The climate needs bright minds. The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) addresses crucial scientific questions in the fields of global change, climate impacts and sustainable development. It is one of the world's leading research institutions in its field and offers natural and social scientists from around the world an inspiring environment for excellent interdisciplinary research.

For the Research Department 2: Climate Resilience, PIK is offering a

Postdoctoral position (m/f/d)

(Position number: 07-2021-Postdoctoral position)

in the working group “Adaptation in Agricultural Systems”, starting as soon as possible.

The position is funded until December 31, 2023. Remuneration is in accordance with the German public tariff scheme (TV-L Brandenburg) salary group E 13. This is a full-time position with a weekly working time of 40 hours per week. The position can be filled on a part-time basis.

We are looking for a Postdoctoral researcher to join our team in the field of climate impacts attribution in agriculture. The goal is to estimate the share of historical losses in agricultural production that can be attributed to climate change.

Working together with research institutes and international organizations, we aim to develop a framework for climate impacts attribution in agriculture and to operationalize it. The geographic scope ranges from sub-national to global. This position will perform analyses of historical and counter-factual climate data as well as crop modelling with process-based and empirical crop models. Both tasks are done in cooperation with climate scientists and agricultural economists. The work is carried out within different third-party funded projects.

Key responsibilities:

• Develop a framework for estimating the fraction of observed agricultural production losses that can be attributed to climate change, differentiating between slow-onset and extreme events
• Prepare and analyse historical and counter-factual (without global warming) climate data, for example from the ISI-MIP or CMIP6 projects, for selected case studies
• Apply crop models for selected case studies, using the described climate data, with the aim of estimating the share of crop losses that can be attributed to climate trends or climate-induced extreme events
• Coordinate and contribute to the implementation of research projects through close collaboration with other researchers at PIK as well as the involved stakeholders (e.g. FAO)
• Write and publish articles in peer-reviewed journals that highlight findings from the research projects and present research findings at international conferences
• Liaise and maintain communication with project donors, responding to information requests, preparing project progress reports and policy briefs
• Support data collection, literature review and analysis
• Manage projects, develop new project proposals and apply for funding

We further encourage you to pursue your own research interests, which should have a thematic overlap with the above responsibilities.

Requirements:

• You hold a PhD in either one of Agricultural Science, Statistics, Agricultural Economics or one of Physics, Climate Science, Meteorology. Proven expertise in the other field (publications, cooperations, project work) is required. Knowledge and work experience in climate impact analysis is valuable.
• You have a solid understanding of climate physics, extreme weather events and climate change impacts.
• You have profound experience in process-based and (optionally) statistical crop modelling or related climate impact modelling.
• You hold solid expertise in statistics, programing skills in R or python, are familiar with large data sets and associated file formats (e.g. NetCDF).
• Experience in project management and development of research proposals is valuable.
• You have strong analytical and scientific writing skills, excellent communications skills, and you are fluent in oral and written English.
• You have the ability to work independently, goal-oriented and on your own initiative.

We offer:

• an inspiring, international, and interdisciplinary work environment in one of the world’s leading research institutes on climate change
• participation in user driven research projects with international partners
• insights into international projects with extensive stakeholder engagement
• opportunities for cooperation with PIK’s national and international network of leading climate and agricultural research institutes
• guidance and supervision in career development
• high-impact of your research through publications in renowned journals and consortia
• a collective pay scheme and associated benefits.

PIK seeks to increase the share of women in scientific positions and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply. In cases of equal qualification and within the given legal scope, women will be given preference. Applications by persons with a migration background are expressly encouraged. Applications of disabled persons with equal qualifications will be regarded favourably. PIK also encourages applications by parents returning from parental leave.