"Ph.D. Fellowship"

Department: RECETOX – Faculty of Science

Deadline: 30 Sep 2025

Start date: upon agreement

Job type: part-time

Job field: Science and research

Bursar of the Faculty of Science, Masaryk University announces an open competition for the position.

Workplace: RECETOX, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic

Type of programme: 4-year Ph.D. programme with financial support for 4 years, non-academic position

Working Hours: 0.5 FTE (part-time employment of 20 hours per week)

Expected Start Date: negotiable with respect to immigration timelines for non EU candidates

Number of Open Positions: 1

Pay: financial support for 4 years

Application Deadline: 30.09.2025

EU Researcher Profile: R1

Job Description: We are searching for a highly motivated, pro-active, creative, and independent young scientist for the research topic "Modelling the impacts of soil pollution on soil ecosystem services". The topic is focused on ecosystem services, soil ecotoxicology, soil contamination, and ecological risk assessment. The work will be focused on metals, pesticides, microplastics, PFAS, and nutrients.

Key Goals:

• collection of known pollution-biota interactions (reviewing, organization and harmonization into a database, parametrization for future mathematical modeling) for given groups of pollutants
• identification of the following dependencies: impact on soil biota >> impairment of soil functions >> soil ecosystem services distortion (inventory of relationships from literature, organization into conceptual models)
• quantification and parametrization of the dependencies to mathematical models and providing inputs to programming (cooperation with R programmer)
• modelling impact on soil ecosystem services in various real use cases and different scenarios (several SOILPROM case studies in different countries focusing on different pollutants)

More about the Ph.D. position: The PhD position is open within the international collaborative Horizon Europe project SOILPROM (https://soilprom.eu/), with the main aim of delivering upgraded and integrated models for pollutant transport and fate that assess the impact of soil pollution on soil functions and related ecosystem services. The PhD researcher will work in the small SOILPROM team at RECETOX, which will consist of the PhD researcher, a PostDoc researcher (R programmer, consultant), undergraduate students, and Prof. Jakub Hofman.

Skills and Qualifications: MSc in one or more of the following disciplines: ecology, ecotoxicology, environmental sciences, soil science, or closely related; previous sufficient experience/education in the following areas: ecosystem services, risk assessment, ecological/environmental data analysis and modelling, soil biology. Informal inquiries about the position can be sent to Prof. Jakub Hofman, email: jakub.hofman@recetox.muni.cz

We Offer: An interesting job in a dynamically-expanding university area; Flexible working hours and occasional home office; Employee benefits such as 6 weeks of paid vacation per year, pension insurance contribution, financial meal allowance, Multisport card, etc.; Opportunity to work and live in a modern and dynamic city; Welcome Office provides support with your relocation to Brno.

Application Process: The application shall be submitted online by 30.9.2025 via an e-application.