University of Cambridge

Position Title/Short Description

Full Text of JOE Listing:

We are looking to appoint a Research Associate within the economics and policy subject group at Cambridge Judge Business School. The Research Associate will support a research project funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) called HUMAN (Hydrogen infrastructure Uncertainty MANagement for heat decarbonisation).

The successful candidate will be based within the Energy Policy Research Group (EPRG) at the Business School. Our research team have broad expertise in economics, technology policy and political science.EPRG is the leading academic energy economics and policy research group in Europe as judged by citations in RePEC. This project will complement other EPRG research into deep decarbonisation in energy-intensive industry, electricity, heat, and transport.

Cambridge is responsible for overall coordination of research on markets and regulatory frameworks associated with heat decarbonisation. To support these activities, we will analyse the sources of flexibility in a deeply decarbonised UK energy system and efficient institutional design for hydrogen and conventional gas transmission networks and wholesale commodity markets. Specific tasks include setting up economic models of electricity, gas/hydrogen and/or multivector energy system models (e.g., TIMES). The person should ideally be an expert in microeconomics, very knowledgeable about energy markets and policy (such as policy and regulatory questions around market design for gas and electricity) and be comfortable working in interdisciplinary teams including experts in the mathematics of energy, engineering, geoscience and political science. More information about the project and the role can be found in the Further Particulars.

A PhD in Economics (energy economics, applied economics, etc), Operations Research, Systems Engineering or other relevant discipline (eg public policy) is essential. Strong quantitative research skills, such as experience in designing and carrying out techno-economic or microeconomic modelling is essential. Additional knowledge of hydrogen or other potential heat decarbonisation pathways would be an advantage. Good writing skills and attention to detail are prerequisite for this role.

Our preference is to appoint someone with a PhD in hand, but successful candidates at Research Associate level who have not been awarded their PhD by the appointment date will be under-appointed as a Research Assistant (Grade 5) employed on a salary of £32,348 per annum. Upon award of the PhD the individual will be promoted to Research Associate (Grade 7 - £34,308).

This is a fixed term appointment for two years in the first instance.