Are you a young professional who would like to get equipped with the necessary tools to approach personal growth, complex problems and translate these into powerful solutions that will be applied in practice? You could reach these goals by joining our project at Except Integrated Sustainability. We are looking for two young professionals with aspirations to science, data and entrepreneurship who could help us realize the project ‘Blue-Green Infrastructure’ - the backbone of the future European Union green developments and circular economy.
Project description
Green infrastructure is a strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas with other environmental features designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services. These include water purification, air quality, space for recreation and climate mitigation and adaptation. This network of green (land) and blue (water) spaces can improve environmental conditions, and therefore citizens’ health and quality of life. This is due to the enhancement of biodiversity, both from a functional perspective and from cultural/aesthetical perspectives.
The project focuses on the development of a practical guidance manual, which guides the implementation of appropriate biodiversity research into design, construction, and management of blue-green infrastructure for European countries. This manual will be used by academia, government, business, industry and citizens when researching, designing and planning individual and integrated solutions in cities, regionally, and nationally.
Job description
You will be working on our challenge together with an international team of researchers and business developers from Except, the project steering group, and your research buddy. In the process of collaboration, you will be trained in basic skills in systems thinking & engineering, and learn how to interact with different types of stakeholders. You receive a monetary compensation for your time. Travel costs to our office in Utrecht from within the Netherlands are covered.
Your primary goals will be following:
- Research, mining & structuring data: case studies, sources, elements (stakeholders, infrastructure), manual/regulations.
- Meeting experts to collect, validate, improve the knowledge and data about BGI.
- Writing update reports and support in writing the final report.
Requirements
- You are an MSc at minimum, PhD preferred, in Life Science, Landscape Architecture, Industrial Ecology or similar.
- You have prior knowledge and experience of blue-green infrastructure concepts.
- You are a quick learner, and have the entrepreneurial spirit to take initiative, or learn something new on your own.
- Your written and spoken English is impeccable.
- You are due-diligent team-player, who is able to work independently and deliver quality work.
- You can start on January 1st 2019, for a period of a minimum of 4 months.
Partners
- International Federation of Landscape Architects Europe (IFLA Europe), Belgium
- Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), United Kingdom› BiodivERsA (BDA), France
- Natural Resources Wales (NRW), United Kingdom
- Except Integrated Sustainability (Except), the Netherlands
Application
Please send your CV and a one-page cover letter to work@except.nl by December 10th. Interviews will be held in the week of December 17th.
Jan. 29, 2019