Postdoctoral Research Fellow or Associate (in ocean carbon cycle research)

This exciting HORIZON EUROPE funded post is available immediately until the end of 2028, based in Exeter, UK, in the Department of Geography.

We are seeking a motivated and innovative researcher to join Professor Schuster’s group in advancing the knowledge of the ocean’s role in the global carbon cycle. The successful candidate will contribute to the collection, integration, interoperability, and analyses of observations centred on marine carbon cycle variability and its drivers.

The ocean is a powerful contributor to Earth’s climate regulation. It is now absorbing about a quarter of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions – besides substantial amounts of heat – every year. Thus, it is one of the key players in moderating atmospheric CO₂ and heat buildup and hence the change of climate. However, rising oceanic CO₂ levels also significantly alter ocean chemistry and impact critical ecosystem services.

Determining these changes requires sustained, long-term high-quality in-situ observations, enabling impactful observation-based analyses informing forecasting ocean and climate models. Meeting these challenges, within the European HORIZON EUROPE projects GEORGE (https://george-project.eu/) and TRICUSO (https://tricuso.eu/), we are advancing technological developments, ocean observations, data integration and analyses through the leading European ocean observing research infrastructures ICOS, EMSO, Euro-Argo, and EMBRC.

This exciting role builds on our research group’s experience and supports international efforts in designing a scientifically robust, feasible, and sustainable observational strategy to monitor oceanic CO₂ uptake with improved confidence. Any future observational network utilises a range of instrument/sensor technologies, deployed on different platforms, and measuring multiple variables required to track oceanic CO₂ uptake and the drivers of its variability.

Your role’s contributions will include:

• Developing numerical tools to routinely
  • (i) assess the current observational capacity, from scientific products, financial, technological, logistical, and personnel demands, to data gaps, redundancies, and resilience;
  • (ii) define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of observational datasets;
  • (iii) identify dynamic biogeochemical ocean regimes and their shifting spatial and temporal boundaries;
  • (iv) optimise and update observational strategies for maximum scientific value within feasible and sustainable constraints.
• Supporting technological development and validation, and cataloguing observational capabilities and opportunities.
• Ensuring high data integrity through applying robust and rigorous quality control protocols.

Beyond identifying a scientifically optimum observational network, you will contribute to shaping an observational strategy that is not only scientifically robust and resilient, but technologically viable, financially and logistically realistic, established and maintained by skilled personnel within a well-trained workforce.

• Please ensure that you read the Job Description and Person Specification for full details of this role.

The University of Exeter

The University of Exeter is an equal opportunity employer. We are officially recognised as a Disability Confident employer and an Athena Swan accredited institution. Whilst all applicants will be judged on merit alone, we particularly welcome applications from groups currently underrepresented in the workforce. 

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