Doctoral Candidate (PhD) in Biodiversity Policy and Response / Doctoral Candidate (PhD) in Biodiversity Policy and Response

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The University of Zurich, Switzerland's largest university, offers a variety of attractive positions in diverse subject areas and professional fields. With around 10,000 employees and 12 professional apprenticeship streams, the University provides an inspiring working environment focused on cutting-edge research and top-class education. Leverage your talent and skills with us and discover more about UZH as an employer!

Your Responsibilities

• Review and synthesize response diversity research relevant to EU biodiversity policy needs, particularly in the areas of restoration, deforestation, and corporate biodiversity reporting.
• Apply AI-assisted text analysis and network analysis to scientific literature, policy documents, and decision-making frameworks.
• Identify conceptual alignments, mismatches, and evidence gaps between response diversity science and European biodiversity, restoration, and sustainability policy.
• Analyze governance processes to determine where ecological resilience, system stability, and diversity mechanisms can enhance conservation and restoration policy.
• Specify research needs for response diversity metrics and assessment methods that support biodiversity policy goals.
• Develop draft indicator sets and monitoring templates linking response diversity to ecosystem function, resilience, and sustainability goals.
• Produce peer-reviewed publications, policy-relevant outputs, and recommendations for integrating response diversity metrics into environmental assessments, reporting standards, and restoration funding guidelines.
• Actively engage in ReDiLEEP network training, secondments, dissemination, reporting, and cohort activities.

Secondments and Network Training

The position includes planned secondments totaling four months, with opportunities in non-academic settings to strengthen the science-policy-practice interface:

• BioAgora: embedding in a BioAgora demonstration case (1 month, expected around project month 6).
• Swansea University: translating response diversity research to policy (1 month, expected around project month 12).
• CarU: linking response diversity monitoring and policy (1 month, expected around project month 18).
• Advanced Invasives: applying response diversity research to policy (1 month, expected around project month 24).

The successful candidate will join an interdisciplinary cohort of doctoral researchers and benefit from ReDiLEEP training in response diversity methods, data management, reproducible coding, R/Tidyverse, machine learning and AI for ecologists, visualization, evidence-based policymaking, science-policy communication, and policy brief writing.

Your Profile

• A Master's degree, or equivalent, in ecology, environmental science, geography, sustainability science, environmental policy, biodiversity governance, computational social science, data science, or a closely related field.
• Strong interest in biodiversity policy, ecosystem resilience, restoration, sustainability reporting, and the translation of ecological science into decision-making.
• Experience with literature synthesis, policy analysis, quantitative text analysis, network analysis, statistical modeling, or programming, preferably in R, Python, or similar tools.
• Interest in AI-assisted analysis methods, science-policy interfaces, indicator development, monitoring frameworks, and EU environmental governance.
• Ability to work independently while contributing constructively to an international, interdisciplinary doctoral network.
• Excellent written and spoken English, along with strong scientific writing skills.
• Experience with EU biodiversity or sustainability policy, environmental assessment, corporate sustainability reporting, natural capital frameworks, stakeholder engagement, or open-science workflows is advantageous.

How to Apply

Apply online using the form below. Please note that only applications matching the job profile will be considered.

Employment Conditions

This position is financed by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks framework (36 months) and the University of Zurich (12 months) and will adhere to the relevant MSCA Doctoral Network conditions (for 36 months) and University of Zurich employment regulations (for 12 months).

• Gross salary: In accordance with the regulation of the Marie Curie Fellowship and UZH salary rates for the last 12 months.
• Duration: 48 months, full-time.
• Place of work: University of Zurich, Irchel campus, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
• Start of employment: Between February 1st and June 30th, 2027. The appointment is subject to final MSCA eligibility verification, doctoral programme enrollment, and completion of UZH administrative onboarding.

For inquiries, please contact:

Maja Weilenmann
Administrative Assistant
+41 44 635 61 24