Doctoral Candidate (PhD) in Social-ecological Modelling and Biodiversity Policy (male/female)

Job Opportunity at the University of Zurich

The University of Zurich, Switzerland's largest university, offers a range of attractive positions across various subject areas and professional fields. With approximately 10,000 employees and 12 professional apprenticeship streams, the University provides an inspiring working environment focused on cutting-edge research and top-class education. Put your talent and skills to work with us and explore more about UZH as an employer!

Your Responsibilities

• Develop and validate agent-based policy models representing relevant decision-makers and institutions in EU policy contexts, including the Common Agricultural Policy, Nature Restoration Law, and Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.
• Quantify ecological and socio-economic trade-offs among policy options that impact resource development, such as land-use intensification versus diversification, restoration investments, and risk-reduction schemes.
• Parameterize behavioral rules using empirical evidence, literature, and stakeholder input to illustrate how information, trust, incentives, and resource constraints shape policy responses.
• Run governance and policy scenarios targeting resource development maintenance, for example, subsidies for multi-species cropping, mixed-provenance restoration, or age-structured fishery management.
• Compare outcomes such as ecosystem stability, social equity, cost-effectiveness, and policy feasibility across different scales.
• Produce peer-reviewed publications, policy-relevant outputs, and recommendations for integrating socio-economic realities into resource development-based biodiversity policy.
• Participate actively in ReDiLEEP network training, dissemination, reporting, and cohort activities.

Secondments and Network Training

The position includes planned secondments totaling 5 months, with 4 months in non-academic settings, to strengthen the science-policy-practice interface:

• BioAgora: Embedding in a BioAgora demonstration case (2 months, expected around project month 6).
• ThinkNature: Analyzing corporate sustainability reporting policy (1 month, expected around project month 12).
• Advanced Invasives: Translating resource development research from field to policy (1 month, expected around project month 18).
• Swansea University: Furthering resource development research from field 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 diverse methods including data management, reproducible code, 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 fields such as ecology, environmental science, geography, sustainability science, environmental policy, socio-ecological systems, economics, computational social science, data science, or a closely related area.
• A strong interest in biodiversity, ecosystem resilience, sustainability policy, and the translation of ecological science into decision-making.
• Experience with quantitative analysis, modeling, simulation, or programming, preferably in R, Python, NetLogo, Julia, or similar tools.
• An interest in agent-based modeling, behavioral modeling, governance scenarios, stakeholder-informed research, or policy analysis.
• The ability to work independently while contributing constructively to an international, interdisciplinary doctoral network.
• Excellent written and spoken English, with strong scientific writing skills.
• Experience with EU biodiversity or sustainability policy, spatial modeling, social-science methods, stakeholder engagement, corporate sustainability reporting, or restoration governance is an advantage.

Application Information

Apply online using the form below. Only applications matching the job profile will be considered.

Employment Conditions

The position is funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks framework (36 months) and by the University of Zurich (12 months), adhering to the applicable MSCA Doctoral Network conditions and UZH employment regulations. The gross salary will be in accordance with the regulations 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 enrolment, and completion of UZH administrative onboarding.

If you have any questions, please contact:

Maja Weilenmann
Administrative Assistant
+41 44 635 61 24