Research Assistant in Net-Zero skills

Part time: 7 hours per week

Fixed term: 15 months

The Opportunity:

Join an exciting interdisciplinary project exploring how universities can better prepare graduates with the knowledge and skills needed to support the transition to a net-zero future.

Funded through the Principal's Teaching Award Scheme (PTAS), this Research Assistant role offers the opportunity to contribute to a high-impact project investigating how net-zero skills can be more effectively embedded across higher education curricula. Working with colleagues from the School of GeoSciences, the Department of Social Responsibility and Sustainability, the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute, the Business School and Edinburgh Napier University, you will help generate evidence that informs curriculum innovation and strengthens links between higher education and industry.

The successful candidate will play a central role in designing and delivering mixed-methods research, including:

• Reviewing current literature and practice relating to the integration of net-zero skills in higher education.
• Designing and conducting semi-structured interviews with Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to explore industry perspectives on the skills required to support the transition to net zero.
• Developing and delivering a survey for university staff to identify current practice, opportunities and barriers to embedding net-zero skills within university programmes.
• Planning and facilitating a collaborative focus group bringing together university staff, students and SME partners to discuss findings and identify practical solutions.
• Analysing qualitative and quantitative data to produce evidence-based recommendations, case studies, learning resources and a practical net-zero skills framework for wider use across the higher education sector.

This role offers an excellent opportunity for an enthusiastic researcher with experience of qualitative and quantitative research methods who is interested in education, sustainability and climate change. You will gain experience working across disciplines and sectors while contributing to the University's ambitions to embed climate and sustainability across learning and teaching.

A career with us has a range of other benefits that can be tailored to your lifestyle and ways of working.

Apply Before: 09/09/2026, 23:59

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