15 PhD positions in next-generation ecosystem research within the MSCA ITN 'FutureArctic'

About FutureArctic

The EU-funded Innovative Training Network FutureArctic aims to quantify how much carbon will escape from the Arctic in future climate. How do the multitude of ecosystem processes, driven by plant growth, microbial activities and soil characteristics, interact to determine soil carbon storage capacity? A group of fifteen PhD-students will study the Forhot ecosystem in Iceland, where a natural coincidence has provided us with the exceptional opportunity to actually look into the future.

Given the strong urgency of tackling and managing the climate challenge and the particularly important role herein of (sub)Arctic ecosystems, a rapid assessment of the ecosystem and ambient processes in this natural laboratory is essential. FutureArctic will achieve this challenge by adopting the fast advances made in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and (remote) sensor technology into environmental research at the ecosystem scale, into a new concept of an ‘ecosystem-of-things’.

FutureArctic thus aims to channel an important evolution to automated machine-assisted fundamental environmental research. This is achieved through dedicated training of researchers with profiles at the inter-sectoral edge of computer science, artificial intelligence, environmental and agricultural science, sensor engineering and communication and social sciences. FutureArctic training ensures the development of unique enviro-technological job profiles, all with their own specialty, embedded in holistic knowledge on connected high-data throughput ecosystem research, ready for machine-assisted environmental ecosystem science and modelling.

 

Overview PhD positions     (see also http://www.futurearctic.be/phd-positions/)

Click on the Title for more details about the position and the procedure.

 

ESR 1: Microbiome structure of warmed grasslands. Host: UAntwerpen, co-host: ILVO

Contact person: erik.verbruggen@uantwerpen.be. Expected start date: January 2020

Location: Belgium. Profile: Biology, Ecology.

 

ESR 2: Visual, NDVI and hyperspectral assessment of grassland plant and vegetation traits.

Host: ILVO, co-host: UAntwerpen. Contact person: peter.lootens@ilvo.vlaanderen.be. Expected start date: January 2020

Location: Belgium. Profile: Agriculture, Biology, Plant Sciences, Remote Sensing

 

ESR 3: The functional rhizobiome in warming grasslands. Host: UTARTU, co-host: VSI

Contact person: ivika.ostonen@ut.ee Expected start date: September 2019

Location: Estonia. Profile: Biology, Plant Ecology, Microbiology, Soil Science

 

ESR4: Microbiome physiology and microbial interactions. Host: UNIVIE, co-host: UAntwerpen

Contact person: andreas.richter@univie.ac.at, christina.kaiser@univie.ac.at Expected start date: January 2020

Location: Vienna. Austria. Profile: Ecology, Microbiology, Ecological Modelling

 

ESR5: Diel, synoptic and seasonal variability in sources of soil CO₂ emissions. Host: UIBK, co-host: MIRICO

Contact person: Michael.Bahn@uibk.ac.at, Expected start date: January 2020

Location: Austria. Profile: Ecology, Biology, Biogeochemistry

 

ESR6: The carbon balance in sub-arctic ecosystems. Host: UCPH, co-host: SVARMI

Contact person: ksl@ign.ku.dk. Expected start date: 1 October 2019

Location: Denmark. Profile: Greenhouse gas exchange, Biogeochemistry

 

ESR7: Plant phenology and plant stress evolution. Host: LBHI, co-host: ILVO and CREAF

Contact person: bjarni@lbhi.is Expected start date: January 2020

Location: Iceland. Plant Ecology, Ecophysiology, Environmental Sciences

 

ESR8: Plant and soil metabolome in a warming subarctic. Host: CREAF, co-host: IMEC

Contact person: josep.penuelas@uab.cat Expected start date: between September 2019 to January 2020

Location: Barcelona. Profile: Ecology and metabolomics

 

ESR9: Fast prototyping platform to enable sensor communication technology. Host: IMEC, co-host: DMR

Contact person: Maarten.Weyn@uantwerpen.be Expected start date: October 2019

Location: Belgium. Profile: Applied Engineer Electronics – ICT / Computer Science

 

ESR 10: Development of an autonomous UAV application for image based (e.g. hyperspectral) ecosystem climate response assessment. Host: SVARMI, co-host: LBHI, IMEC, and CREAF

Contact person: victor@svarmi.com Expected start date: January 2020

Location: Iceland. Profile: Remote Sensing, Environmental Sciences, Plant Ecology

 

ESR11: Development of an automated sampler for subsoil nutrient flows. Host: DMR, co-host: UCPH.

Contact person: pla@dmr.dk Expected start date: 1 september 2019

Location: Denmark. Profile: Hydrogeology, Environmental Engineering

 

ESR12: Smart root imaging technology for root phenological studies. Host: VSI, co-host: UTARTU

Contact person: l.seehra@vienna-scientific.com or boris.rewald@boku.ac.at Expected start: date: September 2019

Location: Austria. Profile: computational image analysis, data science, bioinformatics

 

ESR13: Scientific Machine Learning for complex ecosystem interaction analysis.

Host: IMEC, co-host: UAntwerpen & University of Vienna

Contact person: steven.latre@uantwerpen.be. Expected start date: July 2019

Location: Belgium. Profile: machine learning, computer science, mathematics

 

ESR14: Next Generation Neural Networks for UAV-based remote sensing. Host: IMEC, co-host: SVARMI.

Contact person: steven.latre@uantwerpen.be Expected start date: July 2019

Location: Belgium. Profile: machine learning, computer science, mathematics

 

ESR15: “Big data” and shifts in research practices. Host: UNIVIE, co-host: ILVO.

Contact person: ulrike.felt@univie.ac.at Expected start date: February 2020

Location: Austria. Profile: science and technology studies or a related social science discipline, solid knowledge of qualitative social science methods

 

Application

To apply, visit our website www.futurearctic.eu, and go to the specific ESR profile as indicated above and follow specific instructions provided. Some positions will open later than others, depending start date. 

Specific requirements

- Applicants can be of any nationality.

- Applicants must have an ability to understand and express themselves in both written and spoken English to a level that is sufficiently high for them to derive the full benefit from the network training.

- Applicants must be eligible to enrol on a PhD programme at the host institution (or at a designated

university in case the host institution is a non-academic organisation).

In addition:

H2020 MSCA Mobility Rule: researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the host organisation (Belgium) for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the recruitment date. Compulsory national service, short stays such as holidays, and time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status are not taken into account.

H2020 MSCA eligibility criteria: Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) must, at the date of recruitment by the host organisation, be in the first four years (full-time equivalent research experience) of their research careers and have not been awarded a doctoral degree. Full-Time Equivalent Research Experience is measured from the date when the researcher obtained the degree entitling him/her to embark on a doctorate (either in the country in which the degree was obtained or in the country in which the researcher is recruited, even if a doctorate was never started or envisaged).

Benefits

- You will be employed by the host organisation for 36 months.

- A competitive salary plus allowances. Moreover, funding is available for technical and personal skills training and participation in international research events.

- You will benefit from the designed training programme offered by the host organisation and the consortium.

- You will participate in international secondments to other organisations within the FutureArctic network and in outreach activities targeted at a wide audience.

- You will embark on secondments to FutureArctic partners for trans- and interdisciplinary research.

- You will be part of an international research consortium of over > 25 researchers

- You will get in contact with the other members of this international consortium and will benefit from the

joint training platform to develop skills necessary for developing an “ecosystem-of-things”.

Please, find additional information in the Information package for Marie Curie fellows

 

For additional information about the research project, please contact:

Dr. Joke Van den Berge

joke.vandenberge@uantwerpen.be