Job Openings

Research Engagement Specialist

Job Summary

We are seeking a Research Engagement Specialist to support the efforts of the Research Engagement Program at the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR). In this position, you will join a collaborative team of researcher-practitioners to identify and engage with stakeholders and rights holders in the design of socially useful Great Lakes research. Through social science research and engagement practice, you will facilitate two-way interactions between researchers and end-users to ensure research products are designed with real world applications in mind, and are ultimately useful and usable for the people who might interact with them. Your work will support efforts to bridge gaps between scientists and end-users and ensure knowledge and research outcomes translate effectively to decision-support and operational contexts. You will work with researchers and stakeholders in the Great Lakes region, including government agencies, and individuals or groups from marginalized or traditionally underrepresented communities/identities. Examples of research products collaboratively designed at CIGLR include the Experimental Lake Erie Hypoxia Forecast.

Research Engagement Specialist in the Research Engagement Program, are part of CIGLR’s Engagement, Career training, Outreach and communications (ECO) program. Learn more about the CIGLR Research Engagement Program here (link).

This position is open only to US Citizens or permanent residents due to federal security clearance required for access to NOAA GLERL facilities and resources.

Term Limited Appointment: This is a one-year term limited appointment, with an opportunity for extension based on funding and performance.
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How to Apply

Applications are welcomed and encouraged from all qualified individuals regardless of background and identity. To apply, please complete the application on the U-M Careers site. A cover letter is required for consideration for this position and should be attached as the first page of your resume. The cover letter should address your specific interest in the position and outline skills and experience that directly relate to this position.

To be considered for the intermediate level position, please submit a 1-2 page research statement detailing your experience conducting independent research, with preference to relevant work (e.g., research in social sciences, environmental studies, user experience and/or engagement). Demonstrated skills in social science such as ethnographic research, user experience research, or qualitative data analysis (e.g., MAXQDA) should be mentioned in the research statement and/or cover letter, if applicable.
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Responsibilities: These responsibilities may vary depending on the level the candidate is hired into.
    • Under guidance from the Research Engagement Program Lead, develop and implement research engagement strategies using social science research methods such as focus groups, interviews, and surveys.
    • Collect data related to stakeholder, rights holder and user’s needs, knowledge, perceptions, behaviors, and cultures.
      Analyze qualitative and quantitative results to identify stakeholder information needs, generate recommendations for research product development, and evaluate research product usability.
    • Collaborate with researchers in the development of products (such as web pages, fact sheets, and science presentations) to effectively communicate research results to stakeholders and rights holders.
    • Create analytical outputs to inform the interdisciplinary research teams we collaborate with of our engagement results. This might include stakeholder & rights holder inventories, reports, and recommendations for research design and product improvement.
    • Share the results of research co-design efforts with the broader technical and research community through public presentations, webinars, conferences, reports, and contributions to peer-reviewed publications in collaboration with the Research Engagement team and project research teams.
    • Coordinate CIGLR’s engagement activities with other NOAA groups and partner organizations in the Great Lakes through participation in events, working groups, and conferences.
Required Qualifications:
    • Bachelor’s degree in a field related to social sciences, environmental studies, or engagement. A master’s degree is preferred.
      At least four (4) years of demonstrated experience in the following areas:
      • Professional or academic experience with social science methods for focus groups, interviews, and/or surveys including data analysis.
      • Professional or academic experience organizing and facilitating engagement or user-experience activities (e.g., work in human-centered or collaborative project design, user experience research or design of science/technology projects).
    • Strong communication skills, particularly in front of the public. Must be able to produce technical reports, as well as translate science to a lay audience.
    • Ability to work independently on individual job responsibilities and goals, but to also work well as part of an interdisciplinary team.
Application Deadline: January 19, 2025 

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Postdoctoral Fellow in Molecular Ecology

Job Summary

A postdoctoral fellowship is available for a highly qualified individual to join the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR, https://ciglr.seas.umich.edu/). The successful candidate will work with our dynamic research team to develop tools for environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis of food web dynamics, invasive species, biodiversity, and/or toxic cyanobacteria in the Great Lakes. The successful candidate will work closely with Dr. Greg Dick, Dr. Casey Godwin (CIGLR), and collaborators from the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab and the United States Geological Survey.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work on one or more of the following projects: use of metabarcoding (16S rRNA and 18S rRNA gene sequencing) to evaluate food-web interactions and/or impacts of grazers on phytoplankton and bacterioplankton communities; development of high-throughput qPCR and metabarcoding assays to monitor invasive species and genes encoding cyanotoxins; application of metabarcoding and metagenomics to measure Great Lakes biodiversity at different functional and taxonomic levels.

Note: This position is a one-year term limited appointment with the possibility of renewal based on performance.
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Responsibilities:
    • Validate eDNA assays
    • Perform bioinformatics analysis of metabarcoding data
    • Conduct statistical analyses
    • Contribute to project reports and manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals, including as lead author
    • Maintain a strong record of scholarly publication and present research results at scientific conferences and public meetings
Required Qualifications:
    • A Ph.D. in limnology, microbiology, molecular ecology, biological oceanography, bioinformatics, or a related field.
    • Experience in bioinformatics and multivariate statistical methods for analyzing molecular data together with environmental data.
    • Demonstrated ability to lead development of manuscripts for refereed journal publication.
    • Experience in molecular biology, familiarity with high-throughput sequencing platforms, and experience analyzing metabarcoding data is preferred.
Application Deadline: February 1, 2025

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Student Fellowships

CIGLR offers two fellowship programs that support student research opportunities, in order to train the next generation of Great Lakes researchers. Click the button to learn more about current and upcoming student fellowship opportunities.

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