Research Assistant in River Ecology

Nottingham Trent University; Nottingham; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading research institution in the UK is seeking a Researcher to join their team in a collaborative project focusing on temporary river ecology. The role involves analyzing ecological data to assess community responses to environmental changes, including human impacts and seasonal variations. With opportunities for professional development and networking, this position is funded for 0.8 FT for 8 months and encourages hybrid working arrangements.

Benefits

Hybrid working

Flexibility in work patterns

Salary Sacrifice Retirement Savings Plan

Health and wellbeing services

Professional development opportunities

Qualifications

• Strong scientific background in river ecosystems.
• Proven ability to analyze complex ecological datasets using advanced modeling.

Responsibilities

• Analyze collated data to characterize community responses to environmental variation.
• Calculate indices representing community health.
• Model index responses to environmental drivers.

Skills

Scientific understanding of river ecosystems

Experience of using advanced modelling approaches to analyse ecological datasets

Job description

NTU researchers are globally recognised leaders in the discipline of freshwater ecology. To ensure the real-world relevance of our research, we work with a breadth of external partners.

We are seeking to recruit a Researcher to join our team to contribute to a collaborative project with the Environment Agency and the charity WildFish. This post is within the burgeoning discipline of temporary river ecology.

The project aims to advance understanding of how aquatic invertebrate communities respond to human pressures in these dynamic ecosystems. Enabled by our collaborators, we will collate all available data describing these communities and the environments they inhabit, including their modification by human pressures. We will focus on "winterbourne" chalk stream ecosystems recognised for their biodiversity, including rare and specialist species.

Your primary role will be to analyse the collated data to characterise community responses to environmental variation. You'll calculate indices representing community health and then model index responses to environmental drivers. Your findings will enable us to evaluate the capacity of each index to distinguish responses to natural environmental variations specifically, seasonal river drying and to human pressures. Working closely with our collaborators will ensure project results are immediately used to improve river health assessments in winterbourne streams.

We also expect to produce a scientific paper to share findings with our global research community, and you'll have opportunities to attend stakeholder meetings, thus strengthening your professional network.

Qualifications and Experience

• Scientific understanding of river ecosystems.
• Experience of using advanced modelling approaches to analyse ecological datasets.

Other Information

We welcome applications even if you don't meet every one of the requirements.

This role is funded for 0.8 FT (full-time, i.e. 30 hours per week) for 8 months at grade F salary pay point 519, and the exact contract end date will therefore depend on whether the successful candidate works full-time or part-time, as well as their agreed pay point.

Benefits

• Hybrid working - we encourage and offer a mixture of office working and working from home.
• Flexibility - take ownership over how you get your work done. We're open to different working patterns and approaches.
• Salary Sacrifice Retirement Savings Plan with life assurance and income protection. Available to colleagues who choose to opt out of the contractual pension scheme. Minimum colleague contributions of 0% matched with minimum NTU contributions of 8%.
• Access to a wealth of formal and informal professional development opportunities to develop your skills and advance your career.
• Range of health and wellbeing services, including a Health Cash Plan, voluntary benefits, discounts, and savings for all colleagues.
• And a whole lot more. Find out more about the range of benefits we offer.