Manchester Business School
Research Assistant/ Associate
DECISION/RISK ANALYST: SUSTAINABILITY OF NUCLEAR POWER
Salary: £25,152 - £27,998 (Grade 5) and £28,839 - £35,469 (Grade 6) per
annum, pro rata according to relevant experience and qualifications.
A Research Assistant/ Associate is required for two years within the Division of
Business Systems at Manchester Business School. This position is funded by
EPSRC, with support from ESRC. It forms part of the SPRIng Consortium
Project, in which four universities, led by Manchester, will research the
sustainability of nuclear power for the UK from a multi-disciplinary perspective.
A main aim of the SPRIng project is to develop a multi-criteria decision
framework, to support deliberations between both technical and non-technical
participants (e.g. politicians, energy companies, the media, interest groups,
and the public) on the sustainability of nuclear energy in the UK.
The task involved is to develop the decision modelling framework to pull
together the inputs from the other partners into a coherent and comprehensive
analysis of different nuclear power generation options facing the UK. The
framework will allow users to explore issues of preference, belief, agreement
and interest conflict which arise in this type of social decision.
The skill base needed includes a quantitative PhD, e.g. mathematics,
operational research, statistics, ideally with some knowledge of decision and
risk analysis. For candidates with an exceptionally strong track record, a
masters degree in operational research may be sufficient.
The successful applicant will work closely with a research fellow and a doctoral
student in MBS working on the financial aspects of nuclear sustainability and
with other members of the full SPRIng team. Our SPRIng research collaborators
are City University, Edinburgh University and Southampton University. The
research assistant/ associate is expected to form cross-disciplinary links with
them and other organisations.
This is an exciting opportunity to work on an internationally important problem,
at the frontiers of modern decision and sustainability analysis, and to acquire
increasingly needed skills in energy management. There will be interaction with
disciplines as varied as applied mathematics, economics, environmental studies,
finance, investment banking, nuclear engineering, power generation, political
and social studies.
Manchester University is a growing centre of technical, managerial and societal
skills in sustainability, and also in nuclear, oil-based, wind and wave energies.
Manchester Business School itself is active in all, except (as yet) wave power.
Informal enquiries may be made to Professor Simon French
([log in to unmask]).
Closing date: 5 Decemeber 2008
Please quote reference: HUM/81274
|