Senior Research Associate/Research Associate - Transformation to Sustainability

Lancaster Environment Centre
Salary: £28,331 to £40,322
Closing Date: Wednesday 04 March 2020
Interview Date: Tuesday 17 March 2020
Reference: A2956

An exciting opportunity exists to work as a Research Associate/Senior Research Associate on an international Transformations To Groundwater Sustainability research project (https://t2sresearch.org/project/t2sgs/) which is part of the wider Transformations to Sustainability research programme( https://t2sresearch.org/about/).

The project aims to generate insights into ways of resolving the groundwater governance dilemmas that affect billions of people around the world. It draws on a variety of approaches (qualitative ethnographic, hydrogeological and engineering) to study promising grass-roots initiatives of people organizing around groundwater in India, Algeria, Morocco, USA, Chile, Peru, and Tanzania. The focus of the project is on the practices of knowing, accessing and sharing water, and on the knowledges, technologies and institutions involved. A key goal is to create action-research collaborations for addressing the challenges of human-groundwater interactions.

This post, based at Lancaster University, will support Professor Frances Cleaver (Principal Investigator) in delivering the project in collaboration with partners in other institutions. The appointee will facilitate the overall coordination of the project, the development of themes, approaches and methods, the joint learning, the management of data and communication and the generation and dissemination of outputs. They may undertake some short term limited fieldwork with project partners and will be expected to travel for project activities.

You will hold a PhD or have equivalent substantial experience of research and international development practice in one of the following areas: water/natural resource governance, collective action, agriculture and rural livelihoods, sustainable development or agrarian change. You will have experience of working with a range of relevant social science research methods and you hold strong collaborative, communication and interpersonal skills.

Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC), a department within Lancaster University offers a highly inclusive and stimulating environment for career development. We are committed to family-friendly and flexible working policies on an individual basis, as well as the Athena SWAN Charter, which recognises and celebrates good employment practice undertaken to address gender equality in higher education and research.

Informal enquiries can be addressed to Professor Frances Cleaver at Lancaster University, francescleaver@gmail.com, tel. 01274 770724.

The post will commence on 1 May 2020 or as soon as possible thereafter with an initial end date of 30 November 2021. There is a probability that an additional up to 4 – 12 months extension of the contract will be available, subject to agreement by the funding agencies and budget available.

We welcome applications from people in all diversity groups.

Further details:

Please note: unless specified otherwise in the advert, all advertised roles are UK based.

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