Professor Alexandro B. Leverkus, from the Department of Ecology at the University of Granada, welcomes postdoctoral candidates interested in applying for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships (MSCA-PF) in 2021 at this University. Please note that applicants must comply with the Mobility Rule (more information about the 2020 call: http://sl.ugr.es/0aNV, the 2021 call is not yet open).

Brief description of the institution:

The University of Granada (UGR), founded in 1531, is one of the largest and most important universities in Spain. With over 60.000 undergraduate and postgraduate students and 6.000 staff. UGR offers a total of 89 degrees, 110 master’s degrees and 28 doctoral programmes through its 123 departments and 27 centers. Consequently, the UGR offers one of the most extensive and diverse ranges of higher education programmes in Spain.

The UGR has awarded with the "Human Resources Excellence in Research (HRS4R)", which reflects the UGR’s commitment to continuously improve its human resource policies in line with the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. UGR is also a leading institution in research, located in the top of Spanish universities by a variety of ranking criteria, such as national R&D projects, fellowships awarded, publications, or international funding. UGR is one of the few Spanish Universities listed in the Shanghai Top 500 ranking - Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) (http://sl.ugr.es/0bsW). The UGR is amongst the 201-300 first universities of the world, between 2nd-5th position of Spanish universities and number 1 in the Andalusian Region in the Shanghai Top 500 ranking. Specialties at UGR that stand out are Library & Information Science (position 32) and Food Science & Technology (position 36). Moreover, the UGR is also situated amongst the first 100 universities in Mining & Mineral Engineering between (76th-100th position), in Mathematics (between 76th-100th position) and in Hospitality & Tourism Management (between 76th-100th position). The edition of the ARWU places the UGR in 201-300th position in the world and as the 4th highest ranked University in Spain, reaffirming its position as an institution at the forefront of national and international research.

Additionally, the UGR has 8 researchers at the top of the Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) list in Computer Sciences & Engineering (position 101-150). It is also well recognized for its web presence (http://sl.ugr.es/0a6i), being positioned at 43th place in the top 200 Universities in Europe.

Internationally, we bet decidedly by our participation in the calls of the Framework Programme of the European Union. For the duration of the last two Framework Programmes, the UGR has obtained a total of 67 projects, with total funding of 18.029 million euros, and for H2020, 118 projects with total funding around 29.115 million euros.

Brief description of the Centre/Research Group:

The candidate will join the group on Ecosystem Restoration and Conservation, based at the Department of Ecology of the University of Granada. This dynamic and expanding group has been investigating ecosystem resilience from both basic and applied perspectives. Their main research lines include post-disturbance dynamics (incl. the effects of post-disturbance management) and ecological restoration through passive and active management. The group is currently conducting several field and review studies on the success of revegetation under different methods. Restoration outcomes are assessed with detailed analyses of plant performance, but also in economic terms. Field sites are located in the vicinity of the faculty, across the region, and at European scale, according to the experiment. Multiple collaborations bring additional dynamism to this group and expand the scope and scale of the projects in the same institution, in nearby agricultural research centres, and nationally/ internationally. The group currently holds research grants from the Andalusian regional administration (PR.AVA.AVA2019.004 & P18-RT-1927), the Spanish Government (RTI2018-096187-J-100), the European Union (ERIC LifeWatch), and the British Ecological Society (LRB20/1002), and its members participate in both informal and formal (e.g., COST PEN-CAFoRR) research networks.

Project description:

Restoring degraded ecosystems often involves active revegetation, and international commitments pledge to introduce billions of trees worldwide. Ensuring the success of such actions requires selecting appropriate methods for each species. Seed sowing is often discarded due to the risk of low emergence rates, yet it may have advantages over planting nursery-grown seedlings such as allowing the development of deeper or wider roots. The balance among seeding and planting may thus shift across a plant’s life stages, depend on species’ functional traits, and vary under climate change, yet scientific understanding remains limited.

The candidate will participate in ongoing field and review studies, with the possibility to implement their own studies. Ongoing field studies compare how revegetation targets are met with sowing vs. planting. Studies are based in Granada (addressing the effects of climate change on the seeding-sowing question for two oak species), across Andalusia (spanning a broad environmental gradient) and at the European scale (a multi-site, multi-species experiment is planned for autumn 2021). The objectives include obtaining mechanistic understanding of the balance between both methods –such as which plant traits mediate effects– and measuring and projecting differences across environmental and species gradients. Specific tasks will include conducting field and lab measurements to quantify plant morphological and physiological responses, managing and analysing datasets created by multiple national and international collaborators, estimating economic costs of revegetation, and meta-analysing the existing scientific literature to follow up on an ongoing systematic review. These activities are funded by different grants at the regional and national level.

Research Area:

• Environment and Geosciences (ENV)
• Life Sciences (LIFE)

For a correct evaluation of your candidature, please send the documents below to Professor Alexandro B. Leverkus (leverkus@ugr.es):

• CV
• Letter of recommendation (optional)