PhD fellowship in Environmental Economics

Department of Food and Resource Economics invites applicants for a PhD fellowship in Environmental Economic Land Use Modelling. The PhD project will support the research project “New Forests, new values new places [Nye skove, nye værdier, nye steder]”, which is financed by the Villum Foundation

The position is open from February 1st 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter.

The project
Over the coming decades, the Danish government has the ambition to increase the forest area by 250,000 hectares to meet a number of strategic environmental and climate goals. It is currently unknown how the areas will be selected and how to prioritise between different objectives such as climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, water quality improvements in coastal waters and protection of ground water resources. Integrated Environmental Economic models are useful tools to conduct scenarios for different strategies and explore their implementation. The PhD will further develop existing national scale models to improve their robustness for policy design.

The PhD will improve the existing national scale economic model (TargetEconBES) to allow more targeted scenario development for afforestation strategies. This will require integration of new data sources and close interaction with experts from different environmental science domains.

It is envisaged, that the project will enhance the methodologies to evaluate alternative land use scenarios and produce an overall analysis of the value of establishing new forests in different places in Denmark. Through spatially explicit environmental economics modelling, the project will integrate data on the current land use, the economic and environmental values of alternative uses, and develop landscape level scenarios to identify where new forests could achieve significant environmental benefits in cost effective ways.

Who are we looking for?
We are looking for candidates within the field(s) of environmental and agricultural economics. In particular, we are looking for candidates with prior experience in economic modelling related to environment, agriculture and natural resources. Experience with GAMS or other operations research software, ArcGIS and R will be an advantage.

Our group and research - and what do we offer?
We are a group of environmental economists working on agri-environmental economics and policy. We cut across to larger units in the Department which focus on environment and natural resources, and production, markets on policy, respectively.

Both units are a part of the Department of Food and Resource Economics, Faculty of SCIENCE, University of Copenhagen. We are located in Copenhagen.

We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in dynamic and international research environment. The department currently has about 50 PhD students.

Principal supervisor is professor Mette Termansen, Department of Food and Resource Economics, E-mail [email protected], Direct Phone: +4535337471.

The PhD programme
A three year full-time study within the framework of the regular PhD programme (5+3 scheme), if you already have an education equivalent to a relevant Danish master’s degree. ********************************************************************************

Qualifications needed for the regular programme
To be eligible for the regular PhD programme, you must have completed a degree programme, equivalent to a Danish master’s degree (180 ECTS/3 FTE BSc + 120 ECTS/2 FTE MSc) related to the subject area of the project, e.g. [Environmental Economics or Agricultural Economics]. For information of eligibility of completed programmes, see General assessments for specific countries and Assessment database.

Terms of employment in the regular programme
Employment as PhD fellow is full time and for maximum 3 years.

Employment is conditional upon your successful enrolment as a PhD student at the PhD School at the Faculty of SCIENCE, University of Copenhagen. This requires submission and acceptance of an application for the specific project formulated by the applicant.

Terms of appointment and payment accord to the agreement between the Danish Ministry of Taxation and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State. The position is covered by the Protocol on Job Structure.

Responsibilities and tasks in both PhD programmes

• Carry through an independent research project under supervision
• Complete PhD courses corresponding to approx. 30 ECTS / ½ FTE
• Participate in active research environments, including a stay at another research institution, preferably abroad
• Teaching and knowledge dissemination activities
• Write scientific papers aimed at high-impact journals
• Write and defend a PhD thesis on the basis of your project

We are looking for the following qualifications:

• Professional qualifications relevant to the PhD project
• Relevant publications
• Relevant work experience
• Other relevant professional activities
• Curious mind-set with a strong interest in environmental economics
• Good language skills

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Application and Assessment Procedure

Your application including all attachments must be in English and submitted electronically by clicking APPLY NOW below.

Please include:

1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page)
2. Curriculum vitae including information about your education, experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position
3. Original diplomas for Bachelor of Science or Master of Science and transcript of records in the original language, including an authorized English translation if issued in another language than English or Danish. If not completed, a certified/signed copy of a recent transcript of records or a written statement from the institution or supervisor is accepted.
4. Publication list (if possible)
5. Reference letters (if available)

Application deadline
The deadline for applications is 1 November 2024, 23:59 GMT +1.

We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.

The further process
After deadline, a number of applicants will be selected for academic assessment by an unbiased expert assessor. You are notified, whether you will be passed for assessment.

The assessor will assess the qualifications and experience of the shortlisted applicants with respect to the above mentioned research area, techniques, skills and other requirements. The assessor will conclude whether each applicant is qualified and, if so, for which of the two models. The assessed applicants will have the opportunity to comment on their assessment. You can read about the recruitment process at http://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/.

Interviews with selected candidates are expected to be held in the end of November 2024.

Questions
For specific information about the PhD fellowship, please contact the principal supervisor.

General information about PhD study at the Faculty of SCIENCE is available at the PhD School’s website: https://www.science.ku.dk/phd/.

The University of Copenhagen wishes to reflect the surrounding community and invites all regardless of personal background to apply for the position.