Research Assistant (Fixed Term)

Location: Central Cambridge

About Us:

The Cambridge Centre for Carbon Credits (4C) is dedicated to using a digital approach to direct climate finance to where it is most needed. We're seeking a motivated individual to join our interdisciplinary team. If you have excellent critical thinking skills, experience in coding, and a passion for nature conservation, we want to hear from you.

The role:

As a Research Assistant, you will be part of a multidisciplinary team focused on developing analytical approaches to produce unambiguous evaluations of conservation and restoration impact. These approaches combine open-source algorithms with data from remotely deployed satellites and sensors. Your role includes evaluating project impacts by collating pertinent data, developing software, running statistical analyses and presenting results in various formats.

Key Responsibilities:

• Evaluate project design documents meticulously, collating and curating pertinent data and narrative information.
• Assess project performance by using and developing 4C's digital methods.
• Prepare reports for the centre's head of science and other stakeholders, facilitating the expansion of climate change mitigation through the conservation and restoration of nature.
• Collaborate within the centre and with external stakeholders to refine assessments.
• Work closely with team members to automate reproducible data collection and analysis.

Project Background and Aims:

Carbon credits are a vital mechanism for financing the conservation and restoration of natural habitats, mitigating global climate change, and protecting biodiversity. However, the adoption of nature-based carbon credits faces challenges due to the lack of standardized, scalable, and transparent techniques. The Cambridge Centre for Carbon Credits (4C) aims to address this by evaluating real-world carbon credit projects.

Required Skills and Qualifications:

• Relevant Bachelors or Masters in science, or another quantitative / analytical subject
• A passion for nature in the context of solving the climate crises
• Ability to carefully and critically evaluate reports
• Proficiency in handling various data types, including tabular and geospatial data.
• Computer programming experience including command line and statistical software such as R or Python.
• An understanding of the principals of reproducible research methods (e.g. version control, GitHub).
• Experience with Geographic Information Systems
• Experience of statistical analysis and scientific writing
• Good organisation and time management skills
• A proactive approach to seeking guidance
• Ability to communicate research findings clearly in oral and written formats to collaborators and other members of the group

Applications are welcome from both internal and external candidates.

If you have any questions, please contact Dr Tom Swinfield at tws36@cam.ac.uk.

Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available for 1 years in the first instance.

Applications are welcome from internal candidates who would like to apply for the role on the basis of a secondment from their current role in the University.

Flexible working requests will be considered.

We particularly welcome applications from women and candidates from a BME background for this vacancy as they are currently under-represented at this level in our University.

To apply online for this vacancy and to view further information about the role, please click on the ‘Apply’ button above.

If you have any queries regarding the application process please contact Anastasia Nezhentseva.

Email: an286@cam.ac.uk

Telephone: (0)1223 330117

The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.

The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.

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