Science Officer: Africa

The Regional Information for Society (RIfS) Core Project of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) is looking for a Science Officer, based in Africa, to coordinate activities with regional foci in Africa. This key coordination role requires someone with a working knowledge about physical climate science, and comfortable with engaging a wide range of disciplines, individuals, projects, and organizations across the continent already active in relevant work. The goal of the Science Officer is to serve as the connecting glue for various communities of practice that touch on producing robust information for decisions in the face of climate change.

The Science Officer will be accountable to and operate under the guidance of the RIfS Africa Task Team, and with local mentorship support from the host institution. The Science Officer will help the Task Team to foster a transdiciplinary approach through linking the multiple research communities and networks, project-based research consortia, policy and stakeholder communities, national agencies, and relevant donor agencies.

The Science Officer will also be the first fully remote member of the RIfS International Project Office (IPO). All serious candidates should begin the process of identifying a local organization in their region of Africa that could partner with the RIfS IPO to host them if their application were successful.

Responsibilities

The following responsibilities are indicative, and may be evolved in consultation with the Africa Task Force.

Oversight and coordination of RIfS activities in Africa. Responsible for enabling and sustaining communications and engagement between collaborators.
Identify points of connection within and across relevant communities of practice and projects in Africa, and facilitate relationships to develop knowledge sharing and new collaborations.
Initiate contact with and develop sustained and mutually beneficial dialogue with projects, relevant agencies and institutions.
Contribute to the conceptualization, design, and development of meetings and contact events.
Scoping needs and facilitating solutions to advance climate literacy.
Contributing to the development of new robust information literature on guidance, transferrable lessons, context alignment, etc.
Regularly meet and provide guidance to two postdocs tasked with supporting priority pilot actions
Participate in meetings of the RIfS Africa Task Team as ex-officio member.
Attend weekly (virtual) team meetings with the RIfS IPO.
Attend annual meetings of the CLARE project, and other existing relevant initiatives in the continent.
Work closely with CORDEX-Africa, and its broad network of sub-regional representatives.
Travel around the continent as needed to facilitate pan-African knowledge sharing
Provide quarterly written reporting on progress, and contribute to the RIfS newsletter.
Follow the WCRP Code of Conduct

Qualifications

MS in a Climate Science discipline (PhD preferred).
At least three years of relevant experience post-graduation.
Experience working with local stakeholders to co-design a research study.
Experience with international organizations and funders.
Experience working collaboratively on a trans-national initiative within Africa.
Adequate facility in the English language to conduct meetings and comply with reporting requirements.
Ability to communicate in at least one other language relevant in Africa would be an advantage.

To Apply

All applicants should submit a CV and one-page letter of motivation to hiring@wcrp-rifs.org by March 31st, 2025. We will begin considering applications as they are received.

A letter of support from a potential host organization will be requested from short-listed candidates. The RIfS IPO will contract with the host organization of the successful candidate to provide funds for salary dependent on qualifications and experience of up to 50k USD per year excluding overhead, plus travel and overheads to a maximum of 20% of salary for an initial two-year period with possibility of extension. The host organization will be expected to use the overheads to cover the provision of office space, and all the institutional support functions and employee benefits of regular employees according to local standards, to be described in the letter of support. In addition, the host organization should identify and indicate the agreement of a relevant senior member as a local mentor.

Short-listed candidates will be contacted by early April, and a final decision is expected by late April, with a start date of May 15 at the latest.

About RIfS

RIfS (Regional Information for Society) is one of the newer Core Projects of WCRP, which has been coordinating international climate research for more than 40 years. RIfS helps to advance international collaboration and consensus to bridge the gap between climate research and the context-dependent climate information needs of society, through transdisciplinary approaches. RIfS pays special attention to building local capacity to empower researchers to work within their own regional contexts with decision-makers.

The RIfS IPO is hosted at Ouranos in Montreal, Quebec Canada. The RIfS Scientific Steering Group is distributed globally. The Africa initiative, is RIfS’ first regionally-focused investment of resources, thanks to a partnership with the Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CLARE) project.

About CLARE

CLARE is a flagship research programme on climate adaptation and resilience, funded mostly (about 90%) by UK Aid through the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and co-funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. CLARE is bridging critical gaps between science and action by championing Southern leadership to enable socially inclusive and sustainable action to build resilience to climate change and natural hazards.

Learn more about CLARE: www.clareprogramme.org

For more up-to-date information on RIfS and other ongoing initiatives, please visit https://www.wcrp-rifs.org