Senior Researcher: Resource Economist Expert - Pretoria at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

About the Job:

The CSIR has a vacancy for a Senior Researcher in Climate Services research group of Holistic Climate Change Impact Area, within the Smart Places cluster. This position is based in Pretoria.

Key responsibilities:

• Modelling the economic effects of climate change or climate change policies using economy-wide models (such as computable general equilibrium models or large-scale energy models) or modelling in specific sectors that are large energy consumers or significant contributors to climate change.
• Lead the Research Group on projects and initiatives that require assessments of resource economics.
• Lead the business case development, preparation and completion of proposals/deliverables for the public and corporate sector on climate finance, and modelling of costs of climate change solutions;
• Contribute to CSIR’s thought leadership on climate finance, and resource economics modelling;
• Lead the Research Group in collaborative efforts, including proposal writing, in pursuance of contract R&D in the field of climate finance.
• Collaborate with CSIR’s Business Development and Commercialisation (BD&C) to position the Research Group, the Impact Area and the CSIR to be an effective role player on linkages between climate finance, and climate change solutions.
• Mentor and formally supervise the post-graduate research of candidate-researchers and researchers within the research group.

Qualifications, skills, and experience:

• A Master’s degree in economics, or a closely related field with at least five years’ experience with a track record of deploying macroeconomic computable general equilibrium (CGE) models to shape policies or strategies in government, consultancy, academia, industry or a financial institution.
• A Doctoral degree would be an added advantage.
•  Excellent knowledge of systems modelling, coding and modelling in GAMS; knowledge of MPSGE is a plus.
• Knowledge of environmental sustainability opportunities and challenges in national and multinational companies;
• Sound knowledge of macroeconomic computable general equilibrium (CGE) models to shape policies or strategies in government, consultancy, academia, industry or a financial institution.
• Experience with the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) database
• Sound understanding of microeconomic theory.
• Familiarity with a wide range of climate-related modelling including but not limited to macroeconomic, energy-system models as well as
• Strong knowledge of in climate policies particularly carbon pricing
• Strong knowledge in high- and low-carbon technologies
• Must have the ability to;
  • present technical details to a non-technical audience.
  • Ability to conduct research tasks, collect, analyse, and summarise data; combined with ability to manage projects in a multi-stakeholder and multi-geographies context.
  •  Undertake economic costs and benefits of nature-based solutions.
  •  Collaborate with key international, national, and sub-national actors in the implementation of climate actions;
  • Liaise with other teams within and outside the CSIR to gather information and insights related to climate policy and climate change mitigation
  • Lead the preparation and completion of proposals and deliverables for corporate and public sector clients
  • Understanding of the energy issues / trends in SA will be a plus
• Effective organizational as well as written and verbal communication skills;
• A recent publication record in the fields of climate finance.
• Demonstrable experience and success in attracting R&D funding and the successful management of research projects.
• Good writing skills, with the ability to create high-quality written documents (e.g., proposals and deliverables) combined with excellent oral communication skills in English.
• Good interpersonal skills and the ability to work closely with others in research group;
• Must have a valid driver’s licence.

Closing date: 29 February 2024