Research Fellow – Quantitative Ecology

About us

This is an exciting opportunity to join an interdisciplinary team of researchers from UCL on a Future Leaders Fellowship-funded project that will innovate the use of environmental DNA isolated from the air to improve our understanding of biodiversity data capture and of ecological networks. The research fellow will primarily be based at the People and Nature Lab on the new UCL East campus.

About the role

We are seeking an experienced postdoctoral scientist to lead on the data analysis associated with this project. Your role will be to analyse biodiversity data derived from airborne environmental DNA to explain finescale temporal variation in species richness, turnover, and community composition, and how these change over time according to environmental variation and human impacts. We are also interested in approaches which integrate biodiversity data streams from other sources and predict the validity of eDNA records from surrounding land use datasets. You will lead on the management of these datasets from the UK and across the world. The end goal is to derive multi-trophic ecological networks from these datasets, using a combination of inference from repeated temporal sampling and trait-based network approaches. You will perform lab work alongside others in order to generate these datasets (training and support is available from us).

This role is an open-ended contract with a funding end date of 31/10/2028 in the first instance. Appointment at Grade 7 is dependent upon having been awarded a PhD; if this is not the case, initial appointment will be at Grade 6B with payment at Grade 7 being backdated to the date of final submission of the PhD Thesis.

A job description and person specification can be accessed via the “Apply” button.

If you have queries about the role, please contact Dr Joanne Littlefair. If you need reasonable adjustments or a more accessible format to apply for this job online or have any queries about the application process, please contact the HR Administrator, quoting the advert reference number in your subject line.

About you

You hold a PhD in a relevant area and have significant experience of working in ecological/environmental genetics or ecology, with a strong quantitative component. You also have significant experience in the spatio-temporal analysis of large biodiversity datasets, for example in explaining environmental and human drivers of terrestrial biodiversity and/or ecological networks. Prior experience in constructing trait-based ecological networks and using large trait databases would be a significant advantage. Experience in the development, integration and management of large datasets is essential, as is the application of appropriate ecological statistics. You have knowledge of, or interest in learning, amplicon-based lab workflows, and would ideally have experience of conducting bioinformatic analyses for DNA-based data (e.g. shell scripting or python), although this is not essential.

There will be exciting opportunities to work with external partners and develop a network in this innovative research area, and take advantage of the significant career development opportunities that the wider team and UCL offer. Please read the person specification carefully when formulating your application.

What we offer

As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits. Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/reward-and-benefits to find out more.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

You can read more about our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/equality-diversity-inclusion/

Customer advert reference: B02-09452

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