Research Fellow in economic and infrastructure resilience analysis – 60 % (limited to 18 Months)

Are you curious about analyzing economic and infrastructure resilience? Would you like to explore how these concepts can be assessed in real-world scenarios? Take a look at this project!

School: School of Engineering

Starting date: 1st of December or by agreement

The advertised position is part of the Joint Risk and Resilience Partnership project, funded by the AXA Research Fund and the Swiss Re Institute. The project focuses on developing a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based framework to assess economic resilience against cyber-related disruptions in critical infrastructure. You will work under close supervision as part of a strong collaboration between the Institute of Sustainable Development (INE) at ZHAW and the Laboratory of Energy Systems Analysis (LEA) at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) (https://www.psi.ch/en/lea), benefiting from interactions with both institutions. .

Your tasks during the project are:

• Develop a GIS-based network model of the city electrical grid, suitable for representation of cyber-related disruption and recovery scenarios.
• Develop a multi-dimensional Economic Resilience Criticality (ERC) index, addressing economic as well as infrastructure and social dimensions, implemented into a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) framework.
• Interact with specialists during workshops and data gathering to collect the required inputs to quantify the (ERC) index.
• Presenting and publishing the research results
• You have a Doctoral Degree or equivalent experience in Engineering
• Experience with any of the followings: GIS-based networked system modelling, Infrastructure resilience (focus on power systems), Economic resilience, Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA)
• You enjoy interacting with other specialists and have excellent communication skills, both written and oral
• You are motivated to work both independently and as a team member, in an multidisciplinary environment
• You have strong written and oral communication skills in English, a good knowledge of German is highly desirable

Zurich University of Applied Sciences ZHAW is one of Switzerland's largest multidisciplinary universities of applied sciences, with over 14'000 students and 3'400 faculty and staff.

ZHAW is committed to gender-mixed and diverse teams in order to promote equality, diversity and innovation. In order to increase the proportion of women in management positions, applications from women are particularly welcome.

As one of the leading Engineering Faculties in Switzerland, the ZHAW School of Engineering emphasises topics which will be relevant in the future. Our 14 institutes and centres guarantee superior-quality education, research and development with an emphasis on the areas of energy, mobility, information and health.

The interdisciplinary Institute of Sustainable Development (INE) at the School of Engineering (SoE) examines technological, economic, and social changes, along with their complex interactions, from a sustainability perspective. The Risk Management/Technology Assessment team conducts research in resilience engineering, technology assessment, the circular economy, and sustainability.

Wir bieten hochschulgerechte Arbeits- und Anstellungsbedingungen an und fördern aktiv die Personalentwicklung unserer Mitarbeitenden und Führungspersonen. Eine detaillierte Beschreibung der Vorteile ist auf der Webseite «Arbeiten an der ZHAW» zu finden. Hier die wichtigsten Eckpunkte:

Matteo Spada

Senior Researcher

Jocelyn Schaad

Recruiting Manager