Are you an ambitious researcher or industry practitioner with a background in understanding and developing the business case for nature-based solutions (NBS) to urban development such as - green infrastructure, sustainable water management and restoring degraded landscapes? Do you want to be a part of making a real difference to the uptake of NBS Europe-wide and globally?
This 3-year full time post offers a talented individual an opportunity to work for a major European NBS project with global outreach, connected to a national UK project focussed on catchment solutions. The post-holder will draw together the technical and economic evidence and analysis for the business case to mainstream NBS in commercial and policy practice, analyse the market potential for NBS across Europe and globally, and identify barriers and enablers to delivering the business and financing case of NBS schemes.
NBS are inspired and supported by nature, cost-effective, simultaneously provide environmental, social and economic benefits and help build resilience. Such solutions bring more, and more diverse, nature and natural features and processes into cities, landscapes and seascapes, through locally adapted, resource-efficient and systemic interventions.
The time for NBS to be ‘rolled out’ globally has come, and the European Commission seeks for Europe to be at the forefront of benefitting from and exporting NBS services. An ambitious EU Research and Innovation policy agenda on NBS brings together and capitalizes on major strands of knowledge and results from existing demonstration projects around the world. These projects include those from Horizon 2020 (H2020) and past EU Framework Programmes on biodiversity and ecosystems, sustainable urban development, natural resources management, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and disaster risk reduction.
The University of Leeds has a leading role in the major EU funded project – ThinkNature (
www.think-nature.eu/) which is featured in a recent
Nature journal article. The project is a co-ordinating platform for all projects on NBS funded by the EU H2020 program including: Eklipse, Inspiration, NAIAD, Nature4Cities, Naturvation, Biodiversa, URBAN Green-UP, Unalab, GrowGreen and Connecting Nature.
To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact:
Professor Steven Banwart, Integrating Chair in Soil / Water / Agriculture Research
Tel: +44 (0)113 343 1413, email: S.A.Banwart@leeds.ac.uk
