Postdoc position 'the social side of wildfires'

Do you have a genuine interest in understanding processes underlying landscape fires and resilience? And in further developing integrated fire management based on social, cultural and landscape values? Do you have a background in social sciences and are you up for an interdisciplinary challenge, partly organized by yourself, looking and learning beyond your own field and assumptions? Then we are looking for you!

Extreme wildfire events are becoming a major environmental, economic and social threat in Southern Europe and increasingly gaining importance elsewhere in Europe. As the limits of fire suppression-centred strategies become evident, practitioners, researchers and policymakers increasingly recognise the need to develop novel approaches that shift emphasis to the root causes and impacts of extreme fires, moving towards living with fire. Such an approach includes community awareness, communication and learning across national and disciplinary boundaries. For the EU GreenDeal project FIRE-RES, we seek an experienced researcher that can contribute to this transdisciplinary, multi-actor consortium formed by researchers, fire agencies, technological companies, industry and civil society from 13 countries, linking to broader networks in science and disaster risk reduction management. Within this project, Wageningen University leads the Germany-Netherlands Living Lab, a collaboration with various public stakeholders in both countries and with the German Waldbrandteam volunteer landscape fire crew.

As successful applicant you will contribute to research and also develop tools and recommendations for practitioners and policy-makers working on landscape fires. You will specifically 1) study and advise on changing awareness towards wildfires in communities, especially in relation to risk; 2) study and advise on the role of communication and governance processes, focussing specifically on trust and risk; and 3) lead the German-Netherlands Living Lab, organizing and facilitating trainings and workshops between fire managers, landscape managers, policy makers, fire services and scientists.

This candidate will be based at Wageningen University, Netherlands, within a collaboration between the�Soil Geography and Landscape Group (Environmental Sciences Group) and the Strategic Communication Group (Social Sciences Group)

This position will be for 0,8 FTE and a period of 36 months.