Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Location: Stirling Campus

The Post

How humans collectively respond to environmental change will ultimately determine the degree to which many global challenges of the 21st century are successfully met. Decision-makers must urgently tackle these global challenges, which are reflected across multiple United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including conserving biodiversity (SDGs 14 & 15), ensuring food and water security (SDG 2, 3 & 6), and responding to climate change (SDGs 7 & 13). Finding effective SDG solutions is critical but often hindered by the undesirable risk, high cost, and long timescale of their implementation. Testing proposed solutions that rely on large-scale or long-term social coordination or collective action is often intractable in real systems. If solutions could instead be tested with real people in realistic virtual worlds, their effectiveness could be evaluated risk free and at low cost through the development of suitable knowledge games.

The EcoKnowGames project will demonstrate the true inter-disciplinary potential of ecological knowledge games, which will include open-source, community-driven, accessible game software that applies game design and artwork from the humanities to data collection and modelling across the natural and social sciences, thereby creating a new tool for data collection, SDGs problem-solving, and human enrichment through a new kind of medium.

Description of Duties

• Leading on peer-reviewed publications
• Writing reports (e.g., to the funder)
• Collaborating with the team at the University of Stirling, James Hutton Institute, King’s College London and the company developing the game on broader project goals
• Statistical data analysis
• Attending research team meetings

Essential Criteria

Qualifications:

• A PHD (or nearing completion)

Research:

• Evidence of being able to conduct research independently

Skills, Attitude, and Behavioural:

• Evidence of good project management skills
• Proven ability to interact effectively with a range of colleagues

For further information, including a full description of duties, essential criteria and details on how to apply, please click the apply button above

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