Hours of work: Full-time / 1fte
Tenure: Fixed term for 42 months, start October 2026
Hybrid Working: 2 days/week on Campus or minimum requirement of 40% on Campus, with 60% considered desirable where possible
This post is to work on the Horizon funded project CORRAL.
Overall project summary: CORRAL will support Local and Regional Authorities (LRAs) in navigating the socio-technological and ecological transitions needed for coastal communities to adapt to a changing climate. At its core, the project develops and applies the Coastal Regenerative Resilience (CR2) framework, an innovative yet practical methodology for designing and implementing adaptation solutions that are coherent, inclusive, and time bound. Eight ambitious LRAs across diverse European geographies, including all three EUCRA coastal hotspot areas, will embark on this innovation journey. Working within stakeholder alliances based on trust, they will co-design regenerative resilience visions, chart adaptation pathways, and implement transformative adaptation solutions on the ground. These solutions will address multiple, and in some cases compound and cascading, climate risks while remaining maladaptation-proof. Supported by expert partners, LRAs will harness interdisciplinary scientific methods to advance a new digital coast paradigm, nature-based solutions, and social innovation.
Key responsibilities and duties:
As a Postdoctoral Researcher you will work on the following:
Eco-geomorphological hydrodynamics modelling framework for coastal nature-based solutions (NBS)
Using established modelling platforms such as Delft3D Flexible Mesh (FM), including fully coupled hydrodynamic, morphodynamic, and bio-geomorphic modules, you will conduct numerical simulations for selected stretches of the Barcelona coastline. This will include coastal features such as seagrass meadows, salt marshes, and dunes, and their dynamic interactions with waves, currents, and sediment transport processes.
Artificial Neural Networks for coastal Digital Twins
You will apply Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to develop efficient digital twin representations of shoreline systems. By training ANN models on diverse datasets—including remote sensing products, field observations, and outputs from numerical models such as Delft3D—you will develop a framework capable of generating rapid forecasts of erosion, accretion, and morphological changes under different climatic and management scenarios.
Deliverables
- Solutions Development and Customisation Report: A report detailing how tools and approaches are adapted to meet the objectives of the demonstrator sites.
- Solutions Catalogue for Deployment, Replication and Sustainability: An online digital catalogue designed for multiple user groups, providing guidance on how to adopt and replicate the tools and methodologies.
- CORRAL Scale-Up Packages: A web-based environment enabling stakeholders and target groups beyond the project to access resources, navigate tools, and replicate approaches in a coherent and scalable manner.
If you are still awaiting your PhD to be awarded you will be appointed at Grade 6, spine point 30. Upon written confirmation that you have been awarded your PhD, your salary will be increased to Grade 7, spine point 31.
Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
We are committed to enhancing a workforce as diverse as our community and particularly encourage applicants who are of minoritised genders and ethnic backgrounds, living with a disability, and/or are members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
