| Location: | Sheffield |
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| Salary: | £35,333 per annum (pro rata if part time) (Grade 7) |
| Hours: | Full Time |
| Contract Type: | Fixed-Term/Contract – 20 months |
| Placed On: | 18th January 2023 |
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| Closes: | 14th February 2023 |
We are looking to appoint a freshwater ecotoxicologist to join a research project funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council. You will contribute to a new ambitious project that seeks to transform how we evaluate the risks of chemical mixtures to freshwater biodiversity in UK rivers. The research project is a collaboration between the universities of Sheffield, York and Durham and you will be primarily responsible for ecotoxicological studies with invertebrates and diatoms undertaken at Sheffield and York.
We are facing a global biodiversity crisis and freshwater biodiversity is declining more rapidly than either terrestrial or marine biodiversity. One in ten freshwater and wetland species in England are threatened with extinction and two thirds of existing species are in decline. The Environmental Audit Committee recently summarised the state of water quality as: “rivers in England are in a mess. A ‘chemical cocktail’ of sewage, agricultural waste, and plastic is polluting the waters of many of the country’s rivers”.
The understanding and predictive modelling tools developed during this project will inform the development of better plans for adaptation to, and mitigation of, the risks associated with declining water quality now and in the future. By taking an integrative and system-wide approach, this project will help deliver the Environment Act’s aspiration to “reverse the decline in species abundance by the end of 2030”.
Applicants must have a PhD in a relevant biological discipline along with experience of working in a research environment and undertaking ecotoxicological studies. Knowledge of freshwater ecology, including the ecology of invertebrates and their role in ecological processes are also essential.
