The candidate will work half-time on a research project in the framework of marine modelling in cooperation with a Vietnamese institute, and half-time he/she will be in charge of capacity building in marine modelling and remote sensing in Benin and other developing countries.
Context
RBINS (https://www.naturalsciences.be/) is one of the ten federal scientific institutes. It executes multidisciplinary scientific research, offers services of public interest and is open for the public through its museum.
The candidate will be working within the ecosystem modelling team (ECOMOD), and within the CEBioS team (Capacities for Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, http://www.biodiv.be/cebios2/ ). He/she will maintain close contacts with our remote sensing team (REMSEM, https://odnature.naturalsciences.be/remsem/ ). All three teams are part of the Operational Directorate ‘Natural Environment’ within RBINS.
Tasks
The candidate will perform the following tasks:
Halftime-1 within ECOMOD
CLIMDIS project (Climate and Disaster Resilience) project financed by BELSPO: maintain and use an existing biological hydrodynamical modelling module (based on COHERENS), apply it to the waters of Ha Long Bay Vietnam and make this model operational, in close collaboration with and according to the needs of our Vietnamese partners.
Halftime-2, within CEBioS
Manage the capacity building project with IRHOB (Institut de Recherches Halieutiques et Océanologiques du Bénin), Benin on: ‘The effect of hydrodynamics on dispersal of shrimp larvae and its consequences for fisheries in lake Nokoué, Benin’ in cooperation with the Beninese partners. This implies giving trainings about COHERENS in Benin and to selected grantees in Belgium.
Organize stakeholder meetings within partner countries, while including a remote sensing training component.
Actively looking for new projects.
Provide reports on the projects involved in, vulgarize the scientific work, and assist in writing policy briefs.
General:
Analyse results and publish scientific articles
Participate in the meetings of the different teams
Organize and participate in the project meetings
Diploma
Interested candidates own at least a Master degree in exact sciences. At least 3 years professional experience since Master diploma.
Technical competence
Mathematical interest and excellent programming skills
Good writing skills, both scientific writing and vulgarization are necessary
Skills in managing and handling big datasets
Experience with hydrodynamic models
Basic understanding of remote sensing techniques and willingness to improve on them
Good knowledge of scientific methodology, interest in performing research
Generic competence
Team spirit, proactivity
Excellent communication skills, as this is an interdisciplinary programme. The candidate should be able to bring together people from different disciplines and with different backgrounds, promote their enthusiasm for learning complex matter
Willingness to travel to Benin, Vietnam and other developing countries at least two times a year
The candidate should have a strong interest in transferring his/her knowledge and skills to professionals from developing countries in order to strengthen their capacities. This demands not only pedagogic skills, but also sociability, flexibility, patience, adaptability and openness and willingness to work in a multi-cultural context and challenging conditions.
Assets
Good knowledge (writing, oral) of English and French or Dutch
Knowledge of project management (ToC, logframe or other)
Experience in capacity building or teaching
Experience with working in Africa or Asia
Experience in development cooperation
We offer
A fixed term full-time contract of 3 years, preferably from 1/07/2020, based at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, in Brussels, within the Operational Directorate ‘Natural Environment’. The contract could be prolonged providing funding opportunities.
Remuneration according to the scale for a grade SW1 scientific staff at the federal government.
The work place is the Royal Belgium Institute of Natural Sciences, 29 Rue Vautier, 1000 Brussels.
Free public transport or a bike allowance between home/work
How to apply
The candidates should send their motivation letter, CV and evidence of accomplished skills and competences at the latest 31/05/2020, by e-mail to glacroix@naturalsciences.be and ljanssens@naturalsciences.be (reference: Application “Capacities for marine modelling”).
Interviews will take place in the first half of June 2020 at the buildings of RBINS Vautierstraat 29, B-1000 Brussels or by videoconference, depending on the COVID-19 measures.
