We are recruiting for a Research Fellow in Renewable Energy and the Environment to join our multi-disciplinary group working to advance understanding of the biophysical interactions of marine and offshore renewable energy with the environment. This permanent (open-ended) position seeks contribution to existing projects, to complement or diversify existing strengths, and become the next wave of leadership informing sustainable use of our oceans.
The Environmental Research Institute (ERI) is part of UHI North, West and Hebrides, one of the academic partners of UHI. Located in Thurso, on the north coast of Scotland, the ERI is close to many outstanding marine resources with excellent proximity to marine energy sites for research and innovation opportunities. Sustainable use of these wind, wave and tidal stream resources is key to achieving ambitious Scottish and international renewable energy targets.
Coordinated and scalable marine sensing and measurement systems are vital to this goal and increased understanding of our seas. Activities will support existing projects including PREDICT and PELAgIO focusing on offshore wind, and a wide diversity of projects on wave and tidal steam energy, as well as expanding our portfolio of projects. The researcher will benefit from the purpose-built ‘Centre for Energy and the Environment’, comprising modern offices, instrumentation and electronics laboratories, workshops, and access to the Pentland Firth via ERI’s research boat ‘Aurora’.
Activities will focus on development of advanced algorithms and automated processing techniques, including sensor fusion, active acoustic data (echosounder, multibeam imaging sonar), exploring options for computer vision (optical cameras), with concurrent co-collection of environmental data.
Previous multi-sensor platforms include FLOWBEC-4D with various applications. Recent technological advances now provide an opportunity to develop next-generation sensor platforms, ultimately informing future distributed, scalable and coordinated ocean sensing.
A background in Marine Ecology / Marine Science / Oceanography / Ocean Technology and technical / programming experience, or Engineering, Physics, Computer Science / Informatics with experience of marine applications are desirable. Desirable skills and experience include data analysis, ideally with experience in hydroacoustics / imaging sonar processing / computer vision or marine environmental, biophysical, oceanographic sensing / sensor fusion.
Multi-disciplinary experience, knowledge of programming languages such as MATLAB or Python, and a full driving license are desirable.
Informal enquires can be made to Dr Benjamin Williamson, leader of the ERI’s ‘Energy’ research group: benjamin.williamson@uhi.ac.uk
https://eri.ac.uk/members/benjamin-williamson/
This is an open-ended appointment (subject to probationary period).
Closing date for applications Wednesday 21 February 2024. Interviews are planned for 26 February 2024 onwards.
Salary: £31,066 – £33,641 (Postdoctoral Researcher) or £36,467 – £39,420 (Research Fellow) + 45 days holiday in a full year (inclusive of 14 public/general holidays) + Enrolment into Local Government Superannuation Scheme.
Full details are available in the Recruitment Pack. The ERI’s Strategic Plan is also provided as an attachment.
