PhD ON HISTORICAL AGRICULTURAL TRADE

The ERC Starting Grant project WHEP “Who Has Eaten the Planet: the paths of food systems beyond the safe and just operating space (1850-2020)” is starting on March 2024 at IEGD, CSIC, and we are planning to hire 3 PhD students, 1 research assistant, one part-time programmer and one part-time project manager.

The main aim of the project is to estimate and analyze the environmental and social impacts of food production and consumption in the long term and at a global scale, based on the analytical frameworks of the Planetary Boundaries and the Doughnut Economy. The environmental impacts (land, water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus) will be modelled in a spatially explicit way, obtaining footprints of the agricultural products that will be traced along global supply chains up to consumers. This integrated modelling of the global food system, performed in R, will enable us to link the environmental impacts with dietary patterns, trade flows, and health outcomes.

The hired team members will work in close collaboration with renowned international experts on the fields involved in this highly interdisciplinary project, such as Agronomy, Biology (biogeochemistry), Nutrition, or Economic History.

COMMON FEATURES OF THE JOB OFFERS

·        Start ideally in April-May 2024 or according to availability

·        The team will be based at IEGD, located at CCHS in Madrid (Spain)

·        3-month trial period

·        Full-time represents 37.5 weekly working hours, with flexible organization

·        Fluent English required

·        We search for applicants with a high motivation, autonomy, and ability for team work

·        Expressions of interest should be emailed to Eduardo Aguilera (eduardo.aguilera@upm.es) by February 16, 2024

·        The job offers will be published on the CSIC job bank by early March 2024

PhD ON HISTORICAL AGRICULTURAL TRADE

This PhD thesis will be co-supervised by Juan Infante-Amate (UGR) and Eduardo Aguilera (CSIC). It will focus on the reconstruction of historical agricultural trade based on historical sources and existing literature. Historical processes such as the “Ghost acreage” of European development, or the role of colonization and globalization on the transference of environmental impacts, will be analyzed, as well as the biophysical and socioeconomic drivers of the observed changes. Training (BSc or MSc) in economics or history, basic programming skills, and knowledge of other languages besides English will be valued.  The position category is M2 (€26,300 yearly gross salary) and the contract is full time with a duration 4 of years.

HOW TO APPLY

Please send your CV to eduardo.aguilera@upm.es by February 16 2024. You should indicate what position you are interested in, and include a description of your motivation, expectations and the added value you will represent for the project.