Project Officer - Working towards Adaptive and Versatile Environmental Sustainability in mollusc aquaculture

The University of Southampton is hiring a part-time Project Officer for the WAVES consortium, focusing on sustainable mollusc aquaculture. The role involves project management, administration, and communication with partners in the UK and Southeast Asia. Responsibilities include scheduling meetings, maintaining the project website, and ensuring project timelines are met. The position is fixed-term, requiring 18.5 hours per week until February 2028, with a salary of £36,130 to £37,174 pro rata.
Part Time Fixed Term - 18.5 hours a week until 13/02/2028

Project: ‘Working towards Adaptive and Versatile Environmental Sustainability in mollusc aquaculture’

The WAVES consortium aims to develop capacity in diversified mollusc aquaculture to create system resilience and to promote the sustainability and growth of this sector. Mollusc aquaculture produces 20 million tonnes (USD 29.8 billion) live biomass annually, supporting both marginal farming communities and export trade. Asia hosts >95% of activity with bivalves dominating production, primarily oysters, mussels, and benthic clams. These non-fed species offer a 'low-carbon' solution to high-quality nutritional security and confer environmental benefits for biodiversity and seawater nutrient status. Molluscs are inexpensive, nutritionally rich and sector expansion can enhance food security in Southeast Asia.

Nevertheless, mollusc output as a proportion of aquatic animal aquaculture declined to 20.3% from 30.2% since 2000, with producers facing challenges from climate change and disease, concerns over algal toxins, food safety and reliable access to high-quality seed, and other societal, cultural and commercial pressures. Questions remain as to whether mollusc culture can develop and grow into a sustainable industry, in the face of bottlenecks to seed supply, changes in production and nutritional value resulting from climate change, and commercial pressures from other aquatic food producers.

We seek a part time Project Officer to work with the Principal Investigator (PI) and core project team to take a leading role in management of consortium activities in the UK, with contributions to project management in the partner countries: Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia.

We seek a motivated colleague, with prior experience of international consortium project management. You will take responsibility for project administration, including the scheduling of project meetings, preparation of agendas, and the production of minutes and action logs. You will maintain the project website, which is hosted at the University of Stirling, ensuring web page accuracy and furnishing the project blog with timely updates from the project partners. You will field enquiries from the general public, but also from project partners on contractual and financial matters. Working with the PI and core team you will also ensure that the project progresses according to the planned timeline, help to trouble shoot project operational issues, and help to collate project reports and updates as required for the funders.

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£36,130 to £37,174 pro rata per annum