PhD position in Spatial/Environmental analysis (Barcelona)

The UAB is offering a three years PhD contract to support research in Spatial/Environmental analysis (March 1st 2011- January 31 2014).

The fellowship is sponsored by the 7th Framework Programme of the European Community as part of the PEGASO project (People for Ecosystem based Governance in Assessing Sustainable development of Ocean and coast (http://www.pegasoproject.eu/).

Candidates should have background in geography, or ecology and/or environmental sciences or GIS and in addition strong ability to be involved in multi-disciplinary research. The candidate should become along these years fully integrated into the team, acknowledging also the other projects the team works with (EEA, ESA, GMES, ESPON, EU projects, etc).

PhD subject:

The applicant will prepare a PhD under the supervision of the PEGASO´s project manager, and will work within the PEGASO team. The work will be oriented to LEAC (Land and ecosystem accounting) development for PEGASO project. It will combine data collation, data standardization, including remote sensing data, expert knowledge, statistics, etc. All these data will be used for development of spatial indicators and physical environmental accounts for the Mediterranean and Black Sea coast. The LEAC methodology will also be reviewed and applied for the sea and maritime activities. The main objective of the PhD is to update LEAC methodology producing helpful tools for decision-makers and peer papers in high level scientific journals.

Requirements are:

•    A university degree (Bachelor degree) relevant to the field concerned attested by a diploma (geography, or environmental science, ecology, GIS, etc).
•    Interest (and if possible some practices) in GIS, land cover statistics, remote sensing, and data use.
•    The candidate in order to be hired should register in a PhD Course at the UAB.

Range of skills needed:

•    Strong scientific and analytical skills
•    Proficiency with MS Office and statistical analysis, experiences with GIS and remote sensing will be an added value
•    Team-oriented and positive thinking
•    English oral and written communications skills.
•    Good organizational skills and highly developed interpersonal skills.
•    Other languages such as Spanish and French are added-values

Application documents (in English):

Applicants who fulfil the above criteria should submit by email to francoise.breton@uab.cat

•    A letter of intent stating their interest in the PEGASO project and the reason
•    A CV (following EU model if possible)
•    References from 2 professors we can contact
•    Scans of university degrees
•    Copy of passport
•    Any documentation that proves the merits of the CV contents

Deadline for application:  30th January 2011


Contract specifications:

The grant is one year, renewable annually, over two years.
You sign an employment contract for a maximum period of three years for completion and the reading of the PhD.
Work permit is needed for foreigners in order to be able to formalize the contract.

Starting date: March 1st 2011
Duration: Three years
Working hours: 09:00–17:00 (7 hours)
Annual gross salary: 20.554 Euros (extra payments included)

Recruitment process:
CV selection and Interview
Selected candidates will be contacted by e-mail.

The final decision will be communicated to all persons who requested the grant through the e-mail address indicated in the request.


Françoise Breton
Project Manager and Scientific Coordinator