Postdoc in Lca for the Blue Bio Economy

Job Summary

The postdoc is financed by different innovation projects on the development of new technologies to strengthen the blue bioeconomy, ranging from marine aquaculture to the valorization of algae biomass. The research activities will be carried out in close cooperation with the LCA scientists of the Danish Centre for Environmental Assessment (DCEA) group, as well as in collaboration with other international research partners.

The objective is to assess – in a life cycle perspective – the consequences of developing new methods for valorizing aquatic biomass in integrated value chains, from primary production to processing into innovative products and services. The main challenge in this assessment is answering prospective questions regarding the availability of aquatic biomass in the future and regarding the environmental performance of the proposed emerging technologies when scaled up and integrated into an industrial setting. This analysis requires the combined application of qualitative and quantitative approaches to identify and describe future technological and resource availability scenarios, to understand and quantify the impacts of new technologies, and to work extensively with uncertainty analysis.

The postdoc will have following tasks, in cooperation with staff from the LCA group:

• Perform prospective life cycle assessment of emerging technologies in the blue bioeconomy domain
• Focus explicitly on quantitative approaches for consequential modelling and uncertainty analysis
• Combine the above with qualitative stakeholder involvement approaches such as workshops and interviews for scenario development
• Produce high-level scientific publications on these topics
• Collaborate with other researchers in international consortiums (travel to attend meetings in EU is expected)
• Optionally: participate in the preparation of research applications, participate in teaching activities, as well as take formal training in teaching.

Required qualifications

• PhD degree in sustainability science, environmental engineering, or related field is preferred
• Strong LCA background. Experience with consequential LCA is an advantage
• Experience with assessment of new technologies is an advantage, as well as previous experience working in the blue bioeconomy domain (from aquaculture to algae processing) and bioeconomy in general
• Skills in python / R programming is a plus
• Excellent scientific communication & scientific writing skills
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and as part of a team, and a drive to create own novel research direction

DCEA is an interdisciplinary and gender-balanced research group working with environmental assessment, its researchers have a variety of backgrounds ranging from environmental science and engineering to economics and sociology, and are skilled in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research, from modelling and data analysis to stakeholder involvement and surveying.