Professor in environmental system analysis with a focus on transport systems and climate impact at the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)
The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, VTI, announces a professors’ position within environmental system analysis with a focus on transport systems and climate impact, with placement in either Gothenburg, Linköping, Lund or Stockholm. The position will develop VTI’s work within the target area ‘A transport system with reduced environmental and climate impact’.
VTI is a commissioned research agency with about 240 employees and an annual turnover of about SEK 270 million. VTI’s scientific staff currently consist of inter alia seven professors, twenty or so associate professors, one hundred researchers and about forty doctoral students. Research primarily consists of externally funded projects within both social sciences as well as technical and natural sciences.
The focus of the position is applied research regarding the connection between transport systems and climate impact, with a clear connection to the international and national climate and environmental objectives.
The position encompasses the development and use of models, tools, and methods for the analysis of the climate impact of transport systems, and to analyse environmental frameworks that have significance for the development of a long-term sustainable transport system. In the research, the three components of this transition are taken into consideration: transport efficiency; energy-efficient vehicles; and renewable fuels. Both qualitative and quantitative methods can be used, for example life-cycle analysis, multi-criteria analysis, and cost-benefit analysis.
The climate impact of the transport system is studied as an integrated part of society with consideration taken to sustainability aspects such as, for example, the environmental quality objectives. Through interdisciplinary collaboration with other researchers and other parties, the climate impacts of the transport system can be studied within a single system that includes the natural environment, people, and institutions. The research will be conducted within a broad institution-wide collaboration within VTI as well as in collaboration with stakeholders, companies, and external research environments.
Areas of application can for example be the analysis of climate effects and the evaluation of the potential for different steering mechanisms to contribute to the transition towards sustainable transport provision. It can also concern holistic evaluations of the climatic advantages of electrification along with potentially undesirable environmental effects for example rebound effect where lower transport costs result in an overall increase in traffic that can in turn lead to negative consequences for inter alia air quality, road noise and biodiversity. Life-cycle analyses for the integrated system Vehicle-Infrastructure, with a focus on both greenhouse gas emissions and resource and material use, can be used to study how electrification of the transport sector can result in climate effects being moved from the exhaust pipe to vehicle manufacture and electricity production.
Application deadline: 28 August 2023
