Post Doctoral Fellow (Aquatic Animal Health, Biosecurity and Social Science)

Job Details

We invite applications for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to join the European Research Council-funded Advanced research project BIOSSCI ‘Social Science Transformations of Biosecurity.'

The postholder will work to design and deliver a research programme that provides evidence on Bangladesh-based policy and practice related to aquaculture fish health and biosecurity. The role will involve working with key actors including farmers, farm workers, hatcheries, policymakers, and scientists to build an understanding of how fish health is perceived, managed, and practised.

The successful candidate will have a background and experience in veterinary social science, agricultural extension, human geography, sociology, anthropology, or science and technology studies. The candidate should be familiar with a range of social science research methods, including surveys, participant observation, interviews, and qualitative data analysis. The candidate must be able to work independently, self-manage, and take initiative in developing fieldwork opportunities. This position will involve collaboration with internationally based colleagues in the UK and South Africa to support comparative analyses and co-learning across country contexts.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, execute and report on farm as well as policy practices that relate to the interface of rural livelihoods, fish health, disease control, and biosecurity.
• Achieve the research deliverables of the BIOSSCI project in Bangladesh.
• Support the project team in the UK, and South Africa in overall project delivery.
• Disseminating research findings using media appropriate to the discipline, publish social scientific and outreach articles.
• Work collaboratively with the Project Leader based in the UK.
• Develop productive partnerships to develop social science and biosecurity work in Bangladesh, WorldFish and CGIAR, through key international and national research institutes and universities.
• Build productive relations with investors and development partners from public and private sectors for scaling out research results.
• Mentor research support assistants assigned to the BIOSSCI project.
• Develop productive working relationships with other members of staff.
• Plan, organize, execute and report on project progress in dialogue with senior as well as junior staff/employees and external partners.
• Support to develop research objectives, projects and proposals and contribute to resource mobilization for further work in other WorldFish countries.

Requirements

This job might be for you if you have the below skills and qualifications:

• PhD in Social Science and related fields.

• At least two years of research experience in social research, with expertise in social surveys and qualitative methods.
• Excellent proficiency of spoken and written English.
• Proven record of publications in his/her study field.
• Motivation for high quality social science and delivery of impact from research.
• Show proven interest and ability to develop and maintain a professional network in the field of social research and aquaculture development.
• Ability to work within interdisciplinary research teams, linking own expertise to other fields, including fish health, rural studies, aquaculture science and gender inequalities research fields.
• Ability to work independently and manage research projects.
• Proven competency with social science research design and analysis of quantitative as well as qualitative data.
• Proven competence with conducting social surveys.
• Proven competency with ethnographic methods.
• Strong writing skills with record of publication in high quality social scientific outputs.
• Experience with aquaculture, science and development.
• Experience with working with rural communities.
• Experience of supervising staff.
• Knowledge of the aquaculture industry.
• Knowledge and experience working in the field.

Desirable Skills/Experience

• Strong interpersonal and organizational skills.
• Good leadership and mentoring skills.
• Project management experience.
• Able to balance the pressures of research, administrative demands and competing deadlines.

Contact Information

applications must be submitted by no later than 23:59 (BST) 02 June 2026.