Doctoral Candidate (PhD) within the MSCA Doctoral Network ReDiLEEP

Centro de Investigaciones sobre Desertificación (CIDE, CSIC-UV-GVA); España; On-site; EUR 29,000 - 36,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation support

Job summary

The Centro de Investigaciones sobre Desertificación (CIDE), in collaboration with the University of Valencia, invites applications for a Doctoral Candidate position within the ReDiLEEP MSCA Doctoral Network. The project investigates response diversity through trait-based ecology using regional and global vegetation data.

The successful candidate will address how climatic extremes affect ecosystem stability, combining observational and experimental approaches with interdisciplinary training and

Qualifications

• Master's degree in Ecology, Environmental Sciences, or related disciplines.
• Strong interest in community ecology, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
• Experience with ecological experiments and/or quantitative data analysis.
• Strong data analysis skills (preferably in R).

Responsibilities

• Create a Personal Career Development Plan outlining objectives, timelines, and skills.
• Design and conduct lab microcosm experiments to study how drivers affect species responses and ecosystem stability.
• Analyze experimental and field data using advanced statistics.
• Communicate results to ReDiLEEP predictive-model developers.
• Publish in journals and present at international conferences.
• Participate in ReDiLEEP training, secondments, dissemination, and reporting.

Skills

Interest in community ecology

Ecological experiments

Quantitative data analysis

Data analysis in R

Education

Master's degree in Ecology, Environmental Sciences, or related disciplines

Tools

R

Job description

Organisation/Company Centro de Investigaciones sobre Desertificación (CIDE, CSIC-UV-GVA) Department Ecology and Global Change: functional diversity lab Research Field Biological sciences Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions PhD Positions Application Deadline 30 Oct 2026 - 23:59 (Europe/Brussels) Country Spain Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 35 Offer Starting Date 1 Mar 2027 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Horizon Europe - MSCA Marie Curie Grant Agreement Number 101312530 Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

Response diversity describes the variation in how individuals, species, or functional groups respond toenvironmentalchangeandtheconceptisincreasinglyrecognisedasakeydriverofecosystemresilience.Understandingandpromotingresponsediversityisthereforeessentialforconservingbiodiversityandsupportingresilientecosystemsinachangingworld.

The CIDE-CSIC, in collaboration with the University of Valencia, invites applications for a Doctoral Candidate position within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network ReDiLEEP ( https://redileep.eu/ ).ReDiLEEPbringstogetherleadinguniversities,researchinstitutes,andnon-academicpartnersacrossEuropeandbeyondtoadvanceresponsediversityresearchandtranslatenewknowledgeintoecosystemmanagement,restoration,andbiodiversitypolicy.

The Doctoral Candidate will contribute to this effort by investigating response diversity through the lenses of trait based ecology and temporal ecological datasets at regional and global scales in natural vegetation. The project will focus on how climatic extremes affect the capacity of response diversity to stabilize ecosystems through compensatory dynamics within and among species. To address these questions, the candidate will combine analyses of existing datasets with experimental work, ranging from simple bioassays to advanced metacommunity experiments conducted under controlled conditions.Thepositionoffersopportunitiesforinterdisciplinaryresearch,internationalcollaboration,andexchangevisitswithpartnersacrosstheReDiLEEP consortium, complemented by a comprehensive programme of scientific and transferable skills training.

Research Project DC8,

Disruption of compensatory dynamics under extreme climatic events. DC8 will investigate how climatic extremes disrupt compensatory dynamics and alter the stabilizing effects of response diversity in plant communities. The candidate will examine how temporal and spatial asynchrony among species, and among individuals within species, changes under increasing climatic variability and extreme events. Specifically, the project will test whether functional traits can predict changes in the degree of overlap in species performance,phenology,anddemographicresponsesunderclimaticstress,andwhethersuchchangesreducethecapacityofRDtopromoteecosystemstability.

