Ecosystems Services Scientist ValMAB

Renowned internationally for its research excellence supporting a sustainable ocean, Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) has an exciting opportunity for an Ecosystem Services Scientist to work with economists, social scientists and environmental scientists as a member of its ‘Sea and Society’ Area. 

Sea and Society (SaS) is the largest marine-focused, social science research group in Europe. We are at the forefront of interdisciplinary research, investigating and demonstrating the consequences of the interactions between humans and natural systems, and informing effective measures to improve the outcomes, impacts and benefits of these interactions. Through our research we support sustainable and responsible ocean stewardship, for the conservation of the environment and to ultimately improve lives.

The role will require you to undertake high quality specialist ecosystem services research, in a highly interdisciplinary environment, including supporting the delivery of existing projects and further developing your own portfolio of funded research. Existing projects include newly funded VALMAB-DM (Valuing Marine Biodiversity for use in Decision Making) which is researching the ecological, social and economic benefits of marine regulating ecosystem services, and GUARDEN (safeGUARDING biodivERsity aNd critical ecosystem services across sectors and scales), the imminently starting EU funded project where you will be developing sound scientific approaches to selecting indicators for marine and terrestrial ecosystems and associated ecosystem services. These will then be used throughout the rest of the project to assess ecosystem services across sectors and scales.

Key Deliverables of the role:

• To deliver novel and robust ecosystem services research related to currently funded projects
• To continuously develop, and contribute to, a portfolio of funded ecosystem services research and the growth of interdisciplinary research in PML
• to produce high quality publications and other associated outputs
• to ensure outreach, dissemination and impact of PML research
• To use the ecosystem services and Natural Capital frameworks to assess and update current knowledge on regulating services with new field data being collected in the project. It will also involve working with researchers from other disciplines (such as economists, other social scientists) on this project to deliver novel and impactful science.
• Contribute to, and write successful proposals to bring in new funding and resources
• Maintain your own continuing professional development

Experience & Eligibility Requirements:

• You will have a background in marine ecology or human or environmental geography, with experience of ecosystem services research.
• You will either have a relevant PHD or similar experience.
• You must be able apply an understanding of marine ecosystem structure and function to quantify changes in marine ecosystem services, ideally with a focus on regulating services.
• You will have the ability to develop conceptual thinking regarding ecosystem services research.
• You will have or need to develop strong interdisciplinary skills and be able to engage with different types of stakeholders in workshops and interviews.
• You will also ideally have strong GIS skills and numerical data analysis skills.
• Have excellent writing skills for research papers and scientific advice to stakeholders.
• Demonstrate good dissemination skills at meetings, workshops, conference presentations, virtual conferencing.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Ability to work flexibly, professionally and to tight deadlines

PML is a highly impactful organisation, which strives to deliver excellent research that can benefit the environment and society. Our Impact Plan sets out the strategies and structures to support our staff to achieve academic and non-academic impact including training and internal, challenge-focussed forums.  PML encourages applicants that aspire to work collaboratively and creatively to make a difference.

PML offers a variety of employee benefits which can be viewed here: https://www.pml.ac.uk/Working-with-us/Employee-benefits

As part of PML’s 20th anniversary of becoming an independent organisation with charitable status (2002-2022), we asked PML people why they enjoy working at PML and what makes it special – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdQf-2ffnlY