Part-Time Research Assistant Opportunity: NSERC-Funded Research, at SFU Faculty of Health Sciences

**This is being posted on behalf of Dr. Chris Buse, Faculty of Health Sciences. All queries should be sent to: cbuse@sfu.ca

Research Assistant Opportunity

Timeline: Nov 15, 2023-April 30, 2024 (with potential for full-time summer work)

Compensation: $28/hr X 10-12 hours per week

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We are looking for a research assistant (RA) to support an interdisciplinary team of researchers, engaged with relevant transportation-sector partners on NSERC-funded research that aims to answer the question: What can Canadian communities do to dramatically reduce the transportation emissions, crucial for achieving net-zero targets by 2050, build resilience in the sector and community, and advance additional community health and livability benefits? The RA would be working directly with a team of interdisciplinary scholars with expertise in transportation, health, equity, climate change, and sustainability from across SFU and UBC. The role involves supporting literature reviews to understand low carbon resilience metrics and measures, co-creating research framing and model and scenario inputs with the City of Burnaby and other stakeholder partners, and supporting the design and implementation of a series of community-engaged workshops.

About SCRAM:

The Sustainable Community Resilience and Alternative Mobility (SCRAM) project is working with the City of Burnaby to support the development of equitable, low carbon, and resilient neighbhourhood-based alternative mobility options. Fleet electrification has been a focus, however current research and policy, pathways to decarbonize mobility must focus on reducing vehicle kilometres travelled (VkT), not electrification alone. This research aims to identify evidence-based and socially robust opportunities to reduce VkT to (a) reduce emissions, (b) reduce the immediate need for extensive private vehicle electrification, and (c) provide climate resiliency benefits while advancing other community co-benefits. Diversifying mobility options are expected to enhance overall community resilience and sustainability goals.

Supervision and Contact:

You will work under the direct co-supervision of Dr. Chris Buse (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences) and Dr. Alison Shaw (Executive Director, ACT).

Program of Work:

An RA will be onboarded to support the project team through the following actions:

• Working with data from an existing scan of the scholarship and practice in resilience, highlighting common and innovative ways of monitoring resilience at regional and community scales;
• Identifying gaps and integrating resilience measures into ACT documents and reports;
• Liaising with and supporting the NSERC interdisciplinary team to represent appropriate climate resilience measures for the SCRAM project; and
• Supporting the design and implementation of community-engaged workshops that will bring together the project team, project partners and wider members of the Burnaby community to co-design our research process, groundtruth findings, and integrate qualitative insights into our team’s modeling work.

Duties may include but are not limited to:

• Working in an iterative, co-creation environment.
• Scanning literature, conceptualizing and developing frameworks, policies, methodologies consistent with best practice and to meet our objectives and priorities.
• Collecting and analyzing demographic, statistical, economic and/or other data from a variety of sources, identifying synergies, gaps, and trade-offs and utilizing findings to develop recommendations.
• Project management.
• Convening meetings with partners to support workshop development.
• Providing logistical support for workshop implementation (e.g. room booking, catering, note taking).
• Developing accessible documents including briefing notes, discussion papers, fact sheets, correspondence, flow charts and other materials.
• Other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

How to apply:

Prospective applicants should email a current CV with a short cover letter outlining their interest and how their qualifications and past job experience make them a good candidate for this position. Please submit both documents to cbuse@sfu.ca and alison_shaw@sfu.ca.

Please see the document below with additional information.