Research Associate in Evapotranspiration from Green Infrastructure

Overview

Evapotranspiration (ET) represents a key flux in urban heat & water budgets, cooling cities, mitigating flood risk and reducing Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) discharges into urban watercourses. The role of ET in the ‘urban metabolism’ makes it a key component in our efforts to deliver climate change resilient cities. This post will be part of an EPSRC-funded project focusing on the development of new measurement techniques aimed at the quantification of ET from urban Green Infrastructure (vegetation), including Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS). A postdoctoral position is funded for 12 months, with the possibility of extension to up to 42 months. You will lead on the establishment of controlled, instrumented, external test beds to deliver a high resolution data set to characterise temporal variations in microclimatic variables, soil moisture and ET. The work will be hosted by the School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Civil Engineering, in collaboration with the School of Biosciences. You will work closely with the Project Lead, Professor Virginia Stovin, alongside our collaborators in Biosciences: Dr Holly Croft and a second PDRA. We are looking for a well-organised and creative scientist/engineer to join us on this adventure. You will have excellent instrumentation, data analysis, scientific programming, and communication skills and be able to plan and organise your time effectively.

Main duties and responsibilities

• Take an active lead in the establishment of novel instrumented external test beds, and in developing suitable tools for the data analysis activities planned in the project.
• Plan your own research schedule and workload within the project schedule to ensure that the overall project milestones and objectives are met.
• Liaise closely with other academics, advisers and administrators relevant to the study.
• Identify and develop opportunities to collaborate with Project Partners.
• Assist in the writing and maintenance of the project website, newsletters and reports.
• Disseminate research findings & results through contribution to the production of papers for high quality journals and presentations, either in-house or at national/international conferences or seminars, as well as assisting in the running of them.
• Attend project meetings and research advisory group meetings.
• Read and review literature as appropriate.
• Assist with the co-supervision of undergraduate/postgraduate project students and/or PhD students.
• As a member of staff, you will be encouraged to make ethical decisions in your role, embedding the University sustainability strategy into your working activities wherever possible.
• Carry out other duties, commensurate with the grade and remit of the post

Person Specification

Our diverse community of staff and students recognises the unique abilities, backgrounds, and beliefs of all. We foster a culture where everyone feels they belong and is respected. Even if your past experience doesn't match perfectly with this role's criteria, your contribution is valuable, and we encourage you to apply. Please ensure that you reference the application criteria in the application statement when you apply.

Criteria

Essential or desirable

Stage(s) assessed at

Have a PhD (or equivalent experience) in a science or engineering field, with a strong experimentation and data analysis component.

Essential

Application

Practical experience of establishing bespoke scientific experiments, including the programming of data loggers.

Essential

Application

Excellent data analysis and scientific programming skills, e.g. in MATLAB or python.

Essential

Application

Experience of academic research in engineering hydrology or urban micro-climates.

Essential

Application

Demonstrable ability to develop creative approaches to problem solving.

Essential

Application

Proven track-record of recent publications in high-quality academic journals as lead author.

Essential

Application

Effective communication skills, both written and verbal, and inter-personal skills.

Essential

Application

Ability to work effectively as a team member, as well as independently.

Essential

Application

Ability to assess and organise resources, and plan and progress work activities to meet deadlines.

Essential

Application

Ability to prepare and submit regular progress reports to specified deadlines. Attention to detail.

Essential

Application

Further Information

Grade

7

Salary

£38,249 - £46,735

Work arrangement

Full-time

Duration

01/09/25-31/08/26

Line manager

Project Lead

Direct reports

N/A

Our website

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/mac

For informal enquiries about this job contact Professor Virginia Stovin, Project Lead, on v.stovin @sheffield.ac.uk .

Next steps in the recruitment process

It is anticipated that the selection process will take place in the week commencing 14 July 2025. This will consist of an interview and a presentation. A tour of the experimental facility can be provided on request. We plan to let candidates know if they have progressed to the selection stage on the week commencing 7 July. If you need any support, equipment or adjustments to enable you to participate in any element of the recruitment process you can contact mac-recruitment@sheffield.ac.uk .

Our vision and strategic plan

We are the University of Sheffield. This is our vision: sheffield.ac.uk/vision (opens in new window).

We are a Disability Confident Employer. If you have a disability and meet the essential criteria for this job you will be invited to take part in the next stage of the selection process.