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EASAC Job Ad - Scientific Policy Officer

The European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) is partner in an EU-funded project (SAPEA) which is running from autumn 2016 until autumn 2020. More information about the job vacancy for this project can be found here.

The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina is seeking a full-time Scientific Policy Officer (SPO), to support the involvement of EASAC, the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council, in a project funded by the European Commission.

About EASAC:

EASAC - the European Academies' Science Advisory Council - is formed by the National Science Academies of the EU Member States, Norway and Switzerland, to enable them to collaborate with each other in providing independent science advice to European policy-makers. EASAC’s Secretariat is hosted by the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. EASAC will be part of the EU-funded project SAPEA (Scientific Advice for Policy by European Academies), with a likely project duration from November 2016 to September 2020.

About the project:

The project SAPEA consists of a consortium of five European academy networks. These are: Academia Europaea, ALLEA, EASAC, Euro-CASE and FEAM. The core objectives of the SAPEA collaboration are twofold. First, to provide independent science-based policy advice to the European Commission (EC) and European public, within the context of the Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM) of the European Commission. Second, it aims to strengthen cooperation and to foster synergies between the academy networks and their 100 member academies, as well as to enhance and strengthen the structures already existing. Through the five networks, the SAPEA project has access to thousands of academy fellows from the social, human, natural, engineering and medical sciences, located across Europe, who provide their knowledge and expertise on a voluntary basis.

Start date: January 1, 2017.

Duration: Two years, with the option of extension by another two years.

Location: German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Halle (Saale), Germany

Contract and salary: In accordance with the German labour agreement for public services TVöD, depending on the appointed candidate’s level of work experience (up to TVöD 13).

Travel within the EU is expected.

Scientific Policy Officer (SPO)

Reference number: 16-16
Tasks and Responsibilities:

The successful applicant will be the EASAC Science Policy Officer (SPO) for the SAPEA project. He/she will work in close cooperation with the EASAC Executive Director, the EASAC Coordinator and SAPEA’s Senior Scientific Policy Officer, who acts as chair of the team of five project partners’ SPOs.

The EASAC SPO will organise and manage all activities pertaining to EASAC’s involvement in SAPEA. He/she will help to maintain effective working relationships across and between the five project networks. Tasks will include:

  • Supporting the EASAC Secretariat in all organisational and administrative matters with respect to the project, especially for all project and financial reporting and in view of possible amendments to the grant contract with the European Commission;
  • Organising meetings of working groups of academy fellows and external experts, including responsibility for travel expenses accounting and reimbursements and reporting on meeting procedures and outcomes;
  • Preparing draft project outlines for work on scientific topics, including budget plans and proposals for final outputs (e.g. statements, reports, studies);
  • Organising a consultation process with academies and fellows to generate topics for possible investigation;
  • Being in contact and working in cooperation with the European Commison’s SAM Unit and High-Level Group and other representatives of the European institutions regarding scientific topics and timelines;
  • Maintaining ties and organising meetings for topic-driven activities with various representatives of the European Commission and other European bodies such as the European Parliament and selected stakeholders;
  • Possibly undertaking research and horizon-scanning activities, likely to include literature research and planning and conducting of structured expert interviews;
  • Possibly subcontracting, briefing and cooperating with third parties, e.g. for commissioning fact-finding exercises and translations of reports;
  • Collecting suggestions of experts for different activities and possibly also contributing to (parts of) the peer review process of scientific publications;
  • Supporting the dissemination activities of the Communications Office of SAPEA, e.g. by organising public events;
  • Helping to build, maintain and exploit internal databases of experts and a public database of reports;
  • Possibly occasionally acting as a scientific writer for statements or reports.
Your profile, skills, knowledge, experience and qualifications:
  • Highly fluent oral and written proficiency in English;
  • Some experience in science-based policy advice or similar professional fields;
  • A Master’s Degree or PhD in any science area would be an asset;
  • Ideally, a good level of knowledge of the science-policy interface at European level;
  • Excellent organisational and management skills;
  • If possible, experience of working with senior representatives from academia;
  • Some experience of scientific publishing would be useful;
  • Clear and confident communication skills, with the ability to communicate complex scientific issues to different target audiences;
  • Strong interpersonal skills, ideally with experience of building and maintaining strong working relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders across different countries;
  • If possible, an existing network of stakeholder contacts working at the science-policy interface, as well as previous experience of working in an EU-funded project.

If you are interested in this position, please apply online using our online application form. The deadline for application is 26 September 2016. The job interview will take place in late October 2016. The Leopoldina is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment.

Contact: Katja Gebhardt, Human Resources, Tel. +49 345-47239-938, bewerbung@leopoldina.org