Post-Doctoral Researcher, Department of Economics, UCC

Post-Doctoral Researcher, Department of Economics, UCC: A position is available for a Post-Doctoral Researcher to work on new high impact project in the School of Economics at University College Cork (UCC). The successful applicant will work with a team of researchers under the direction of the Principal Investigator to better understand the ways in which community engagement in wind energy can be improved and operationalised through combined measures focussed on public participation in decision-making, direct investment and co-ownership in wind farm projects by the public and enhancing current practice by wind farm developers in establishing community benefits schemes. The project involves a unique partnership between leading researchers in these fields and a major wind energy developer, Coillte. The project is funded by the Sustainable Energy Association Ireland.

The Post-Doctoral Researcher, Department of Economics, UCC will work within the research team on:

• Researching and reporting on existing literature and best practice cases from other jurisdictions to identify best practice for community engagement processes in renewables.

• To develop proposals and novel frameworks for optimum community engagement in Ireland given the socio-economic context.

• To evaluate current financial structures being used in wind farms in Ireland to engage community groups.

• To engage and meet with key stakeholders groups, the research community, local communities, developers and other research partners.

• To design instrumentation for interviews, surveys and focus groups conducted during the course of this project.

• To engage with stakeholders in the Irish financial community to see what innovative forms of low cost/tax efficient structures could be made available to Irish community groups.

• Researching, designing and reporting on innovative effective community benefit schemes to promote community engagement.

• Meeting and reporting to a steering group and SEAI steering committee.

• To draft and publish papers on this project with the research team.

• Engaging in dissemination activities in Ireland and internationally.

• The post will involve some travel to meetings and conferences.

Expected Skill Set

An enthusiastic, motivated person with a high level of initiative, capable of working independently and within a team. The candidate should have fluent English and excellent communication, organization, planning and interpersonal skills. Ideally, the candidate will have experience and an understanding of meaningful and effective tools for engaging communities in the adoption of renewable energy sources, particularly wind energy. An understanding of climate finance and a good grounding in data analysis, statistics and/or econometric analysis and previous experience with Stata or similar econometric software would be desirable.

Post Duration: 20 months

Salary: €38,630 – €45,942 p.a. (IUA Salary Scale)

Project Title: Community Engagement in Wind Energy: Innovative Approaches to achieving a social license (Co-wind)

For an information package including further details of the post see https://ore.ucc.ie/. Job ID: 042591.

Informal enquiries can be made in confidence to Dr. Bernadette Power, College Lecturer, Department of Economics, University College Cork, Cork. Email: b.power@ucc.ie.