Call for two (2) post-doctoral positions for the project titled ‘GCRF Building Capacity For Sustainable Interactions With Marine Ecosystems For Health, Wellbeing, Food And Livelihoods Of Coastal Communities’ with project reference number IF052-2017. This project is fully funded by the Research Councils the United Kingdom Global Challenges Research Fund for 4 years. The Malaysian case study site is in the newly gazetted Tun Mustapha Park, Sabah.
 

Qualifications/Requirement:

Candidates for the position must meet the following requirements:

1. Have an excellent track record in publication;
2. Have obtained a PhD degree within the last 5 years or have attended and passed the viva-voce (please provide a letter from your institution to attest to this);
3. Have proof of proficiency in the English language (a minimum score of 600 in the TOEFL or Band 6.5 in the IELTS) for candidates whose PhD thesis was written in languages other than English;
4. Must have fieldwork experience and competent experiences on conducting workshops and trainings;
5. As this is an interdisciplinary project and involves UK collaborators, and partners from South East Asian countries including Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, we are looking for candidates who can contribute to the following aspects of the project:
a. Socioeconomy
b. Cultural ecology
c. Environmental science, coastal and marine management, fisheries
d. Psychology, health and community well-being
e. Geographical information system and remote sensing
f. Bio-economic modelling
g. Resource economics and governance

Ideal Characteristics:

1. Priority will be given to Sabahan candidates and those who have experience researching in Sabah as the Post-Doctoral Research Fellow will spend some time on site to interact with the local communities and stakeholders.
2. Highly motivated, resourceful, enthusiastic, proactive, good personality and able to work independently as well as a great team player within a highly interdisciplinary team.
3. Have a strong desire to translate research into tangible local community benefits especially in the context of sustainable community and coastal ecosystems.

Duties and Responsibilities:

The duties and responsibilities of the Post-Doctoral Research Fellow are as follows: 
1. To carry out research on a full-time basis, under the supervision of the Principal Investigators (PIs) and work well with other team members;
2. To produce at least 2 publications a year in an ISI or equivalent SCOPUS indexed journal on the project;
3. To submit to the PIs a progress report on the research every 6 months;
4. To submit to the PIs the research output /report in writing at the end of the appointment period;
5. To write/produce the draft version of all training module that will be needed for capacity building and community engagement;
6. To assist in ‘conducting the trial version’ of the module with the selected groups;
7. To network and establish contacts with all stakeholders to the project;
8. To help co-organise local/national/international workshops/meetings/seminars related research topic;
9. To help design a questionnaire for the baseline study;
10. To manage all database (key in, clean up, organize, retrieve) data collected during the survey.

Appointment status

Appointments are given on a contract basis.

Duration of appointment:

1. The first appointment will be a 1-year contract, subject to a satisfactory performance review after 6 months. 
2. Extensions to the contract are subject to satisfactory progress reports and performance reviews, and as decided by the Principal Investigators (PIs). 
3. The maximum duration of the appointment is 4 years and shall be extended if necessary.

Living allowance:

A living allowance will be paid on a monthly basis with a yearly total amount of RM54,000 plus EPF contribution. The Post-Doctoral Research Fellow will be allocated with 20 days of paid annual leave.

To apply:

Kindly submit your letter of interests in 500 words and CV (including a full list of publications) to Project Manager, Dr. Loo Min Jet (loominjet@gmail.com) and Project Assistant, Ms Wan Nur Syazana (wannursyazana@um.edu.my). Further inquiries about the positions can be sent to the PIs of the project, Dr Goh Hong Ching (gohhc@um.edu.my) and/or Dr Amy Then Yee Hui (amy_then@um.edu.my). Only short-listed candidates will be contacted for the interview.

Closing date: 31st December 2018

For further information on Blue Communities, please visit the program website: http://blue-communities.org/Home