Research Fellow in Human Geography: Mapping food sharing in European cities

Research Fellow in Geography

Post Status:

Specific Purpose Contract – Full-time (3.5 years)

Research Group / Department / School:

Geography, Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin

Location:

Geography, Natural Sciences

Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin

College Green, Dublin 2, Ireland

Reports to:

Professor Anna Davies

Salary:

Appointment will be made on the NUI Postdoctoral level 1 Salary Scale at a point in line with Government Pay Policy [€42,033 to €48,427 per annum]

Hours of Work:

37 hours per week

Closing Date:

12 Noon (GMT), 1st December 2022

Post Summary

This position will work directly with the Horizon Europe Innovation Action project CULTIVATE: Co-designing food sharing resilience for sustainability, led by Prof. Anna Davies and based in Trinity College Dublin. The four-year project has 19 partners from across Europe, including food sharing initiatives, local authorities, international networks, creative enterprises and academic institutions. The successful candidate will form a core member of the Trinity CULTIVATE team and will have particular responsibility for implementation of research relating to the mapping, tracking and monitoring food sharing initiatives across Europe. Extending the SHARECITY100 Database, key outputs to be developed by this post include: the co-production of a multilingual European Dictionary of Food Sharing; the identification of an additional 100 EU MS/AC urban and peri-urban locations; and, working with computer scientists, help develop, test and validate automated functionality to create the SHARECITY200 Database. The role will involve international travel to partner locations for research purposes and for consortium meetings.

Standard Duties and Responsibilities of the Post

The successful candidate will:

• Conduct individual and collaborative research relating to the mapping, tracking and monitoring of Food Sharing Initiatives (FSIs) to the highest ethical standards in a variety of settings. Including international research to partner locations.
• Carry out any administrative work associated with this programme of research and assist with wider CULTIVATE administration when required.
• Travel to and participate in international consortium meetings as required
• Engage in the dissemination of the results from research to stakeholders in the appropriate form (e.g. presentations, publications, blogs, newspaper articles etc.).
• Help prepare grant proposals that emerge through the CULTIVATE project.

Specific tasks the successful candidate will undertake include:

• Categorisation and identification of food sharing landscapes.
  • Leading discussions with all partners to examine the mapping codes and categories in the SHARECITY100 Database
  • Designing and implementing a crowdsourcing social media campaign to build a dictionary of food sharing terms in the 24 EU languages
  • Identify 100 locations for mapping to inform the SHARECITY200 Database.
  • Develop a manual for identifying and categorising FSIs
• Manual mapping of food sharing landscapes in Hub locations
  • Map the food sharing landscapes of Barcelona, Milan and Utrecht using the manual web and social media searches.
  • Compare the food sharing landscapes in each city and develop a briefing note
  • Supervise local researchers to ground truth online and social media mapping
• Develop, test, validate and replicate automation tools for mapping, tracking and monitoring FSIs
  • Work with computer scientists to verify their automation tools for mapping, tracking and monitoring food sharing initiatives
  • Assist with rolling the system out across the expanded SHARECITY200 Database
  • Monitor and evaluate the outputs from the automated system
  • Produce and disseminate a summary of the evolution of the food sharing landscapes
  • Develop a feasibility study for sustaining the database post CULTIVATE

Knowledge and Expertise (General)

• Demonstrates knowledge of food systems, particularly urban food systems, and alternative food networks such as food sharing

• Demonstrates the ability to generate new ideas and link and build upon existing ideas to generate unique concepts and solutions with integrity.

• Demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the policy, practices and procedures that are relevant to the role. This will include knowledge and understanding of Research Ethics, and may also include broader University, sector, and external sponsor or funder policies.

Research Environment

• Demonstrates evidence of research activity and a commitment to ongoing research and publications.

• Demonstrates a thorough understanding of the research environment both nationally and internationally and the ability to contribute to grant applications.

• Demonstrates an understanding of the commercialisation process.

Interpersonal Skills

• Demonstrates good communication and interpersonal skills with the capability of working within a project team to achieve results.

• Demonstrates good instruction skills for working with local research assistants

Personal Skills and Effectiveness

• Demonstrates an ability to manage self, time, and own resources to enable a high level of personal effectiveness.

Career Development

• Demonstrates a commitment to develop own transferable skills, profile and reputation to advance own career beyond the end of the contract period.