Theprojectcombinesobservational,experimental,andmacroecologicalapproachesacrossmultiplespatialscales.First,regionaldatasetsofplantphenologyandmulti-yearcollectionsofseedmaterialfromcontrastingclimaticconditionswillbeusedtoquantifytemporalandspatialpatternsofsynchronyandasynchronyamongpopulationsandspecies.Second,fieldexperiments,commongardenstudies,andcontrolledgrowth-chamberexperimentswillassesshowclimaticextremesinfluencetraitvariationandresponsedynamicsamongindividualsandspecies.Finally,thecandidatewilluseglobalvegetationtime-seriesdatafromtheLOTVSinitiative( https://lotvs.csic.es/ )toevaluatehowcompensatorydynamicscontributetocommunitystabilityworldwideandtodeterminewhetherextremeclimaticeventsweakenthesestabilizingmechanismsacrossecosystems.Byintegratingfunctionaltraitecology,long-termecologicalmonitoring,andexperimentalapproaches,theprojectwilladvanceourunderstandingofthemechanismslinkingresponsediversity,climaticextremes,andecosystemresilience.

• Create a Personal Career Development Plan (PCDP) outlining research objectives, timelines, skill development goals, and career aspirations. Organize, prepare and follow up biannual meetings of the supervisory teams.
• Design and conduct laboratory microcosm experiments to investigate how different environmental drivers influence species responses, community dynamics and ecosystem stability.
• Analyse experimental and field data using state-of-the-art statistical approaches.
• Actively communicate results to the developers of predictive models within ReDiLEEP.
• Disseminate your research through publications in leading international journals and presentations at international conferences and workshops.
• Participate actively in ReDiLEEP network training, secondments, dissemination, reporting, and cohort activities.

Secondments and Network Training

The position includes planned secondments at other collaborating institutes of the ReDiLEEP consoritum.

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.

Employment Conditions

• The position is funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks framework and will follow the applicable MSCA Doctoral Network conditions and the CSIC employment regulations.
• Gross salary: In accordance with the regulation of the Marie Curie Fellowship
• Duration: 36 months, full-time.
• Place of work: Moncada, Valencia, Spain
• Start of employment: Expected starting date is 01 March 2027, subject to final MSCA eligibility verification, doctoral programme enrolment, and completion of administrative onboarding.

Where to apply

E-mail [e-mail]

Requirements

Research Field Biological sciences Education Level Master Degree or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

• Master's degree in Ecology, Environmental Sciences, or related disciplines.
• A strong interest in community ecology, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
• Experience with ecological experiments and/or quantitative data analysis
• Strong data analysis skills (preferably in R).

Specific Requirements

Applicants must meet the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network eligibility requirements at the recruitment date:

• Mobility rule: applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity, such as work or studies, in Spain for more than 12 months during the 36 months preceding 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 Valencia.
• Applicants must work full-time and exclusively for the ReDiLEEP project during the appointment, in accordance with the applicable MSCA rules.
• Exceptions to the mobility rule apply for compulsory national service, refugee status, and temporary protection.

Languages ENGLISH Level Excellent

Research Field Biological sciences

Additional Information

• A 36-month full-time doctoral position atCSIC in an international MSCA Doctoral Network.
• Stimulating scientific environment in an internationally connected, open, and friendly working environment.
• Relocation and integration support through the CSIC-WIT office, including guidance on visas, residence permits, social security, and daily-life integration.

Eligibility criteria

MSCA Eligibility Criteria

Applicants must meet the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network eligibility requirements at the recruitment date:

• Mobility rule: applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity, such as work or studies, in Spain for more than 12 months during the 36 months preceding 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 Valencia.
• Applicants must work full-time and exclusively for the ReDiLEEP project during the appointment, in accordance with the applicable MSCA rules.
• Exceptions to the mobility rule apply for compulsory national service, refugee status, and temporary protection.

Selection process

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to interviews in English. According to the current recruitment timeline, eligibility screening is planned for mid November 2026. The final selection will be communicated shortly after.

Recruitment will follow open, transparent, and merit-based recruitment principles and the MSCA Code of Conduct for the recruitment of researchers. Applications will be assessed on eligibility, scientific excellence, motivation, fit with the project, quantitative and modelling skills, and potential to contribute to the ReDiLEEP doctoral network. Selection committees will be composed to ensure diverse expertise, appropriate gender balance, international perspective, and absence of conflicts of interest.

Additional comments

For scientific questions about the project or application process, please contact Francesco de Bello. For questions regarding salary, employment conditions or other HR-related matters, please contact [e-mail] The CSICis committed to diversity, equal opportunities, and inclusive recruitment.We welcome applications from qualified candidates of all backgrounds.