Doctoral Candidate (PhD) in Social-ecological Modelling and Biodiversity Policy — Universität Zürich
CHF 91'500 - 128'000
Universität Zürich · Zurich (ZH)
- Location
- Zurich
- Contract
- full-time
- Posted
- 15 days ago
SalaryCHF 91'500 - 128'000
Role overview
Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies
Start of employment 01.02.2027
Response diversity describes the variation in how individuals, species, or functional groups respond to environmental change and the concept is increasingly recognized as a key driver of ecosystem resilience.
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies
- Start of employment 01.02.2027
- 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.
- A Master's degree, or equivalent, in ecology, environmental science, geography, sustainability science, environmental policy, socio-ecological systems, economics, computational social science, data science, or a closely related field.
- Strong interest in biodiversity, ecosystem resilience, sustainability policy, and the translation of ecological science into decision-making.
Main responsibilities
- 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 influence RD, such as land-use intensification versus diversification, restoration investments, and risk-reduction schemes.
- Parameterise behavioural rules using empirical evidence, literature, and stakeholder input to represent how information, trust, incentives, and resource constraints shape policy responses.
- Run governance and policy scenarios targeting RD 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 scales.
- Produce peer-reviewed publications, policy-relevant outputs, and recommendations for integrating socio-economic realities into RD-based biodiversity policy.
- Participate actively in ReDiLEEP network training, secondments, dissemination, reporting, and cohort activities. Secondments and Network Training
- The position includes 5 months of planned secondments, 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).
Key requirements
- A Master's degree, or equivalent, in ecology, environmental science, geography, sustainability science, environmental policy, socio-ecological systems, economics, computational social science, data science, or a closely related field.
- Strong interest in biodiversity, ecosystem resilience, sustainability policy, and the translation of ecological science into decision-making.
- Experience with quantitative analysis, modelling, simulation, or programming, preferably in R, Python, NetLogo, Julia, or comparable tools.
- Interest in agent-based modelling, behavioural modelling, governance scenarios, stakeholder-informed research, or policy analysis.
- Ability to work independently while contributing constructively to an international, interdisciplinary doctoral network.
- Excellent written and spoken English and strong scientific writing skills.
- Experience with EU biodiversity or sustainability policy, spatial modelling, social-science methods, stakeholder engagement, corporate sustainability reporting, or restoration governance is an advantage. MSCA Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants must meet the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network eligibility requirements at the recruitment date:
- Applicants must not already hold a doctoral degree.
- Applicants must be doctoral candidates and be enrolled, or eligible to be enrolled, in a doctoral programme at the University of Zurich.
- Applicants must work full-time and exclusively for the ReDiLEEP project during the appointment, in accordance with the applicable MSCA and UZH rules.
- Mobility rule: applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity, such as work or studies, in Switzerland for more than 12 months during the 36 months immediately before the recruitment date.
What the company offers
- The successful candidate will join an interdisciplinary cohort of doctoral researchers and benefit from ReDiLEEP training in response diversity methods, data management, reproducible code, R/Tidyverse, machine learning and AI for ecologists, visualisation, evidence-based policymaking, science-policy communication, and policy brief writing.
- Our employees benefit from a wide range of attractive offers.
Application process
- Exceptions to the mobility rule apply for compulsory national service, refugee status, and temporary protection. Employment Conditions
- The University of Zurich invites applications for a Doctoral Candidate position in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network ReDiLEEP.
- ReDiLEEP brings together leading universities, research institutes, and non-academic partners across Europe and beyond to advance response diversity research and translate new knowledge into ecosystem management, restoration, and biodiversity policy.
- The Doctoral Candidate will contribute to this effort by investigating response diversity focusing on identifying and quantifying the socio-economic, cultural, and ecological trade-offs that arise when environmental policies prioritise response diversity as a mechanism for ecosystem resilience. Research Project DC12
- DC12 will identify and quantify the socio-economic, cultural, and ecological trade-offs that arise when environmental policies prioritise RD as a mechanism for ecosystem resilience.
- The project will use Agent-Based Policy Modelling (ABPM) to simulate how actors such as land managers, farmers, local authorities, and conservation agencies respond to incentives designed to maintain or enhance RD.
- This framework will capture feedbacks between ecological dynamics (e.g. functional trait variability, species turnover, co-tolerance) and human decision-making (e.g. economic trade-offs, compliance, cooperation).
- Further, the candidate will validate ABPMs representing key decision-makers and institutions within EU policy contexts (e.g.
Additional details
- The Doctoral Candidate will contribute to this effort by investigating response diversity focusing on identifying and quantifying the socio-economic, cultural, and ecological trade-offs that arise when environmental policies prioritise response diversity as a mechanism for ecosystem resilience. Research Project DC12
- Ultimately, the project will elaborate actionable recommendations that integrate socioeconomic realities into response diversity approaches, strengthening the practicable applicability of biodiversity policy for long-term ecological and social resilience.
- Participate actively in ReDiLEEP network training, secondments, dissemination, reporting, and cohort activities. Secondments and Network Training
- Experience with EU biodiversity or sustainability policy, spatial modelling, social-science methods, stakeholder engagement, corporate sustainability reporting, or restoration governance is an advantage. MSCA Eligibility Criteria
- Exceptions to the mobility rule apply for compulsory national service, refugee status, and temporary protection. Employment Conditions
- The appointment is subject to final MSCA eligibility verification, doctoral programme enrolment, and completion of UZH administrative onboarding.
- Find out more: https://www.uzh.ch/de/explore/work.html.
- Childcare at the kihz foundation of UZH and ETH Learning and Development
- Language Center run jointly with ETH Zurich
- Food and drinks at reduced prices in the UZH cafeterias Lunch-Check-card with UZH contribution
Notes and original content
- The Doctoral Candidate will contribute to this effort by investigating response diversity focusing on identifying and quantifying the socio-economic, cultural, and ecological trade-offs that arise when environmental policies prioritise response diversity as a mechanism for ecosystem resilience.
- Research Project DC12
- What We Offer
- Participate actively in ReDiLEEP network training, secondments, dissemination, reporting, and cohort activities.
- Secondments and Network Training
- Your profile
- Experience with EU biodiversity or sustainability policy, spatial modelling, social-science methods, stakeholder engagement, corporate sustainability reporting, or restoration governance is an advantage.
- MSCA Eligibility Criteria
- Exceptions to the mobility rule apply for compulsory national service, refugee status, and temporary protection.
- Employment Conditions
Questions about this listing
What salary does Universität Zürich offer for this role?
Universität Zürich lists CHF 91'500 - 128'000 gross per year for this position in Zurich. This is the salary published in the original listing (or, when the employer omits a figure, a realistic estimate for the role and sector) — the calculator on this site converts it to your actual net take-home once cross-border tax and social contributions are applied.
Is this a full-time role, and what type of contract does Universität Zürich offer?
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