Post-doctoral Research Associate in Societal - South Kensington, United Kingdom - Imperial College London

Imperial College London

Verified Company

South Kensington, United Kingdom

3 weeks ago

Posted by:

Tom O´Connor

beBee Recruiter

Description

We look forward to welcoming a new team member to the newly established Hitachi-Imperial Centre for Decarbonisation and Natural Climate Solutions.

The new Centre will enable a fundamental and applied research programme to be established where Imperial and Hitachi will collaborate on selected research projects, reports and white papers on the challenges and technologies in reaching net zero, as well as potential scenarios that could arise when the world reaches net zero.

Bringing together world-leading scientists and innovators in decarbonisation that will work across disciplines, it will cover a variety of fields from engineering and systems thinking to economics, new business models and policy making.

Together, these efforts will aim to develop new technology and solutions to the climate emergency.

It will carry out research and prepare reports and white papers on the technologies needed to achieve net zero and will help train the next generation of net-zero scientists and engineers.

We are looking for a post-doctoral researcher to become part of our team and implement one of the first projects of the Hitachi and Imperial Centre for Decarbonisation and Natural Climate Solutions.

The aim of this project is to provide an integrated vision of possible future low-carbon transformations, and the role different sectors and technologies play in these.

You will use literature review techniques and public databases of low-carbon transformation scenarios to identify a set of scenarios that describe different transitions in major drivers of environmental impact, such as mobility, energy, food, etc.

The review will start from existing global pathways assessed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

In a next phase, you will translate the global insights from these pathways into implications on more granular scales, such as single countries or sectors.

It is envisioned that the research will select both a developed and developing geographical region for this next phase.

The desired level of detail will be determined through an iterative consultation within the project team and the stakeholders at Imperial and Hitachi.

The outcome of this highly collaborative project is to stimulate an on-going exchange of ideas and insights between Hitachi and Imperial College, and to provide a framework through which the contributions and importance for the low-carbon transition of more targeted, technical projects can be understood.

You will be an active member of the thriving academic community at Imperial College and the Centre for Environmental Policy, with opportunities to participate in seminars, receive targeted training, and engage with MSc and PhD students.

You will also be part of a dynamic, international, and interdisciplinary team.

Your role will entail working collaboratively with the project team from across Imperial College and from Hitachi; this will involve bridging perspectives from multiple fields.

Duties and responsibilities:

Key responsibilities of this role are to describe several integrated visions of how society might transform to a zero-carbon economy; this includes:

To review the peer-reviewed literature on integrated assessment modelling (IAM) scenarios
To access and use tools to extract information available in public scenario databases such as those accompanying the Working Group III Contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
To analyse macrotrends in IAM scenarios, their potential variations when assuming different socioeconomic futures (e.g., different Shared Socioeconomic Pathways) and translate these to implications at the sector, technology and country level, based on specialized literature
To collaborate with the project team at Imperial and Hitachi to understand key areas of interest that would benefit from further analysis
To lead on writing project reports and preparing results for dissemination via presentations and seminars. This includes developing schematics and visuals
To keep up to date with the societal transformation and scenario literature

The research associate will also be expected to be an active team member, which includes:

To contribute to the timely production of project outcomes
To assist with the drafting and preparation of manuscript for submission to refereed journals
To assist with the presentation of research findings to colleagues
To attend relevant workshops, project or other meetings as necessary
To develop contacts and collaborations within the College and the wider community
To promote the reputation of the Group, the Department and the College

Essential requirements:

A PhD or equivalent professional qualification in an area relevant to integrated assessment, energy system modelling, societal transformations or climate economics
Excellent knowledge of lowcarbon transformation scenarios, their underlying drivers, and the broader scenario literatu