E-2269 RESEARCHER IN FRESH WATER BIODIVERSITY MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT

The Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) is a Research and Technology Organization (RTO) active in the fields of materials, environment and IT. By transforming scientific knowledge into technologies, smart data and tools, LIST empowers citizens in their choices, public authorities in their decisions and businesses in their strategies.

https://www.list.lu/

The Environmental Research and Innovation (ERIN) department, made up of 200 life science, environmental science and information technology researchers and engineers, provides the interdisciplinary knowledge, expertise, and technologies to lead solutions including the major environmental challenges facing society, such as climate change mitigation, ecosystem resilience, sustainable energy systems, efficient use of renewable resources, and environmental pollution prevention, monitoring and control.

To this end, the mission of the ERIN department is:

• To conduct impact-driven scientific research and development, as well as technological innovation
• To support companies in the implementation of new environmental regulations and advise governments on determining sustainable policies for the future, with the objectives of:
• To analyse, manage, and exploit sustainable resources (water, air, soil, renewable energy, bioresources)
• To reduce the environmental impact of human consumption and production activities.

You will join ERIN’s Observatory for Climate, Environment and Biodiversity (OCEB). The OCEB is a multidisciplinary platform including researchers and engineers who push the state of the art in environmental and ecological monitoring and assessment. With its cutting-edge technological infrastructures and monitoring networks, the OCEB platform offers a wide range of services and leverages expertise and knowledge to produce scientific evidence for supporting policy-making processes and research applications focusing on sustainable and informed management of natural resources.

Within the OCEB, the Biodiversity Monitoring and Assessment (BIODIV) team focusses on innovating the way data is sampled in the field to evaluate the spatial and temporal dynamics of living organisms. As a national hub at the interface between the scientific community and decision/policy makers in Luxembourg, the BIODIV team makes use and develops technologies to strengthen knowledge and competences on biodiversity monitoring and assessment in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems across the country. In freshwater ecosystems, macroinvertebrates and diatoms are key groups of interest that are used by the team as indicators of water quality.

We are looking for a skilled and highly motivated researcher with experience in freshwater ecology, monitoring and/or assessment, with a marked interest for the development of innovative approaches for biodiversity data collection and processing, and with a strong background in biodiversity data analysis.

You will be integrated in the BIODIV team whose experts will share their knowledge and know-how with him/her. As a member of the OCEB platform, you will contribute to the development of the team and regularly communicate on your work progress during both technical and scientific meetings.

Your main missions will include:

• Participate in R&D projects on biodiversity monitoring and assessment with a strong focus on freshwater ecosystems.
• Carry out biodiversity inventories mainly in rivers and lakes, including sample collection and preparation.
• Improve the collection and management of data needed for freshwater biodiversity monitoring programmes and contribute to the development of statistical analyses for such data.
• Contribute to the development of innovative approaches for the processing and analysis of collected data and samples in different types of ecosystems (e.g., machine learning methods applied to microscopical images, eDNA metabarcoding applied to environmental samples).
• Participate in the development of prototype devices for automated biodiversity data acquisition.
• Participate in the delivery of advanced training courses on the taxonomy and ecology of freshwater organisms.
• Contribute to the preparation of technical reports and oral/poster presentations.
• Publish high-quality research articles in peer-reviewed international journals.
• Generate and protect IP in the context of his/her research activities (e.g., patents, licences).
• Attend international conferences.