Researcher Position in Energy-Climate-Economic Modeling at CIRED
Contact: Céline Guivarch
Conditions:
Contract period: 24 months (with the possibility of extension)
Expected date of employment: end of 2023 – beginning of 2024
Salary : will be based on the qualifications and experience of the selected candidate
Workplace: CIRED – Nogent-sur-Marne
Management: Céline Guivarch
Application :
A detailed curriculum vitae including publications and research grants, a cover letter outlining your motivation for applying and fit to the position, specifying the direction (distributive effects, or economic damage of climate change) that the applicant would choose and the proposed way of orienting this work, and contact information of two references should be sent to Céline Guivarch.
Equal Opportunity Employer: We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. Women are encouraged to apply, as we are actively seeking to achieve gender balance within team.
Context
CIRED is looking to recruit a talented and motivated researcher to join its integrated assessment modeling team. The successful candidate will contribute to the team’s research on the energy-climate-economy interface and will be in particular involved in a European Horizon project, titled “PRISMA”.
Researchers in CIRED work in an interdisciplinary environment, publish extensively, interact with colleagues around the world, and provide expertise to public institutions, private companies and international organizations.
PRISMA (Net-Zero Pathway Research Through Integrated Assessment Model Advancements) vise à développer la prochaine génération de modèles d’évaluation intégrée qui peuvent directement accompagner la conception et l’évaluation des politiques climatiques européennes et internationales. Le projet se concentre sur quatre domaines clés d’amélioration des modèles : la représentation de la justice distributive, l’innovation et le financement, les impacts climatiques, ainsi que le changement de mode de vie et la circularité. Les développements des modèles seront co-conçus à travers un processus interactif d’engagement des parties prenantes dès le début, et se concentrera sur l’ouverture et la facilité d’utilisation des modèles afin de garantir la pertinence pour les parties prenantes et les politiques. Les modèles améliorés seront mobilisés pour l’analyse des politiques de l’UE “Fit for 55”, des trajectoires « Net zéro » robustes et pour évaluer l’incertitude autour des variables clés et des résultats. Le projet implique 13 partenaires, des équipes de modélisation leaders en Europe (CMCC, PIK, IIASA, PBL…).
Missions
The selected candidate will interact with leading researchers of different nationalities and lead or contribute to several of the tasks of developing, documenting and applying CIRED’s integrated assessment model (IAM) Imaclim-R , within the framework of PRISMA project. Depending on the expertise of the person selected, the work could go in one or other of the following directions. The first direction would be to integrate a representation of the economic impacts of climate change into the Imaclim-R monde model, for example by developing and testing several approaches based on different damage functions and damage persistence assumptions. The aim of the work would be to analyse the effects of taking damage into account for mitigation scenarios and policies. The second direction would be to work on assessing the distributive effects of climate policies, by contributing to develop the way in which the heterogeneity of households within regions is taken into account in the Imaclim-R monde model, and by making the link with the team’s work on structural changes in the economy due to mitigation policies.
The successful candidate must be prepared to process and manage large datasets, become proficient in using and developing a complex integrated assessment model, and apply it to respond to different research questions. In addition, the incumbent must be prepared to develop new modeling approaches and think critically and independently about her/his research and take responsibilities in the Imaclim-R modelling team, and to share and discuss these approaches at regular team meetings. Finally, the work will involve writing academic articles to be submitted in leading international journals.
Beyond the PRISMA project requirements, the research associate will be highly encouraged to conduct independent research and to develop a research agenda on the energy – economics – climate interface in the framework of the overall CIRED research program.
Requirements
CIRED is seeking a quantitative, analytical person with a keen and established interest in interdisciplinary and policy-relevant research. The successful applicant will have a proven aptitude for modeling. Experience with quantitative modeling and programming skills in Matlab/Scilab, R and/or Python are highly desirable. Knowledge on energy or climate-related issues is a plus as well, particularly experience close to one of the two proposed directions (distributive effects, or economic damage from climate change). Candidates with previous experience in large scale projects involving various partners are especially encouraged to apply. Experience or ability to work in a team, especially a modeling team with coordinated parallel developments, is a plus.
Candidates should have a PhD (or equivalent) in economics, engineering, operations research or related field (e.g., mathematics, physics).