PhD in Pro-Environmental Behaviour

University of Turku; Turku; On-site; EUR 28,000 - 31,000; Full time

Job summary

The Department of Biodiversity Sciences at the University of Turku invites applications for a doctoral researcher/project researcher to work on the ERC-funded NATURETIME project in the BISONS Lab in Turku, Finland.

The position is a fixed-term full-time contract for 48 months, starting not earlier than January and no later than April, with a salary around 2500–2800 € per month under the Finnish university system.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in psychology, behavioural science, or related field.
• Demonstrated quantitative data analysis skills.
• Experience with experimental research design and/or human participants.
• Excellent written and spoken English; Finnish language desirable.
• Ability to work independently and in a team; willingness to learn new methods.

Responsibilities

• Carry out behavioural experiments with participants, including recruitment and planning.
• Analyse data, interpret findings, develop reproducible data-analysis workflows, and prepare manuscripts for publication.
• Support teaching and supervision activities (no more than 5% of full-time hours).

Skills

Quantitative data analysis

Experimental research design

English communication

Finnish language (desirable)

Interdisciplinary collaboration

Teaching supervision

Willingness to learn

Education

Master's degree (MSc or equivalent) in psychology/behavioral science or related field

Tools

R

Python

Gorilla

Prolific

Job description

The Department of Biodiversity Sciences at the University of Turku invites applications for a doctoral researcher/project researcher to work in the ERC-funded NATURETIME project. The position is offered a fixed-term full‑time contract for 48 months (4 years), with employment commencing no earlier than January12027 and no later than April12027.

The doctoral researcher/project researcher will be working with the Biodiversity and Sustainability Solutions (BISONS) Lab. Our research team aims to contribute toward finding solutions for sustainable futures that can benefit people and nature. We focus on developing new insights on human‑nature interactions and using that information to enhance biodiversity conservation and sustainability efforts.

We are a growing international and interdisciplinary research group and draw from a range of approaches for our research, with a strong focus on digital data and methods. The successful candidate is expected to benefit from and collaborate with other team members, including the PI and approximately ten other researchers (MSc and PhD students, post‑docs and project researchers), as well as with an extended network of international collaborators.

Job description

The selected candidate will work on the ERC-funded project entitled “Understanding how nature reshapes human sense of time to foster well‑being and sustainable futures” (NATURETIME). The project aims to understand how nature experiences influence human time perception and how time perception influences human behaviours towards nature. For this, the project will use virtual‑reality experiments to understand how specific landscape features and nature experiences influence human time perception, and validate experimental results using real‑world data obtained with citizen science. The project will also model the effects of nature on time perception at the landscape scale under different scenarios and employ behavioural experiments and Big Data analytics to understand how changes in time perception influence pro‑environmental and sustainable behaviours. NATURETIME aims to generate actionable knowledge to inform the design of cities and other living environments, thereby improving human time‑perception regulation, boosting well‑being, and stimulating the positive and sustainable behaviours needed to address ongoing environmental challenges. The research will be developed within the broader scientific objectives of NATURETIME. The specific focus of the work will be further developed together with the supervisory team, allowing the researcher to contribute intellectually to the development of the research while working within the overall scope of the project.

Responsibilities

• Carry out behavioural experiments with participants, including tasks related to participant recruitment and the planning of the experiments.
• Analyse the data obtained, interpret research findings, develop transparent and reproducible data‑analysis workflows, and prepare scientific manuscripts for publication.
• Willingness to participate and support teaching and supervision activities (no more than 5% of full‑time working hours) is considered an advantage.

Who we are looking for

• A master’s degree (MSc or equivalent) in psychology, behavioural science, or other related fields relevant to the study of human behaviour and decision‑making.
• Motivation to conduct research with the aim of a dissertation.
• Demonstrated quantitative data analysis skills.
• A good understanding of experimental research design and/or experience conducting research with human participants.
• Excellent communication skills in English, both spoken and written.
• Ability to communicate in Finnish is also desirable.
• Strong organisational and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively, both independently and as part of a team.
• Willingness to learn new methods and develop interdisciplinary research.
• For this position you should either have a study right for doctoral studies in the University of Turku or you will apply for one in Autumn1926.
• The position requires working in Finland, and the place of work is Turku.

• Experience using serious games and/or choice‑experiments for research purposes.
• Knowledge of online experiment, task and/or survey platforms (e.g. Gorilla, Prolific, etc.).
• Awareness of time‑series, multilevel, Bayesian, or causal inference analysis.
• Experience with statistical programming tools (e.g. R, Python) for data analysis.
• Demonstrated interest in human‑nature interactions and/or sustainability topics.
• Familiarity with reproducible research workflows, research data management, and/or open science practices.
• Previous experience in communicating research to academic and/or non‑academic audiences (e.g. scientific manuscripts, presentations, popular articles, etc.).
• Demonstrated interest in teaching development and implementation, as well as student/researcher supervision.

Benefits

• Responsible and interesting tasks and the opportunity to develop your professional skills in a versatile operating environment.
• Professional and inspiring team support your work.
• We take care of your well‑being at work and the functionality of your everyday life, e.g. with the help of flexible working hours and our well‑being services.
• Possibilities to develop your expertise – We encourage our personnel to develop their professional expertise by offering versatile training and competence development possibilities which employees can take advantage of during their working hours.
• Also, the course offering of Open University is free of charge for our personnel.
• Your well‑being is important to us! – In addition to comprehensive occupational health care, our own well‑being services monitor, support and develop the well‑being of our personnel.
• You are entitled to use the CampusSport’s services at a personnel price.
• We support your work‑life balance – Flexible working hours and extensive remote work options help you balance work and leisure time.
• An inspiring and supportive work community – We encourage each other and value working together!

Salary

The salary is determined by the collective agreement system of Finnish universities, aligning with the research personnel category. Salary for a doctoral researcher will be in levels 2-4 and personal performance will be added to task‑specific salary. The salary will commensurate with qualifications and experience and basis on the University salary system and will in the beginning of the employment be approximately 2500–2800€ / month. The salary is determined when the employment contract is drawn up. The position is subject to a six (6) month trial period.

Application Deadline

The closing date for applications is August31 at 16:00 (Europe/Helsinki).

Contact

For more information on the position, please contact Associate Professor Ricardo Henriques Correia raheco(at)utu.fi. For questions related to the application process, please contact HR Specialist Saija Marjasto saija.marjasto(at)utu.fi.