Postdoctoral Researcher - Climate Change & Epidemiological Modelling (R2)

Job Reference 70_25_ES_GHR_R2

Position Postdoctoral Researcher - Climate Change & Epidemiological Modelling (R2)

Closing Date Wednesday, 29 January, 2025 Reference: 70_25_ES_GHR_R2 Job title: Postdoctoral Researcher - Climate Change & Epidemiological Modelling (R2) About BSC The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, was a founding and hosting member of the former European HPC infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), and is now hosting entity for EuroHPC JU, the Joint Undertaking that leads large-scale investments and HPC provision in Europe. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies in order to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into both computer and computational science (life, earth and engineering sciences) under one roof, and currently has over 1000 staff from 60 countries. Look at the BSC experience: BSC-CNS YouTube Channel Lets stay connected with BSC Folks! We are particularly interested for this role in the strengths and lived experiences of women and underrepresented groups to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights in science and IT research. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of the under-represented sex will be favoured. We promote Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, fostering an environment where each and every one of us is appreciated for who we are, regardless of our differences. If you consider that you do not meet all the requirements, we encourage you to continue applying for the job offer. We value diversity of experiences and skills, and you could bring unique perspectives to our team. Context And Mission The Global Health Resilience (GHR) group led by ICREA Research Professor Rachel Lowe at the BSC-CNS is seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher to conduct cutting-edge methodological research on tracking past, present and future health risks posed by climate change and co-create innovate modelling tools for early warning systems and impact attribution of climate-related health risks. The GHR group conducts cutting-edge methodological research on disentangling the impacts of global environmental change on infectious disease risk and co-developing indicators and impact-based forecasting models to track historical disease risk patterns, generate predictions at sub-seasonal to decadal timescales, and conduct future scenario analyses in collaboration with public health, disaster risk management, and humanitarian agencies. The selected candidate will co-develop innovative modelling approaches, informed by a combination of open-source and decision-maker provided data. These frameworks will feed into decision-support toolkits at multiple spatial scales and different forecasting horizons for a diverse set of users. The candidate will interact with international partners of projects funded by the Wellcome Trust and Horizon Europe, covering topics including early warning and response systems, health impact attribution, and digital twins. This position presents an opportunity to work alongside a wide range of leading international climate and health scientists and practitioners delivering cutting-edge health impact attribution approaches to support decision-making, adaptation and mitigation planning, and allocation of loss and damage financing in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Europe, and worldwide. Successful candidates will benefit from expert training and BSC-CNS staff benefits: international multidisciplinary scientific environment and advanced applied research training. We encourage applications from highly motivated candidates with demonstrated experience in impact modelling for public health and an interest in applied research in the context of climate and environmental change. Key Duties

• Co-design innovative methodologies for impact attribution of climate-related health risks
• Harmonise multi-source, multi-scale climate, land-type, demographic, socio-economic, human movement and health datasets
• Formulate statistical, machine learning and mathematical models to understand the impact of environmental change and socio-economic factors on infectious disease risk and health outcomes
• Develop indicators to track the impact of climate change on multiple health outcomes
• Contribute to the development of open-source modelling tools, e.g. R packages
• Incorporate aspects of inequalities, inequities and injustices in quantitative research
• Contribute to health impact stories and communication materials to disseminate research to a broad audience
• Disseminate research outputs in peer-reviewed scientific papers and international conferences
• Interact with scientists in the group, department, center and other institutions in Barcelona to enhance synergies
• Engage with local communities, stakeholders and policy makers
• Develop training materials and deliver training workshops to researchers, data managers and stakeholders
• Support administrative duties of the group, including arranging meetings, taking minutes, writing deliverable and mission reports, maintaining Wiki/webpages, etc.
• Contribute to proposals for competitive funding

Requirements

• Education
  • BSc and MSc in Epidemiology, Biology, Ecology, Meteorology, Environmental Sciences, Geography, Physics, Mathematics, Statistics (or equivalent)
  • PhD in infectious disease epidemiology, environmental epidemiology, statistical, ecological or environmental modelling or related field
• Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience
  • Experience in data management and statistical analyses
  • Strong programming skills in a suitable language (e.g., R, Python)
  • Experience with version control systems (e.g., git)
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, demonstrated in scientific publications and well documented repositories
  • Ability to work in a collaborative professional environment within a transdisciplinary and international team
• Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience
  • Fluency in English is essential. Proficiency in Spanish and other languages would be advantageous
  • Experience with processing data from the field of climate and environmental sciences
  • Experience with Bayesian modelling and spatial epidemiology
  • Experience with machine learning methods and AI
  • Experience with statistical downscaling and bias adjustments techniques
  • Experience working with climate projections
  • Experience harmonising various types of data (e.g., epidemiological, meteorological, environmental, mobility, hydrological)
  • Experience with Linux environments and scripting languages (e.g., bash)
  • Experience working with public health stakeholders and international agencies
  • Knowledge of some of the following topics: infectious disease transmission modelling, human movement modelling, multi-model intercomparison experiments
• Competences
  • Ability to work in a team and in a multi-cultural environment
  • Problem-solving, proactive, result-oriented work attitude
  • Excellent communication skills
  • Ability to show initiative, prioritize tasks and meet deadlines
  • Ability to learn and adapt to multiple programming languages easily
  • Demonstrates kindness, empathy, and respectful communication in team interactions, fostering collaboration and a positive work environment

Conditions

• The position will be located at BSC within the Earth Sciences Department
• We offer a full-time contract (37.5h/week), a good working environment, a highly stimulating environment with state-of-the-art infrastructure, flexible working hours, extensive training plan, restaurant tickets, private health insurance, support to the relocation procedures
• Duration: Open-ended contract due to technical and scientific activities linked to the project and budget duration
• Holidays: 23 paid vacation days plus 24th and 31st of December per our collective agreement
• Salary: we offer a competitive salary commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the candidate and according to the cost of living in Barcelona
• Starting date: 1 Feb 2025

Applications procedure and process All applications must be made through BSC website and contain:

• A full CV in English including contact details
• A Cover Letter with a statement of interest in English, including two contacts for further references - Applications without this document will not be considered In accordance with the OTM-R principles, a gender-balanced recruitment panel is formed for every vacancy at the beginning of the process. After reviewing the content of the applications, the panel will start the interviews, with at least one technical and one administrative interview. A profile questionnaire as well as a technical exercise may be required during the process. The panel will make a final decision and all candidates who had contacts with them will receive a feedback with details on the acceptance or rejection of their profile. At BSC we are seeking continuous improvement in our recruitment processes, for any suggestions or feedback/complaints about our Recruitment Processes, please contact recruitment [at] bsc [dot] es. For more information follow this link

Deadline The vacancy will remain open until a suitable candidate has been hired. Applications will be regularly reviewed and potential candidates will be contacted. OTM-R principles for selection processes BSC-CNS is committed to the principles of the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers of the European Commission and the Open, Transparent and Merit-based Recruitment principles (OTM-R). This is applied for any potential candidate in all our processes, for example by creating gender-balanced recruitment panels and recognizing career breaks etc. BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by applicable state or local law. For more information follow this link