Anonymised Vacancy

Rural & Agricultural Economist

This is a three-year ‘tenure track’ post: in the third year, if there is a business case and the candidate meets relevant academic criteria, the contract will be made indefinite.

The work undertaken by The James Hutton Group is at the top of the global agenda tackling problems such as the impact of climate change and threats to food, biodiversity, soils, and water security

We are recruiting within our Social Economic & Geographical Sciences department for a postdoctoral Rural & Agricultural Economist. Our interdisciplinary department reflects a range of theoretical perspectives using a variety of methods, always with a strong commitment to informing and supporting change beyond academia. This post joins a dynamic community working on related topics within the ‘Environmental Governance and Land Management’ Group. 

Main Purpose of Job    

There is increasing recognition of the need to inform and enable systemic change in agri-food systems. This tenure-track post will carry out econometric analyses and modelling, including behavioural and experimental economics, to improve understanding of behavioural change in relation to food systems and agricultural innovations.  The work will be part of interdisciplinary research consortia. European-funded projects currently associated with this post are FOODLAND and RADIANT, respectively using experimental methods to understand farmer behaviours and understanding preferences for underutilised crops: whilst future Scottish Government funded work will explore factors influencing farmer behaviour and shaping adoption of novel crops.

Main duties of post holder

The postholder will focus on the design, implementation and econometric analysis and modelling of economic experiments and discrete choice experiments. The postholder will contribute to all aspects of the research cycle: from the development of research proposals, design of experimental protocols or survey instruments, data collection and analysis and presentation of results, through to peer reviewed publications and communication for knowledge exchange with non-academic audiences.  The post holder will be supported to develop academic publications in respected peer-reviewed journals and also be required to support transdisciplinarity and knowledge exchange with non-scientific audiences.  The postholder will be supported in their professional development to further develop their own research contribution and academic profile.

Essential criteria

•    PhD in relevant topic discipline (e.g. rural, agricultural and/or behavioural economics)
•    Experience in designing and implementing and econometric analysis of economic experiments and/or discrete choice experiments
•    Interest in food systems and agricultural innovations 
•    Excellent written and oral communication skills 
•    Potential to produce high quality academic publications
•    Ability to combine team-working with independent work
•    Fit with institute ethos

Desirable criteria

•    Experience in mixed methods or interdisciplinary research
•    Experience of engagement with stakeholder groups relevant to agriculture 
•    Knowledge of Scottish or European agricultural and/or land use policies
•    Knowledge of adoption of agricultural innovations in developing countries
•    Experience in supporting funding bids for income generation 
•    Experience of publication in academic journals
•    An awareness of the open science movement, and an interest in applying open science principles within the social sciences
•    Skills in another major European language

For informal enquiries, please contact Kerry.Waylen@Hutton.ac.uk