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. The incumbent will be responsible for 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. The research contributes to a wide spectrum of engineering fields and a broad range of environmental and ecosystems services.

The position is meant to strategically position the CSIR in supporting national and regional climate actions. These include supporting the Presidential Climate Change Commission, the implementation of the Climate Change Bill and other relevant climate policies, the operationalisation of the Just Transition Framework and the national commitment to a net zero GHG emissions target by 2050. This position is based in Pretoria.

About the Group:

The research group undertakes directed climate change research that supports sectoral and integrated climate change responses, that seek to make a tangible impact on low carbon, climate resilient industries and society in southern Africa.  Specifically, the RG provides analysis of climate change risks, climate change impacts and responses to climate change impacts across a wide range of sectors.  Services and products provided by the RG include crop modelling, species distribution modelling, agro-hydrological modelling, greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory, low emission strategies, resource constraints trade-offs, climate policy, national reporting obligations to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), decision support tools and information and communication technologies (i.e., spatial information systems, GIS, web mapping and remote sensing).

Key responsibilities:

• 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.
• 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
• Ability to present technical details to a non-technical audience.
• 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 interpersonal skills and the ability to work closely with others in research group;
• Must have a valid driver’s licence.
• 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.
• Ability to conduct research tasks, collect, analyse, and summarise data; combined with ability to manage projects in a multi-stakeholder and multi-geographies context.
• Ability to undertake economic costs and benefits of nature-based solutions.
• 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.
• Ability to collaborate with key international, national, and sub-national actors in the implementation of climate actions;
• Ability to lead the preparation and completion of proposals and deliverables for corporate and public sector clients;
• Ability to liaise with other teams within and outside the CSIR to gather information and insights related to climate policy and climate change mitigation.

Closing date: 02 April 2024