The Natural Resources Institute of Finland (Luke) is looking for a Research Scientist of forest management, for a 3-year postdoc position, the theme of which is how to increase forest growth and enhance sourcing of raw materials for industry and energy.

This postdoc position is part of the Postdoctoral Programme for Research Institutes in Finland. The programme is funded from the Finnish government's multi-annual research and development (R&D) funding plan. The programme recruits 85 new postdoctoral researchers to 12 Finnish government research institutes between 2025 and 2028. The aim of the Programme is to strengthen RDI competence in areas important to society and business. A postdoctoral researcher will conduct goal-oriented high-level research at the interface between the academic community, industry, and administration. The Programme supports postdoctoral researcher’s networking and mobility between sectors.

The selected person will also take part in Luke's Doctoral Programme, which coordinates, develops, and monitors the qualification of doctoral and postdoctoral researchers at the Natural Resources Institute Finland.

The main duties and key responsibilities of the Researcher Scientist, postdoc, are to develop a research plan and methodology, the purpose of which is to enhance sustainable tree growth, with special emphasis on resilience and biodiversity. The research work includes obtaining, managing, and producing information on vast forested areas so that trade-offs between alternative uses of forests can be assessed, taken also into account possible damage risks. This requires applying modern mixed-integer linear and mixed-integer nonlinear programming tools which are linked to existing tree growth simulators. For securing the sourcing of raw materials, the successful applicant will proceed with a developed harvesting cost calculation model by testing and validating it. Ideally, that could lead to innovative solutions which are further tested through case studies, including the real-world cooperative enterprises. International collaboration is a necessity for the successful applicant since the team of Forest Management has been involved in numerous EU Horizon projects and continues to be tightly engaged with European forest research community. Finally, success in trade-off analyses can lead to scientific articles published in high-quality journals as well as to new practices applied by stakeholders of forestry.

The research will be carried out in collaboration with the researchers of forest management and economics, technology, as well as biodiversity and forest health. The work also includes project management and reporting activities, as well as participation in the writing for research funding applications. In this task, you can join an international research community to solve multidisciplinary challenges.