The European Topic Centre on Spatial Analysis and Synthesis (ETC-UMA) is an international center that develops and applies scientific knowledge and cutting-edge technology to address environmental issues and enhance the status of ecosystems at all spatial scales targeting various stakeholders. The center’s mission is to support ecosystems – landscapes, and seascapes – management in the face of major global changes with a focus on their conservation and restoration.
ETC-UMA is partner of the European Topic Centre on Data Integration and Digitalisation, a consortium collaborating with the European Environmental Agency (EEA). As such it is supporting the EEA in delivering information on the condition and trends of the ecosystems through data collection, harmonization, maintenance, environmental assessments, technical and science for policy reporting. Furthermore, ETC-UMA collaborates with a network of regional institutions to implement international projects to assess and monitor the effects of global change on ecosystems, tailoring solutions to reduce their impacts.
To consolidate a growing working area, ETC-UMA is opening a vacancy to recruit a highly motivated and well qualified candidate to work as a Marine Research Support Officer. This position seeks to consolidate ETC-UMA´s working area in marine conservation research and analysis through increasing the knowledge on marine protection and connectivity. More specifically, the position is related to the implementation of the EU horizon project Blue Connect. The project aims at supporting efforts to reach marine conservation and restoration targets. To achieve such objectives, Blue Connect will provide tools and a framework for science-based conservation objectives, supporting the design and implementation of conservation measures and providing a system for monitoring and assessing conservation effectiveness.
The framework analysis will evaluate how to assess trade-offs between MPAs and other marine space users, and how to design MPA networks in response to climate change and ecological connectivity, including parameters based on the social, economic and cultural feedback received from the stakeholders and local communities. The project gathers 25 partners from France, Spain, UK, Belgium, Norway, Portugal, Denmark, Rumania, Croatia, Netherlands, Italy, Cape Verde, Bulgaria and Estonia and will run for 3,5 years starting from September 2024.
The Marine Research Support Officer will assist the development of evidence-based research and recommendations on project goals as well as the development of activities and delivery of outcomes for the management plan, the establishment of co-management and connectivity actions on the new Spanish Cetacean Migration Corridor, one of the demonstration sites in the project. The postholder will also support the team to plan, deliver, and coordinate the routine reporting, monitoring, and maintenance of the project.
ETC-UMA seeks, through this work, the support of cetacean conservation in the Western Mediterranean and the connectivity among the Pelagos Sanctuary, the Spanish Corridor and the new Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSAs) in the region. Assessing the tradeoffs between various human activities and the biodiversity benefits derived from MPAs and/or OECMs to provide a framework on which decisions regarding overlapping and conservation efficacy can be made.
Please send your application by 7 June 2024 at midnight (Malaga time)