Project Manager – Regional marine state of the environment assessments – EEA, Contract Agent (FG IV)

The European Environment Agency (EEA) is organising an open competition with a view to recruiting a contract agent to work as Project Manager within the area of integrated marine state of the environment and further with a view to establishing a reserve list.

THE AGENCY

The EEA is an Agency of the European Union (EU) and one of the decentralised Union bodies. The EEA aims to support sustainable development and to help achieve significant and measurable improvement inEurope’s environment, through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy-making agents and the public.

JOB DESCRIPTION

The EEA is seeking to recruit an experienced marine analyst with expertise to further developing its capacity to perform state of the environment assessments in the context of cooperating with Regional Seas Conventions. The successful candidate will support both the strategic planning, as well as the execution of developing regional marine assessments in the context of an overarching European assessment. As part of its mandate to develop policy relevant assessments, the EEA supports the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). This Directive contains a legal obligation to develop a review of the status of the marine environment in the Community, undertaken in coordination with the European Environment Agency, and the relevant regional marine and fisheries organisations and conventions by 2019 (MSFD, art 20.3b), and EEA is engaged in numerous activities to develop a system and process that allows this to happen. Particular focus will be on developing specific assessment contributions, that are related to the 11 descriptors of good environmental status of the MSFD and putting them into the context of the ecosystem based approach (as defined by EEA). Contributions are to be developed in collaboration with EEA Member Countries (Eionet) in particular regions as well as the relevant Regional Sea Conventions. They should be based on observations made in the marine environment and associated with indicators, maritime statistics, geographic information, and processed information such as that stemming from Member State marine assessments. Part of the task will be to support the development of a marine information platform under WISE (WISE-Marine) which is based on the principles of the Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS), and is intended to encompass data, indicators and reported information stemming from the MSFD.

Suitable candidates should be familiar with the activities of the Common Implementation Strategy of the MSFD, as well as those of the Marine Expert Group.  Furthermore, technical capacities related to analysis and synthesis of data and information will be requested. The assessment contributions will be developed in collaboration with multiple stakeholders from the Eionet and EU Member States, the European Commission and International organisations, and will require networking with them.

The main tasks will involve developing a strategic plan for engagement with the Eionet countries in particular regions of European relevance, as well as Conventions such as the Barcelona and Bucharest ones, and General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean, to establish a mechanism that can deliver marine assessments suitable for the EEA SoE assessment framework. Focus will also be on the actual implementation of the plan which will include analysis, visualisation and interpretation of regional indicators and other statistics. The post will require specific knowledge of the marine environment and pressures acting upon it, as well as considerable networking skills.

Under the responsibility of the Head of Group responsible for Marine Environment, reporting to the Head of Programme, Natural systems and vulnerability, the Project Manager shall be responsible for developing state of the environment assessment contributions relevant for improving EEA assessments, in particular of the Mediterranean and Black Seas.

The position will entail the following tasks:

• Development of a strategic plan for engagement with the Eionet countries in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions, the Bucharest and Barcelona Conventions, and the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean to provide regional marine assessments in the context of EEAs marine state of the environment assessments.
• Implementation of the plan to deliver Mediterranean and Black Sea contributions first to WISE-Marine (especially regional indicators and indicator assessments) and secondly provide holistic and integrated DPSIR regional assessment contributions to EEAs MSFD art 20.3b assessment.
• Support and develop regional data exchange mechanisms agreed with the Eionet or in the context of the Barcelona and Bucharest Conventions.

• Organise meetings and workshops with experts from across Europe (including the European topic centres), in support of the implementation of the above activities.
• Support EEA activities in MSFD Common Implementation Strategy, Regional Sea Conventions and the Eionet.
• Steer contributions from the relevant European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine Water to the above functions;
• Provide contributions to EEA marine assessments and maritime sector reports and contribute to communication activities towards EEA clients and the general public, e.g. in the form of reports, briefings, web and oral presentations.
• Support EEA in developing GIS products and implementing GIS based assessment tools
• Initiate and maintain the necessary networks and partnerships with key external institutional partners, such as the European Commission (DGs MARE, ENV, JRC and Eurostat), ICES, the Regional Sea Conventions, UN bodies, as well as EEA member countries (Eionet) and stakeholders in the field of maritime policy and marine environment;

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Candidates applying must satisfy the following eligibility criteria on the closing date for the submission of applications:

1. a) Successful completion of university studies attested by a degree relevant to the field concerned (e.g. marine biology, oceanography, environmental science or environmental engineering) of at least 3 years, plus 1 year of appropriate professional experience;
2. b) A minimum of 3 years of relevant professional experience in the field of analysing the marine environment and contributing to assessments or other publication types after achieving the qualification set out above.

In addition, in order to be eligible a candidate must:

• Be a national of one of the member countries of the EEA (Member States of the European Union plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey);
• Enjoy full rights as a citizen;
• Have fulfilled any obligations imposed by law concerning military service;
• Have a thorough knowledge of one of the languages of the EEA member countries and a satisfactory knowledge of another of these languages (corresponding to level B.2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for languages CEFR);
• Meet the character requirements for the duties involved;
• Be physically fit to perform the duties linked to the post.

Location: The place of work will be Copenhagen, Denmark.

Deadline: Monday 22 June 2015, at 12.00 (Central European Time)

Read more and apply here.