04 Postdoctoral Fellowship at University of Sussex, East Sussex, United Kingdom

The University of Sussex is seeking a Post-Doctoral Ecologist to lead the Nature Sense initiative. This role involves establishing and managing a network of biodiversity and land use monitoring stations in the South Coast counties. The goal is to collect and analyse data on the state of nature and the benefits nature provides people to help improve land use and management decisions. 

The Post-Doctoral Ecologist will oversee data collection on habitat diversity, vegetation, ecoacoustics, and species composition and abundance. They will also monitor soil health, food and timber production, and land management practices. 

The role requires collaboration with interdisciplinary teams to support sustainable land management. The successful candidate will contribute to long-term research projects aimed at addressing the biodiversity and climate crises.

This position offers an opportunity to make a significant impact on nature recovery and sustainable land use. The Post-Doctoral Ecologist will play a key role in advancing the University’s commitment to a sustainable future.

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Starting Well: Children and Young People’s Mental Health Theme, part of the Applied Research Collaboration Kent, Surrey, and Sussex (ARC KSS), based at the University of Sussex. The theme conducts research on early detection and intervention of mental health challenges in children and young people. We are looking for a research assistant who will work across two projects (CATALYST and Supporting Synchrony). 

The CATALYST project involves co-designing and testing a new model of youth mental health support using asset-based and task-sharing approaches. The model has been co-designed with young people and professional stakeholders and will be implemented in voluntary and community sector organisations during a pilot period throughout 2025. This is a collaborative project, working with academics and clinical professionals from Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, and Kings College London. The role will involve engaging with voluntary and community sector organisations, including service leaders and volunteers working with young people in the community. You will be responsible for 1) coordinating and facilitating public engagement activities, 2) data collection activities in the community, including collecting pre- and post-standardised measures with young people or supporting volunteers to collect data with the young people they support, 3) collecting qualitative data from research participants, including young people, the volunteers, and service leaders, through one-to-one interviews, focus groups, and/or workshops, 5) analysing quantitative and qualitative data, and 5) helping to write up the results for lay reports and for publication in peer-reviewed journals. 

The second project is the Supporting Synchrony project, which aims to adapt video-feedback interventions for parents/carers and autistic children. Working closely with the Association for Video Interaction Guidance (AVIGuk), you will coordinate the data collection activities, including 1) supporting practitioners to collect pre- and post-intervention data, and obtaining video data collected as a part of the intervention, 2) arranging appropriate storage and transfer of video data in line with data protection policies, 3) conducting interviews with practitioners, 3) supporting the observational coding of video data, 4) analysing qualitative and quantitative data, and 5) helping to write up the results for lay reports and for publication in peer-reviewed journals. You will also coordinate two advisory groups made up of a) Video Interaction Guidance practitioners, and b) members of the public including autistic parents/carers and young people.

The Climate Science and Society group at the University of Sussex is seeking to appoint a highly talented and motivated researcher to join our project “strengthening Pastoral livelihoods in the African Greater horn through Effective anticipatory action (PASSAGE)”. Funded through the Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CLARE) programme, the project aims to enhance operational early warning and anticipatory action systems for drought risk in pastoralist livelihood systems across Greater Horn of Africa to enhance climate-resilient and sustainable livelihoods, especially for the most vulnerable. 

In this exciting role you will be working with our academic, civil society, government, and business partners in the region and engage with a wide network of stakeholders. You will have the opportunity to apply your skills and develop novel approaches in analysing satellite-based earth observation data and a vast array of climate and socio-economic data to model the cascading risk of natural hazards that are impact pastoralist communities in the region.

The outstanding impact of the research done at the Department of Geography has been recognized to world leading and internationally excellent. Your work within PASSAGE will also have high potential to lead toward substantial impact on the ground. Additionally, within the School of Global Studies you will be part of a diverse and vibrant community of academics and researchers who work passionately for a more sustainable, just, and inclusive world.

The successful applicant will conduct their own research project within the research team of Prof. Keith Caldecott. The project will investigate the roles of single-strand break repair proteins (e.g. PARP1, XRCC1) and/or homologous recombination repair proteins (e.g. BRCA1, BRCA2) during DNA repair and DNA replication in human cells, and address how these roles impact on genome stability, cancer, and cancer therapeutics.  Also available are projects focused on how XRCC1 protein complexes assemble into a large macromolecular protein complex, and/or how this machine promotes single-strand break repair and prevents human disease. 

Based in the School of Life Sciences, the Genome Damage and Stability Centre, a university Centre of Excellence (http://www.sussex.ac.uk/gdsc/),is an internationally renowned Institute carrying out research on the response of cells to DNA damage, genome instability and its relationship to disease. We provide a stimulating and supportive environment and our expertise covers a range of experimental systems.