Positions for PhD and postdocs
Commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the interdisciplinary research team in charge of the research project ValPar.CH examines the benefits and added values of the ecological infrastructure (EI) in parks of national importance. This network of ecologically valuable areas forms the basis of ensuring the social, economic and ecological values of nature's contributions to people (NCP, ecosystem services). The ValPar.CH research project is one of three sub-measures of the pilot project “Valorisation of the ecological infrastructure in the parks of national importance” as part of the “Action Plan for the Swiss Biodiversity Strategy (AP SBS)“.
Commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the ValPar.CH research project studies the benefits and values of the ecological infrastructure (EI) in Swiss parks of national importance. The interdisciplinary consortium of five universities (University of Zurich, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, University of Lausanne, ETH Zurich and University of Geneva) is looking for PhD students and postdocs to work in various modules of this project. The research will start on 1st October 2020 and is scheduled to run until the end of 2023.
In the framework of sustainable resource use, the research team analyses the values of the EI from a social, economic and ecological perspective. Using different scenarios, it assesses the potential development of a functioning ecological infrastructure and examines which instruments are necessary to ensure its sustainable use.
When valuing the EI, the different perspectives of the stakeholders concerned, such as farmers and foresters, the general population, the municipal, cantonal and federal authorities or the environmental protection organisations, play a decisive role. Their perspectives and interests are integrated from the outset through participatory methods in the different research regions.