The University of Oulu is a multidisciplinary, international research university, with about 3,600 employees who produce new knowledge based on high-standards research and provide research based education to build a more sustainable, smarter, and more humane world. The University of Oulu community has about 17,000 people in total. Our northern scientific community operates globally and creates conditions for the emergence of innovations.
We are now looking for a
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Transdisciplinary Approaches to Ecosystem Restoration
for a full-time fixed term 4-year position. This position unites research and project support (administrative) duties within the research capacity building programme “SAFIRE: Safeguarding Biodiversity through Interdisciplinary Research on Habitat Restoration” (research 60%, administration 40%).
SAFIRE is an umbrella program of research projects and public outreach activities delivered by a team of researchers at Oulu University. Through diverse projects of its members, SAFIRE will deliver research and impact activities in relation to ecosystem restoration, especially in the Arctic. SAFIRE aims to develop a transdisciplinary processes of engaging and co-producing knowledge and solutions with societal actors, both at the level of individual projects, and at an institutional level within Oulu University. We define transdisciplinarity as the inclusion of non-academic stakeholders in the process of knowledge production. SAFIRE’s approach to transdisciplinarity includes both the need to understand how to integrate social interests, values, and concerns in ecosystem restoration research, how to embed such an approach institutionally, and what the consequences of such a participatory approach to ecosystem restoration may be for researchers, research approaches, and research institutions. SAFIRE is part of a wider Profi8 program at the University of Oulu, funded by the Research Council Finland, and it is co-led by the Faculties of Science and Humanities at the University of Oulu.

In this position, you will work directly with Associate Professor Anna Krzywoszynska, the vice-lead of the SAFIRE program. The duties of this role will include:

• designing and delivering a program of actions to establish meaningful collaboration between the SAFIRE team and ecosystem restoration actors in Finland and the wider Arctic, and
• producing new scientific knowledge on theoretical/conceptual and methodological approaches to transdisciplinary research on ecosystem restoration, with the SAFIRE program as a case study.

In this role, you will lead SAFIRE’s effort of building transdisciplinary research collaboration with ecosystem restoration actors, and you will contribute to the scientific understanding of such transdisciplinary approaches.

In this position, you will work directly with Associate Professor Anna Krzywoszynska, the vice-lead of the SAFIRE program. The duties of this role will include:

• designing and delivering a program of actions to establish meaningful collaboration between the SAFIRE team and ecosystem restoration actors in Finland and the wider Arctic, and
• producing new scientific knowledge on theoretical/conceptual and methodological approaches to transdisciplinary research on ecosystem restoration, with the SAFIRE program as a case study

Primary responsibilities will include:

• Conceptualising, planning and implementing SAFIRE’s transdisciplinary activities in close collaboration with the SAFIRE team, including but not limited to: stakeholder mapping; organizing meetings and workshops (with stakeholders and between disciplines within SAFIRE); stakeholder relationship management; stakeholder communication and liaison;
• Designing and delivering a research project on transdisciplinary approaches to ecosystem restoration using SAFIRE and potentially other projects as a case study/participatory action research partner;
• Producing academic and non-academic outputs (peer reviewed journal articles, reports, policy recommendations, public communications, and other) on transdisciplinarity in collaboration with Associate Professor Anna Krzywoszynska and other members of the SAFIRE team (expected output level is adjusted to the 60% research allocation);
• In cooperation with the SAFIRE coordinator, supporting the integration of SAFIRE’s approach within the strategy of the faculties and the University of Oulu.
• Organizing and participating in national and international meetings and science policy events related to transdisciplinary approaches to ecosystem restoration, and to the wider SAFIRE program.
• Other duties associated with supporting a transdisciplinary research initiative