Postdoctoral Research Associate

Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy

This full-time post is available immediately on a fixed term basis until September 2025. The role offers the opportunity for hybrid working – some time on campus and some from home.

Summary of the role

The Centre for Resilience in Environment, Water and Waste (CREWW) and the Land, Environment, Economics and Policy Institute (LEEP) wish to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Environmental Economics with a strong and proven transdisciplinary focus, experience with economic and natural capital accounting methods/tools and familiarity with spatial economic modelling and GIS.

The successful candidate will provide expertise in Environmental Economics and Natural Capital accounting and valuation to support the work of Prof Richard Brazier on Upstream Thinking to guide catchment management with the goals of improving raw water quality and delivering ecosystem services and will be involved in the following projects:

• UST3: Quantifying cost-effective water quality improvements via ‘Upstream Thinking’ interventions (funded by Sout-West Water)
• Catchment Systems Thinking Co-operative – CaSTCo (funded by South-West Water and OfWat

The work will be co-supervised by Dr Mattia Mancini, Prof Brett Day and Dr Amy Binner from the Land, Environment, Economics and Policy institute (LEEP) and by Dr Peter Melville-Shreeve, who leads the Stormwater Intelligence Group within the Centre for Water Systems.

This role will be a fantastic opportunity for an early career environmental economist interested in transdisciplinary work to be involved in the development of key systemic innovations for the UK's Water Sector actively engaging with stakeholders. The successful applicant will bring experience and knowledge of the range of approaches that can be used to understand the costs and benefits of operating water industry assets, for example, water and wastewater treatment plants, drinking water reservoirs or combined sewer overspills. They will also understand the ways in which natural capital approaches can be used to value change in the way that such assets might be operated, protected or made more resilient.  The work will focus initially upon the South-West of England, to draw together understanding of the assets that SWW manage. In this context the candidate must liaise with SWW colleagues to extract data related to asset performance that can then be shared with other colleagues in the team.

About you

Applicants will possess a relevant PhD (or be nearing completion) in Environmental Economics or possess an equivalent qualification/experience in a related field of study/place of work (for e.g. a water company) and be able to demonstrate sufficient knowledge in the discipline and of research methods and techniques to work within established research programmes. 

Please ensure you read the Job Description for full details of this role.

The University of Exeter

We are a member of the prestigious Russell Group of research-intensive universities and in the top 150 universities in the world (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2022 and QS World University Ranking 2022).  

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Commitment

With over 27,000 students and 6,400 staff from 180 different countries we offer a diverse and engaging environment where our diversity is celebrated and valued as a major strength.

Further information

Please contact Dr. Mattia Mancini, e-mail [email protected] or Prof Richard Brazier, Director of CREWW, e-mail [email protected]