The researcher will join the team under the coordination of Prof. Ronaldo Christofoletti, who has been engaged in transdisciplinary research involving the transformation of conflicts in artisanal fishing communities, ocean literacy as a tool for transforming the world towards sustainability, the impacts of urbanization and climate change in the coastal zone, and has broadly advocated for science that goes beyond academic articles to influence decision-making and public policies, always being disseminated and co-produced with different societal groups. The fellowship is for a period of 36 months, and the candidate must be fully dedicated to the project and available to reside in the Baixada Santista (Santos / São Paulo State) region.

For this position, the candidate will work with artisanal fishing communities, researchers from various fields of knowledge, public managers, and civil society institutions. Therefore, we expect the postdoctoral fellow to have strong communication skills, be dynamic, open-minded, and flexible for collective and transdisciplinary work. We encourage applications from individuals with an interdisciplinary professional background between social and natural sciences, experience with participatory methodologies, and work with local/traditional communities.

The candidate will collaborate closely with the coordinator in leading the project. Thus, we seek someone with leadership skills, autonomy, and the ability to work in a team. The candidate will be expected to co-lead and guide research processes, articulate the transdisciplinary group, conduct fieldwork, and produce various scientific communication materials in collaboration with other postdocs, graduate students, and associated researchers. For more information on the research objectives, click here. Also, check out messages from Postdoctoral Fellow Deborah Prado and Coordinator Ronaldo Christofoletti.

This new project, supported by FAPESP, integrates various previous actions led by the team. On one hand, the researcher’s work will expand the previous transdisciplinary research process developed within the project “Artisanal Fishing and Marine Socio-environmental Conflicts” (PactoMar). PactoMar is a project initiated in 2021, aimed at transforming coastal and marine conflicts related to artisanal fishing along the coast of São Paulo. The project has been developed by researchers from UNIFESP and USP, Fundação Florestal, specifically the management of Marine Protected Areas in the state of São Paulo, and civil society organizations such as Instituto Linha D’água, CONFREM, and PainelMar. To learn more about the history of PactoMar’s work, see the publications below.

Moreover, the current research will build upon the work that the team has been developing through the “Maré de Ciência” program, which aims to produce science aligned with global agendas, particularly the Ocean Decade and the 2030 Agenda, recognizing how local actions, challenges, advances, and lessons learned can achieve global goals while enhancing the impact of local actions by demonstrating their significance for advancing global agendas.

For more information on the FAPESP Postdoctoral Fellowship guidelines, visit: https://fapesp.br/bolsas/pd. Please pay attention to the fellowship requirements in items 6 and 7.

Applications should be submitted by email to pactomar@gmail.com by September 30, 2024, including a Curriculum Vitae in the FAPESP format (https://fapesp.br/sumula), a motivation letter, and two reference letters. After the initial selection based on documents, an interview will be conducted during October.

To learn more about previous PactoMar research:

Prado, D.S., Martins, I. M., & Christofoletti, R.A. (2022). Pesca Artesanal e Conflitos Costeiros e Marinhos no litoral de São Paulo. UNIFESP. UNIFESP. Available at https://repositorio.unifesp.br/items/09be1085-75b8-40e9-b1f0-14d23cb6d89e/full

Martins, I. M., et al. (2023). “Ocean conflicts for whom and why? Participatory conflict assessment on the southeast coast of Brazil.” Maritime Studies, 22(3), 40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-023-00331-3

Prado, D. S., Martins, I. M., & Christofoletti, R. A. (2024). “Participatory scenario planning as a useful method for transforming ocean conflicts: Insights from a small-scale fishing conflict on São Paulo coast, Brazil.” Marine Policy, 160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2023.105922