Working with us

SUSTAINABILITY RESEARCHER
Temporary position, 6 months from September 2018
Salary range £23,827 – £26,000
RES1802

The Organic Research Centre is looking to appoint a Sustainability Researcher to help analyse and review evidence on the impact of livestock and organic farms on the environment and sustainability. The work will take place within the ORC’s Environment, Sustainability and Health programme and will focus on several projects, including the Horizon 2020-funded project iSAGE and the Global Food Security Programme funded project SEEGSLIP. This position will be based at least in part at the ORC’s Elm Farm site near Newbury in Berkshire.

Candidates should possess a BSc (at least 2.1) in an environmental science-related discipline. Some research experience in sustainability data analysis is essential, as is an intermediate to advanced knowledge of MS Excel. Experience and knowledge of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is desirable along with experience and knowledge of sustainability assessment approaches.

Experience and knowledge of the European ruminant-livestock sector and an interest in the environment and organic farming is desirable. Good communication skills, both oral and written are essential. An ability to develop own ideas and to implement own approaches is essential.

Applications must be on the ORC application form. Further details and the application form are below. Please quote reference RES1802.

Volunteers

Volunteer Copywriter

We occasionally need creative and motivated volunteer (part-time and home-based) to produce short summaries of web-pages, PDFs, videos, podcasts and online tools for Agricology, a website providing practical information about sustainable farming for UK farmers and growers. More details here. We are full to capacity at the moment but do feel free to register your interest.

Charity trustees

If you would be interested in being a Trustee of the Charity, please get in contact with the Director, Nic Lampkin. We have recently completed a round of recruitment and are not looking for further Trustees in 2018

Internships

We are currently only accepting applications for internship starting Autumn 2018 and for 2019

We operate an intern/student’s programme linked to our research programmes and projects and it operates in one of three ways:

  1. Funded intern positions that are advertised as paid employment above (if there are none advertised we do not currently have any funded internships available).
  2. Interns who have secured their own funding under other programmes i.e. Erasmus+, bursaries etc.
  3. Graduate or postgraduate students spending time as part of their course undertaking a research project at ORC.

Read an article on Interns at ORC, past and present from the ORC Bulletin 120 – Spring/Summer 2016.

If you meet one of these criteria and are interested in interning or undertaking research as part of a degree with us please contact Dr Bruce Pearce.

If you are looking for practical work opportunities on organic farms, we regret that we are not able to assist. Here are a few links worth trying:

  • Willing Workers On Organic Farms is a membership charity, teaching people about organic growing and low-impact lifestyles through hands-on experience in the UK;
  • The Soil Association runs the Future Growers scheme providing traineeships and apprenticeships. They also maintain a list of external job vacancies and opportunities available on organic holdings and at likeminded organisations across the UK;
  • Environment Jobs lists jobs and volunteering opportunities in this area.

Postgraduate research

Opportunities may exist for MSc and PhD research projects linked to our current research areas. Contact the relevant team leader for further information.

Participatory research

Much of our research involves participatory engagement of producers and other businesses – we currently have over 50 businesses working with us and have now established a Participatory Research Network to develop this work. If you are a producer, processor or other business interested in getting involved with research, please contact the Senior Programme Manager.

Partner organisations

ORC works collaboratively on projects and in its dissemination of results with a number of UK and European partners.

Europe-wide, ORC was a founding member of The European Consortium for Organic Plant Breeding (ECO-PB) – for more information see their website www.ecopb.org.

We are members of FQH – the International Research Association for Organic Food Quality and Health. www.organicfqhresearch.org.

ORC is also a partner in Organic Centre Wales.

ORC works closely with IOTA, who have undertaken collation and analysis of organic research. Reports with practical recommendations for use by advisers and others is available on www.organicadvice.org.uk/res_reviews_public.htm.

Organic e-prints provides a fully searchable archive for all organic research. To upload results and search projects Europe wide go to www.orgprints.org.

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