this role and the role holder may be expected to work 60% or more of their time onsite, with 40% the minimum time spent onsite.  The opportunity for hybrid working will be discussed at interview.

The College is a proud signatory to the San-Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which means that in hiring and promotion decisions, we evaluate applicants on the quality of their work, not the journal impact factor where it is published. For more information, see https://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-evaluation/

The College believes that the use of animals in research is vital to improve human and animal health and welfare. Animals may only be used in research programmes where their use is shown to be necessary for developing new treatments and making medical advances. Imperial is committed to ensuring that, in cases where this research is deemed essential, all animals in the College’s care are treated with full respect, and that all staff involved with this work show due consideration at every level.

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-integrity/animal-research/ 

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