Professor

The Wyss Academy for Nature at the University of Bern (www.wyssacademy.unibe.ch) is dedicated to shaping sustainable futures for nature and people by strengthening and harmonizing nature conservation, human well-being, and natural resource use in different landscapes around the world. Focusing on interactions between people, land, biodiversity, and climate change, the Wyss Academy will produce path-breaking knowledge for transformation and actively build partnerships between science, policy, civil society, and the private sector to generate concrete solutions from local to global levels. The Wyss Academy for Nature invites applications for an

Open-rank Professorship in Co-design of Land Systems

Land systems hold the key for addressing the triple challenge of improving human well-being while halting biodiversity loss and mitigating and adapting to climate change. This professorship will address the stewardship and use of land in the contexts of global change in view of co-designing concrete pathways to reconcile demands of nature and people in the Wyss Academy’s Regional Stewardship Hubs. This will yield knowledge on spatio-temporal land-system dynamics, on ecosystem-service providers and beneficiaries, and related winners and losers. Special consideration will be given to telecoupled land demands, the interactions between actors of unequal power and levers for sustainability transformations. Research will use empirical methods, such as comparative, survey or modeling approaches, and will engage with multiple stakeholders in co-design of future scenarios and exploring pathways towards multifunctional landscapes for nature and people.

Candidates have their roots in land system science or related fields. Based on a background in understanding spatio-temporal dynamics of land systems and of multifunctional landscapes in their wider context, they are able to empirically study links of land systems with climate change, biodiversity, and human well-being. They have experience in working with economic, institutional, and technological levers within and beyond local land systems. They apply transdisciplinary approaches for co-designing and testing concrete solutions with multiple stakeholders in regions of the global South. The leader of the research team must be willing to collaborate closely with five other new professorships at the Wyss Academy for Nature.

The position is a full time employment (80-100%) at the Wyss Academy for Nature located in Bern, Switzerland and will collaborate closely with the four Regional Stewardship Hubs. It will be affiliated to the Institute of Geography at the Faculty of Science and expected to collaborate with further research groups and centers at the University of Bern, such as the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE). Research leaders at the Wyss Academy for Nature are expected to compete for additional third-party funding enlarging their group activity. The start of work is 1 January 2021 or as agreed.

Applications should be submitted until September 14, 2020 via an online questionnaire. Furthermore, a single pdf file will need to be uploaded including a letter of motivation, a CV, a publication list, a teaching statement, a funding history, and a description of relevant contributions to policy and outreach. Moreover, the candidates should submit a 2-page research statement on how they would design their research team to contribute to the Wyss Academy’s project plan and how they would collaborate with the other professorships at the Wyss Academy and research groups at the University of Bern. Further inquiries can be addressed to info.wyssacademy(at)unibe.ch. The Wyss Academy is committed to Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness in Science and we seek to hire faculty with a diversity of backgrounds. Applications by women are strongly encouraged. The University of Bern is an equal opportunity and family-friendly employer and supports flexible hiring solutions, including job-sharing.