Fish Behavioral Ecology Researcher

Join our vibrant team within VLIZ and become an inspiring researcher, striving for healthy fish populations.
The Marine Observation Centre (MOC) is dedicated to performing essential, long-term, and multidisciplinary observations of the marine environment, enhancing our understanding of the dynamics and functioning of marine and coastal ecosystems. MOC focuses on developing, operating, and optimizing innovative, integrated, and cost-effective observation systems to gather high-quality data crucial for marine research. The open position falls under the research line ‘Animal movement and behavioral ecology’. This team aims to improve protection and conservation of our aquatic animals through fundamental and applied science on movement, habitat use and behavior of the aquatic species in relation to their (changing) environment. This is done through collaborative data acquisition, analysis and modelling on local and European scale.

VLIZ is hiring, for immediate employment, a researcher/research project manager to coordinate and support our contribution to a number of European projects. Tasks involve (but are not limited to): 1) support the digital innovation and building tools in the European digital Twin Ocean for aquatic animal movement observations and analyses (DTOTrack, DTO-Bioflow); 2) help maintain the Belgian Permanent Acoustic Receiver Network and assure efficient dataflow towards the European Tracking Network database; 3) support fish tagging activities at sea (Elasmon); 4) help develop indicators for fish to assess and protect ecosystem health (NorTrack, Elasmon).

YOUR TASKS

You will work closely with internal teams, project partners, and stakeholders, managing the VLIZ commitments in various European projects related to biodiversity observation, as well as supporting ongoing research into fish movement behavior in the Belgian Part of the North Sea and beyond.

• You conduct general project management in consultation with international project team.
• You lead the project activities for VLIZ: internally managing and following up with project employees for specific tasks, adjusting and delegating if necessary.
• You report on the progress of the project as per the place in the organization and project partners (working hours, tasks performed, status, deadlines) + communication at national and international level.
• You organize, participate, report on and follow up on project and network meetings, workshops and conferences.
• You coordinate and/or execute proposal writing linked to national and international funding programs.
• You coordinate and/or execute tagging campaigns, receiver maintenance campaigns and/or scientific experiments. This includes preparations, operations at sea and post campaign follow-up.
• You support the dataflows towards ETN and development of tools for fish tracking data within the European Digital Twin Ocean.
• You coordinate and/or execute data-analyses and manuscript writing for A1 publications.
• You coordinate and/or execute development of an EOV sub variable for fish based on animal tracking data.
• You contribute to outreach activities to stakeholders and the general public in line with the VLIZ communication strategy.

For each function, VLIZ considers enthusiastic involvement, service minded, excellent professionalism and integrity as important characteristics.

YOUR PROFILE

• PhD or master’s degree in exact sciences (e.g. biology) or applied sciences (bioscience engineering).
• Highly motivated professionals capable of managing complex R&I-projects autonomously, while also collaborating effectively within a team. ? Strong affinity for marine sciences and biodiversity research.
• Strong skills in organization, planning and management of projects.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Willingness to spend time at sea for multiple days.
• Willing to work in an international context.

Following skills or experiences are considered an asset:

• Experience with scientific project management and project writing.
• Experience in animal tracking research.
• Animal Handling Certification (Felasa C).
• Experience in tool development in digital twins.
• Proven experience in data analytics in R or Python.
• Proven publication and report writing skills.
• Knowledge of data handling or management.
• Sea-going experience.