3-year Post-Doctoral Position (100%)

Solving the climate crisis requires the brightest minds. The Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) has established itself prominently in the climate policy research landscape. We conduct world-class research on climate solutions and offer an inspiring interdisciplinary environment for scientific excellence.

If you enjoy working in a very collaborative, supportive and international team, you crave to understand how and why climate policies work in the institutional setting of low- and middle income and which social implications they might hold - then you may want to apply for this position in MCC’s Climate and Development (CaD) group: Post-doctoral research position on the distributional impacts of climate policies.

The successful candidate will work on the impacts of European climate policy on low- and middle income countries and how to alleviate them. A focus will be on the distributional effects of trade policy, such as the planned Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).

Job duties

The successful candidate will be located at MCC in Berlin and work in the AdJUST (“Advancing the understanding of challenges, policy options and measures to achieve a JUST EU energy transition”) project funded by the European Commission. They will cooperate closely with national and European project partners. Willingness to travel within and outside the European Union is a prerequisite for this position.

Major tasks of the candidate are:

 Publish scientific results in esteemed, peer-reviewed international journals;

 Conduct empirical and numerical research on the distributional effects and acceptability of climate policy in low- and middle income countries;

 Presentation of results at international conferences, to project partners as well as policymakers and other stakeholders;

 Turn scientific results into plain-language policy briefs for decision-makers;

 Participate in project meetings and coordinate with other project partners;

 Contribute to project management and supervision of PhD students;

Job requirements

 PhD in economics, development economics or related fields;

 Advanced skills in econometrics/statistics and quantitative methods;

 Coding skills with relevant statistical software, such as R, STATA or Python;

 Active interest in climate or energy policy impact evaluation;

 Willingness to travel for work 2-6 times per year (project meetings, workshops, conferences);

 Strong motivation and excellent organizational skills;

 Excellent communication and presentation skills;

 Team orientation as well as written and oral fluency in English.

We offer:

 An inspiring, international and interdisciplinary work environment in a world leading research institute on climate policy;

 Working in a dedicated and motivated multi-cultural team;

 High-impact research: MCC researchers publish in renowned international journals, both disciplinary and interdisciplinary and regularly contribute to international assessment bodies, such as the IPCC or UN Emissions Gap Report;

 Participation in a solution-oriented research project with several German and international partners and with immediate policy relevance;

 Opportunities for cooperation with MCC’s national and international network of leading climate & energy research institutes and think tanks;

 the opportunity to contribute to tackling challenges of climate change and our common future;

 flexible and family-friendly working times and possibilities for home office;

 participation in employee retirement provision;

 an attractive workplace in an old industrial building at the EUREF - Campus in Schöneberg, Berlin.

The MCC values a collaborative working place environment that values diversity, tolerance, and equity. We aim to improve the share of women especially in leadership positions and especially welcome applications by women (here). MCC provides an exciting, collaborative, interdisciplinary and international research and working atmosphere.

Appointment terms

Remuneration is in accordance with German public tariff scheme, salary group E13 TV-L (with differentiation according to levels of professional experience). It is a full-time position with a weekly working time of 40 hours per week.

Applications

For application please send an e-mail with the reference number as subject PD_2022_8 to Mrs. Franziska Faber, jobs@mcc-berlin.net. We will review all applications by Monday, 30.11.2022, but later applications might be considered. The application should contain the following in one single pdf file:

 Motivation letter

 Curriculum Vitae, mentioning two academic references

 One representative academic paper

 Copies of relevant certificates

Please note that only short-listed candidates will be contacted for a job interview. For content-related questions you can contact Prof. Jan Steckel, steckel@mcc-berlin.net.

Portrait of the MCC

MCC was founded in 2012 by Stiftung Mercator and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and since 2014 it is affiliated with the Technical University (TU) Berlin. Our research is carried out in seven working groups and it addresses the grand challenges of climate change and of governing the global commons. Our research is rooted primarily in economics and other social sciences. We provide scientific policy advice and aim to identify policy-relevant solutions. Cooperation with high-profile international partner organizations provides a network of excellence and foster the high quality of the research at MCC. Within a few years, MCC has established itself prominently in the climate policyresearch landscape, ranked as No. 1 of climate think tanks in Europe.

For more information about the institute, please visit http://www.mcc-berlin.net

Reference number PD_2022_8 (AdJUST)

Job opening | 18 November 2022