Postdoctoral position (2) in Urban Food Sharing_CULTIVATE Ref. I1RN002333

We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to support the Principal Investigator in UB of the Horizon Europe project CULTIVATE: CO-DESIGNING FOOD SHARING INNOVATION FOR RESILIENCE, conducting scientific, social innovation and management activities associated to this project throughout 4 years. CULTIVATE uses a multi-actor approach to build sustainability and resilience in urban and peri-urban areas through a ground-breaking online social innovation support platform – The Food Sharing Compass. Built with and for five key stakeholder groups – food sharing initiatives, policy makers, food supply actors, researchers and citizens – the platform will make it possible to navigate diverse food sharing landscapes and cultures, in order to understand, develop, replicate, expand and strengthen sustainable food sharing in Europe, supporting the European Green Deal’s Action Plan, Food 2030, the Farm to Fork Strategy and the EU’s climate change ambitions. The open access Food Sharing Compass will comprise five innovative tools: The SHARECITY200 Database, an interactive automated mapping, tracking and monitoring database of food sharing initiatives that will add more than 100 new locations to the SHARECITY100 Database [https://sharecity.ie/research/sharecity100-database/]; The Food Sharing Calculator, which enables comprehensive and holistic assessment of the costs, benefits and impacts of food sharing for all stakeholders; The Menu of Good Governance, which provides options for developing policy making which facilitates sustainable food sharing; The Library of Citizen Engagement, which supports establishing, expanding and maintaining inclusive participation in sustainable food sharing; The sustainable food sharing Community of Practice, which will be established through a bespoke Amplification Programme to optimise the potential for mutual learning and exploitation of the Food Sharing Compass well beyond the project. In essence, CULTIVATE will establish the EU as the global frontrunner in the development of resilient and inclusive food sharing economies, identifying drivers and implementation gaps and challenging existing theories and practices which currently constrain sustainable food sharing.

Job description: The postdoctoral researcher will be participating and co-leading management, innovation, communication and research activities within the CULTVATE consortium. The researcher will contribute mainly to the work package on Comparative Governance Analysiswhich aims to better understand the evolution of, and help transform, existing policies, regulatory regimes, governance structures and habits to strengthen local food sharing economies, promote sustainable food sharing and prevent and reduce food waste. Generally, the researcher will support the PI and the rest of the team to achieve the scientific objectives of the project, develop effective task management and collaboratively work, publish and disseminate project findings. We seek highly motivated candidates to:

• work in an international, innovative and multistakeholder project,
• develop transdisciplinary work, co-producing solutions with different types of stakeholders and implementing changes on the ground,
• develop state of art research and innovation processes to create more just and sustainable cities through food sharing activities, and
• communicate and amplify scientific, policy and innovation knowledge generated to deliver change locally and internationally.

Key responsibilities

• Develop protocols to analyse the urban food sharing governance landscape, and apply to the city of Barcelona with special focus on food waste, social and solidarity economies, and urban agriculture. Support other cities in its application.
• Facilitate a food sharing lab in the city of Barcelona, which will include practitioners and policy makers to identify leverage points and pathways for transformative change, using scenario and backcasting tools. Support other cities in their food sharing labs.
• Travel to and participate in meetings and project activities as required.
• Integrate learnings and findings across the project to develop publications, guidebooks, and a decision support tool for good governance of sustainable food sharing.
• Support cost-benefit analysis of urban food sharing initiatives in Europe.
• Support other CULTIVATE partners in implementing innovations around governance and conducting work in Barcelona.
• Support the organisation of project meetings and conferences across the project.
• Help train and mentor other team members.
• Engage in the dissemination of the results from research to stakeholders in the appropriate form (e.g. presentations, publications, blogs, newspaper articles etc.).
• Participate actively in the activities of the UB research group.

Gross salary per year: 48.000,00€ (distributed in 12 payments)