The Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC) investigates how people and nature can thrive under planetary pressures. SRC collaborates with the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, focusing on sustainability, resilience, and transformative change.

Project description

The Postdoctoral Researcher will join the research project SURPRISES: Building anticipatory governance of social-ecological tipping points in transformative change planning for ocean sustainability. With the world facing a looming poly-crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and growing inequalities, there is an urgent need to enable societal transformation for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people. However, what this transformative change looks like and how to achieve it will manifest differently in diverse contexts and requires taking diverse people, their knowledge systems, different relationships with nature, and aspirations into account. SURPRISES will adopt a participatory futures approach to co-develop nature-positive visions under conditions of uncertainty, and to build multiple pathways and actions to achieve these in Africa’s ocean basins (we will undertake visioning workshops in the Western-Indian Ocean (WIO), the Mediterranean Sea, and the Benguela, Gulf of Guinea and adjacent islands). These visions will then be used to scale to a pan-African Ocean vision built on bottom-up indicators and aspirations, with the support of the IUCN’s Great Blue Wall initiative. It emphasizes a transdisciplinary and inclusive approach to include the perspectives of diverse actors, especially those whose voices are marginalized in decision-making, and foregrounds their stories and narratives to engage with more powerful actors towards transformative change. In addition, this project aims to include the element of ‘surprise’ by engaging with the non-linear dynamics (feedback loops and tipping points) leading to irreversible changes in complex systems, to produce scenarios that are more robust in the face of uncertainties.

The overarching goal of the project is to understand what transformative change is needed to achieve sustainable and equitable coastal and marine futures that are resilient to surprises in African ocean basins. This entails identifying what visions and pathways of transformative change should be fostered with more equitable outcomes, understanding co-benefits and synergies across scales, and mismatch in aspirations, leading to potential downsides and trade-offs between local, regional and global visions and pathways. The two main sub-objectives of the research are:

O1. Anticipating and understanding coastal and marine social-ecological tipping points across scales in African ocean basins.

O2. Building anticipatory governance to ensure that actions to achieve transformative visions are sensitive to multi-scale temporal and spatial dynamics.

SRC is leading WP 2 that aims to co-design visions and pathways to aspirational ocean futures drawing on diverse and potentially conflicting knowledge, worldview, and value systems. We will lead the workshop process in each of the regional case studies and scale these into Pan-African scenarios.

Main responsibilities

The Postdoctoral Researcher will play a central role in the project by leading the development and deployment of the methods for the different case study workshop in collaboration with the other consortium members and tailor it to the needs of the various stakeholders. They will be responsible for the analysis of results and writing up reports and publications- as lead author- that emerge from these outputs and work closely with the students to develop the pan-African scenario and their analysis. The Postdoctoral researcher will also help with overall project management and workshop logistics where relevant. There is likely also to be an opportunity to contribute to the development of the African Tipping Points Report and to take on some leadership if it is of interest.

Qualification requirements

In order to qualify for a Postdoctoral position, applicants are required to hold a Swedish doctoral degree or an equivalent relevant degree from another country. The degree must have been completed no later than when the employment decision is made.

Assessment criteria

It is considered an advantage if the doctoral degree or an equivalent degree was completed no more than three years prior to the application deadline. Under special circumstances, an older degree may also be an advantage. Special circumstances refer to sick leave, parental leave, elected positions in trade unions, service in the total defense, or other similar circumstances, as well as clinical attachment or service/assignments relevant to the subject area.

In the appointment process, special attention will be given to research skills.

We seek a candidate with several of the following qualifications:

• Proven experience futures-oriented approaches, such as scenario development, participatory visioning, or pathway modelling, and familiarity with the concept of tipping points.
• Demonstrated ability to integrate qualitative and quantitative methods and work across disciplines to address complex social-ecological challenges.
• Practical experience with participatory processes and co-creation methods, particularly involving diverse stakeholders and the sometimes complicated logistics that arise in convening these spaces whilst making strong linkages between qualitative and quantitative methods.
• In-depth knowledge of sustainability transformations and the ability to apply this expertise to real-world processes for sustainable development- experience working in diverse African contexts is appreciated.
• Strong skills in research design, management, and coordination, especially in international and interdisciplinary team settings.
• Demonstrated academic publishing record (commensurate with career stage).
• Excellent written and spoken English skills (proficiency in Swedish is not required).
• Proficiency in French, Portuguese, Arabic, Swahili, or other languages spoken in coastal Africa would be a bonus.

We are looking for a candidate who can work within a highly interdisciplinary team and in an action-oriented research project with researchers and non-academic actors from diverse backgrounds and geographies. Our preferred candidate needs to be responsible, responsive, a good team player and happy to work independently on tasks and to take initiative. They must be self-motivated, proactively take responsibility for their tasks and have a structured way of working and communicating. They should be happy with prioritizing tasks, potentially working on multiple things simultaneously whilst keeping an overview of a complex organization and delivering on concrete tasks.

About the employment

The position involves full-time employment for a minimum of two years and a maximum of three years, with the possibility of extension under special circumstances. Start date 2026-06-01 or as per agreement.

We offer

With us, you will experience the dynamic interaction between higher education and research that makes Stockholm University an exciting and creative environment. You will work in an international environment and get favourable conditions. The university is located in the National City Park with good transport links to the city.

Stockholm University strives to be a workplace free from discrimination and with equal opportunities for all.

Contact

Further information about the position can be obtained from Prof. Laura Pereira, laura.pereira@su.se.