Senckenberg – Leibniz Institution for Biodiversity and Earth System Research (SGN), headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, is seeking to fill the following position at its Department of River Ecology and Conservation in Gelnhausen, starting as soon as possible
3 Postdoctoral Researchers (ecologists) (m/f/d)
(full-time / part-time)
Location: Gelnhausen
Employment scope: full-time / part-time options are available
Type of contract: limited two years / an extension is be possible
Remuneration: Collective agreement of the state Hesse (TV-H) E 13
Senckenberg is one of the world’s leading research institutions in the field of Biodiversity and Earth System Research, with eight research institutes and three natural history museums across Germany and scientists from over 40 nations. Our headquarter is located in the thriving commercial metropolis of Frankfurt in the heart of Germany, which also hosts one of our most famous facilities, the Senckenberg Natural History Museum. The renowned Senckenberg Research Institute is located in Gelnhausen, a Barbarossa town with historical charm in the Frankfurt area.
Founded in 1817, Senckenberg Society for Nature Research (SGN) is one of the world’s leading research institutions in the field of biodiversity. At our twelve sites in Germany, scientists from over 40 nations conduct cutting-edge research on an international scale.
We are looking for enthusiastic ecologists with a background in broad-scale biodiversity change, community ecology, macroecology, metacommunities, and/or analysis of ecological time series.
The three positions are embedded in one or more of the following projects:
1) Synthesis Center on Freshwater Biodiversity Change in Europe (http://www.senckenberg.de/synthesis-center)
The Synthesis Center investigates a broad variety of fundamental and applied ecological questions, including those related to biodiversity change, community ecology, freshwater ecology, time series analyses, multiple stressor impacts, and conservation (see doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06400-1 for an example). Data for > 30,000 freshwater biodiversity time series across 30 European countries has already been compiled from rivers and lakes, covering invertebrates, fish, macrophytes, diatoms, and benthic algae, in collaboration with a large pan-European network of > 150 researchers. Positions involved in this project are expected to pursue similar, broad-scale questions using the already available data.
2) EU Horizon Europe project BEAGLE (begins 1 October 2026)
BEAGLE (Biodiversity methods for advanced monitoring at large scales) is a policy-oriented research project advancing biodiversity monitoring across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems in the EU, in collaboration with a consortium of 17 partners with expertise in ecology, AI, and policy to support informed decision-making for conservation and sustainable strategies. BEAGLE will synthesize European-scale biodiversity data mobilization activities, leverage existing biodiversity monitoring protocols, deploy eDNA as well as > 1,000 field sensors for automated biodiversity recording, and actively engage citizens. Positions involved in this project are expected to contribute to several tasks including biodiversity data mobilization at the European-scale and Malaise trap deployment.
3) EU-funded project ‘Biodiversity Meets Data’ (BMD; https://bmd-project.eu/)
BMD aims to provide a toolbox equipped with a suite of Virtual Research Environments (VREs) co-designed with stakeholders to enable any user to easily access, visualize, and model already collected biodiversity data, including projections to future climatic and land cover scenarios at local, regional, national and European scales across terrestrial, freshwater and marine realms. Positions involved in this project are expected to develop these VREs (e.g., via R Shiny apps). The project presents a fantastic opportunity to become part of a European network of established researchers, postdocs, and graduate students working with monitoring data.
