Economist / Quantitative Social Scientist

Capita - Fera
York - United Kingdom
S: Competitive

Fera's over-arching purpose is to support and develop a sustainable food chain, a healthy natural environment, and to protect the global community from biological and chemical risks. Our role within that is to provide robust evidence, rigorous analysis and professional advice to Government, international organisations and the private sector.

This vacancy is within the Land Use and Sustainability team within the Plant Protection Programme

The Plant Protection Programme provides multidisciplinary research, diagnosis and advice in support of plant protection within the UK and overseas. The programme conducts research into new and sustainable ways to produce and protect crops while minimising impact on the environment.

Within the Programme, the Land Use and Sustainability team is a multi-disciplinary team providing research and other services for UK and European government and the private sector. The team's work is focussed on evaluation of the environmental impacts of changes in land use in connection with changes in agricultural and environmental policy. Evaluation of the environmental sustainability of agriculture is an integral part of the team's work, as are surveys of agricultural practices including pesticide usage, economic analysis and evaluation, and spatial analysis using geographical information (GI) systems.

The team has long-standing expertise in liaising with farmers and industry for surveillance and data gathering purposes and collation and analysis of the data. Our work is strongly supported by expertise in agriculture, ecology, economics, spatial analysis and geographic information systems.

Although based in Plant Protection programme, the multi-disciplinary nature of the team means that we also deliver projects across the whole of Fera's business, and it is anticipated that this post will work closely with Fera's food science programmes.

Purpose of job

Fera's government and commercial customers are increasingly seeking scientific and policy advice that is complemented by socio-economic context and/or assessment across the entire agri-food supply chain. Fundamental to this is the realisation that agriculture and the rural environment has a multifunctional role, i.e. it covers various policy objectives, such as contributing to food security, has the ability to supply non-market public goods especially with respect to the environment, maintains the viability of rural areas, and is a key part of our cultural heritage.

We are looking for a candidate with a track record of successfully applying economics/social science to scientific and policy problems. They will have excellent technical skills in the areas of economics or a quantitative social science, a track record of delivery in a project related environment, and well developed interpersonal skills.

The purpose of this post is to support further development of the social science capability at Fera as part of our socio-economic team. Specifically the post holder would be responsible for:

Input and development of bids for funding in relation to agri-environment/food social science, and delivering work commitments for successful projects;
Developing relationships with internal and external customers to develop contracts in which economics plays (or could play) a significant role, across any of Fera's business interests;
Providing a service to other programmes in Fera where work requires economics input, and in particular to develop greater input to the food side of the business;
Identifying opportunities for development of partnerships with other organisations with respect to the social sciences, especially those with complementary skills and expertise;
Cost-effective project management coupled with good networking, communication and facilitation skills;
Ideally the post holder would also work closely with Fera's lead on risk and uncertainty analysis with a view to reinvigorating this area of Fera's business;
Candidates will need to have at least a degree-level or higher qualification in economics/quantitative social science or related subject. They will be able to demonstrate application of these qualifications and skills in a wide range of situations. They will have experience of working in a busy project-based environment and will be used to bidding/tendering for contracts and managing multi-partner projects. Experience of delivering projects on government policy-relevant issues and working with many partners in multi-disciplinary, multi-country projects will be viewed favourably.

We are looking for someone with good understanding of the food and agriculture industry and practices, and their environmental, economic, and social implications. A good understanding of current EU and UK food, agricultural and environmental policy would also be beneficial.

Our ideal candidate will be able to work on their own initiative and be highly adaptable, able to manage multiple demands to time and quality against tight deadlines. The inter-disciplinary mature of our work means we need someone with a track record in collaboration across multi-functional teams. Finally, we need someone with excellent written and oral communication skills who is highly numerate with good IT skills; candidates need to be detail-conscious and well-organised and able to deliver consistent results.

Interviews are scheduled to take place on Tuesday 1st September at Fera's headquarters in York.

Job summary