Vacancy at GCF: Economist to work on the economics of coastal adaptation

14 October 2016

The Global Climate Forum (GCF) is a non-profit research institute based in Berlin that brings together representatives of different parties concerned with climate change including energy industries, insurance and finance enterprises, policy-makers, environmental NGOs, and scientists in order to carry out joint studies that support climate mitigation and adaptation policies.

The Research Process Adaptation and Social Learning (ASL) at GCF conducts internationally leading work on the economics of sea-level rise impacts and coastal adaptation from local to global scales. The process is led by Jochen Hinkel, who is Lead Author on the coastal chapter of the Working Group II contribution to the recent Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). ASL also co-ordinates the development of the DIVA Modelling Framework, which is a global, integrated model of coastal systems developed collaboratively by a number of leading European coastal research institutions.

Together with the University of Kiel and and the University of Siegen, ASL is about to embark on a new collaborative research project funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in the context of its Priority Programme Regional Sea Level Change and Society. The project will carry out an integrated assessment of coastal flood risk and adaptation responses for the German Baltic Sea. This integrated assessment will entail a close collaboration of three fields of coastal engineering, coastal geography and economics. For this project, GCF is currently seeking an Environmental economist (PhD student or Post-Doc), preferably specialised in either econometrics, operations research or decision analysis. The work involves assessing economic damages of mean and extreme sea-level change, as well as the application of advanced methods for decision making under uncertainty (e.g., real-option analysis, robust control theory) to the problem of long-term coastal adaptation to sea-level rise. The position has a duration of 3 years, with the possibility of extension. A PhD may be obtained at the Division of Resource Economics at the Thaer-Institute of the Humboldt University, to which Dr. Hinkel is affiliated.

The successful candidate is expected to have

  • a Bachelor or PhD degree with excellent results,
  • programming experiences in a major language (e.g. Java ),
  • good understanding of statistical methods and tools (e.g. R),
  • good understanding of econometric and decision analysis methods, and
  • excellent oral and written command of the English language.

What we offer

  • The opportunity to work in high-profile, internationally recognized research institute within a global network of national and international organizations concerned with climate change.
  • The opportunity to join a young, friendly and highly motivated transdisciplinary working environment in central Berlin within the Mercator Center Berlin, which unites a range of research institutes and NGOs addressing climate change.

Applications should include a cover letter, CV and certificates as a single PDF, as well as a PDF of a single-authored publication of the applicant (e.g., master thesis, journal paper). Applications shall be received no later than November 6 by e-mail to Dr. Hinkel (hinkel(at)globalclimateforum.org). For further information on this position please contact Jochen Hinkel.

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