Apply by 26 March to join the Paris Global Hub of Future Earth as a Science Officer.Location: Paris, France
Closing date for applications: 26 March 2017
The Future Earth programme
Future Earth is a 10-year initiative to advance Global Sustainability Science, build capacity in this rapidly expanding area of research and provide an international research agenda to inspire natural and social scientists working around the world. It is also a platform for international engagement to ensure that knowledge is generated in partnership with society and users of science. We are closely engaged in international processes such as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and climate and biodiversity agreements (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity).
The prime mechanism for delivering our research strategy are Future Earth’s Knowledge-Action Networks. They are collaborative frameworks that facilitate highly integrative sustainability research on key societal challenges. Their aim is to generate the multifaceted knowledge needed to inform solutions for complex societal issues.
Setting of the hub in Paris
The architecture of the Secretariat for Future Earth is special in its global distribution. It encompasses five global hubs located in five different countries: the U.S. (Colorado), Canada (Montreal), Japan (Tokyo), Sweden (Stockholm) and France (Paris), connected through a dynamic network that includes regional centres and partner organisations. The Future Earth Secretariat is committed to inclusivity and to fostering the creativity and innovation required to address the challenges of global environmental change. In this spirit it provides coordination and enabling services to Future Earth’s communities of researchers, decision makers and stakeholders of sustainability science.
While distributed on three continents, the Secretariat operates as a single entity under the direction of an Executive Team (composed of the five Hub Directors and an Executive Director). Key functions of the Future Earth Secretariat include Coordination, Communication, Research Enabling, Capacity Building, and Synthesis & Foresight. The hub in Paris mainly focuses on Synthesis & Foresight and on Capacity Building. Furthermore it is involved particularly in three Knowledge-Action Networks, which focus on the nexus of water, food and energy, on natural assets and on ocean sustainability.
The Paris Hub is administered by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and hosted by the Université Pierre et Marie Curie. It is currently composed of a Global Hub Director, a Deputy Director, a scientific officer, a coordination officer and one part-time science officer
Task description
The Science Officer will work in a dynamic international setting. S/he is expected to work on science-policy interface aspects of Synthesis & Foresight and on the coordination of Knowledge-Action Networks – initially on the Food-Water-Energy Nexus, later increasingly on the topic of Extremes and Disaster Risk Reduction. This will include the following tasks:
- Serving the interface between science and policy, in particular between Future Earth and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As part of the Synthesis & Foresight team and under the direction of the Paris Hub Director, the tasks include ensuring information flow, preparing targeted products, mobilising the community, reporting and publishing and organising activities.
- As part of the coordination team of the respective Knowledge-Action Network and under the direction of its coordinator, preparing and supporting the work of the expert group developing the Knowledge-Action Network (literature review, survey, interviews, meeting preparation and reporting, etc.), maintaining the Nexus Knowledge-Action Network web pages and facilitating the Nexus Knowledge-Action Network Community on the Future Earth Open Network.
- Organising and/or participating in meetings in France and abroad.
Candidate qualification requirements
- Master’s or Ph.D. degree in a relevant social or natural science discipline
- Expertise in global change and global sustainability issues, especially in one or several of the following areas: climate change, food systems, energy systems, water systems, extreme events and risks, earth system governance, management of natural resources and environmental policies.
- Excellent organisational and oral and written communications skills.
- Fluency in English (native speaker level); good command of French.
- Experience in working on a complex project team.
Conditions
- Commencing as soon as mid-May 2017.
- This will be a one-year appointment, with the possibility of extension subject to satisfactory performance.
- Full-time French CDD contract (Contrat à durée déterminée).
- Maximum annual gross salary is in the order of 33k € depending on the skills and experience of the successful candidate.
Application procedure
Applicants to this position are requested to submit a curriculum vita, together with a cover letter describing how their skills and experience would help them meet the requirements of the role. Applications (preferably in one combined PDF file) should be sent via email to miia.ylostalo@futureearth.org with “Paris Science Officer” in the subject line. The closing date for applications is 26 March 2017. Interviews will preferably be held in person in Paris, or alternatively online, in the week of 3 April 2017. These dates are provided for information and planning and should not be considered as an interview invitation at this stage. Further details on the Future Earth secretariat and its tasks are available on request.