Research Associate

About us 

The postholder will work on the Carbon Amazon Rainforest Activity (CarbonARA) project, researching processes and signatures of the Brazilian Amazon related to GHG emissions and take-up. The project is funded by the European Space Agency and led by the Earth Observation and Wildfire Research Group at King’s College London (https://wildfire.geog.kcl.ac.uk/), part of the NERC National Centre for Earth Observation (https://www.nceo.ac.uk/). The Group is located within King’s Department of Geography, part of the School of Global Affairs, and comprises a mix of research and technical staff with backgrounds in Physics, Computer Science, Physical Geography, Engineering and other scientific and technical subjects.  

About the role 

We wish to recruit a project scientist at King’s who will strengthen the existing CarbonARA team working on this international, multi-year remote sensing and in situ measurement and research effort funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI). The aim of CarbonARA is to collect and analyse new data to improve understanding of greenhouse gas emissions and take-up and related environmental processes across a vitally important region of the Amazon:  https://climate.esa.int/en/supporting-the-paris-agreement/CarbonARA/.

Research is happening across CarbonARA’s focus areas:

• Landscape Scale (non-Fire) GHG Fluxes;
• Vegetation Processes and Carbon Storage;
• Landscape Fire Magnitude, Emissions and Impact.
• Satellite Product Calibration and Validation

The postholder will focus their effort on one or more of these focus areas, depending on skills and experience, but will have opportunities to contribute across all. Data collection has started in 2025 with a field and airborne remote sensing/in situ measurement campaign and will continue for the next few years. The postholder will assist with future data collection, analysis and interpretation – and in the use of the already collected datasets - ultimately delivering scientific outputs in the form of project report contributions, presentations and peer-reviewed publications in the CarbonARA focus areas. They will report to the CarbonARA PI, Professor Martin Wooster, and will collaborate closely across the project with the UK team and with overseas partners in Europe and Brazil. A willingness to travel to Brazil on fieldwork and for other project activities is essential to the role.

This is a full time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered an a fixed-term contract until July 2028 with the possibility of extension subject to funding availability and satisfactory performance.

We wish to appoint a candidate who can start as soon as possible, and no later than September 2026. 

Research staff at King’s are entitled to at least 10 days per year (pro-rata) for professional development. This entitlement, from the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, applies to Postdocs, Research Assistants, Research and Teaching Technicians, Teaching Fellows and AEP equivalent up to and including grade 7. Visit the Centre for Research Staff Development for more information.

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. 

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