The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) with its 1,100 employees has gained an excellent reputation as an international competence centre for environmental sciences. We are part of the largest scientific organisation in Germany, the Helmholtz association. Our mission: Our research seeks to find a balance between social development and the long-term protection of our natural resources.
The jobThe UFZ will establish a Graduate School within its Research Unit “Environment and Society” on the topic: “Governance Monitor – Tracking and assessing governance narratives for sustainability transformations” The Graduate School consists of four PhD researchers. They will participate in a structured training program that facilitates integration and exchange among the different projects involved as well as within the larger UFZ research context. The PhD projects will develop a scientific basis for the comprehensive, long-term monitoring of political developments related to complex environmental issues, including the governance of bioeconomy, chemicals in the circular economy, and climate extremes. The advertised position is part of this Graduate School.
PhD Researcher (f/m/x) – Natural language processing in understanding narratives linked to adaptation to climate extremes (Department of Urban and Environmental Sociology) Working time: 65 % (25,35 hours/week). Contract duration: The position is initially limited to 36 months. Earliest start date: May 1, 2023
Your tasksThe successful candidate will develop and apply natural language processing (NLP) methods to analyze narratives on climate-related events, such as floods, droughts, heatwaves and storms. The goal is to identify which (i) narratives are predominant in media coverage and political discourse surrounding climate-related events, (ii) how they evolve over time and (iii) how they are linked to climate change adaptation. To this end, a text- as-data approach (using e.g. policy documents, newspapers, laws, and social media) will be applied. Prof. Christian Kuhlicke (University of Potsdam) will be the University supervisor, and Dr. Mariana Madruga de Brito will be the UFZ advisor. In order to meet the project aims, the PhD candidate will: