MSCA Postdoc: Digital Waters Flagship in water, environment, robotics and management sectors - University of Turku

Do you dream of moving to Finland and boosting your career by working with top-tier water researchers? Send you expression of interest by 16th of May 2025 at the latest.

We have positions open in two Finnish universities, in South-West Finland at the University of Turku and in Northern Finland at the University of Oulu. Turku and Oulu Universities are the main partners in the Digital Waters (DIWA) Flagship, which is an ambitious research and innovation ecosystem, aiming to build digital solutions for water resource management and decision making. DIWA Flagship research is conducted under five themes: 1) hydrological processes, 2) new observation systems, 3) integrated analysis and modelling, 4) digital services, platforms and solutions, and 5) transformative management. Post Doc researchers will be assigned to one of the research themes as an integral part of the DIWA Flagship. 

The University of Turku is an active international research university and a vibrant academic community of 25,000 students and employees from over 100 different countries. The open positions are within the Fluvial and Coastal Research Group (Faculty of Science), Sustainable Landscape Systems Research Group (Faculty of Science) and Turku Intelligent Embedded and Robotic Systems Research Group (Faculty of Technology). 

Research on rivers and coastal environments explores the dynamic interactions between human activities and natural processes, particularly their impacts on flow regimes, erosion-sedimentation cycles, and physicochemical water dynamics. Methodologies in water research emphasize remote sensing techniques such as laser scanning, mobile current profiling, and bathymetric modeling, alongside geoinformatics applications to enhance environmental monitoring and modeling capabilities.

Landscape and water management research integrates social, ecological, and technological dimensions to study human-nature interactions in multifunctional landscapes. With a strong place-based and transdisciplinary approach, this research applies geospatial analysis, participatory mapping (PPGIS/PGIS), and qualitative methodologies to address challenges in transformative water management and sustainable landscape planning.

Advancements in robotics and intelligent systems focus on multi-robot systems, autonomous robotics, and edge AI. Research in these areas delve into collaborative operation of heterogeneous multi-robot systems, their situational awareness, GNSS-free localization and mapping together with multi-robot coordination and shared autonomy. These efforts aim to enhance robotic (shared) autonomy and adaptability in diverse and complex real-world scenarios, especially in natural unstructured environments such as river and coastal environments as well as in the Turku archipelago.

What we offer

We offer a fully-funded short-term collaboration visit (during May-June 2025) to our unit in Finland to develop your MSCA proposal with our globally leading researchers. This opportunity is linked to our activities in the Digital Water Flagship (DIWA) and depending on the candidates’ background, participation in other projects may be considered. Our research services in University of Turku help and support you to polish your final proposal and provide technical support with the application process.

For funded MSCA projects, the best candidates may be offered an additional third year of funding to extend their research. We also provide assistance and support through our national funding programmes to strengthen your career. 

DIWA Flagship provides an extensive network of experienced researchers in multiple fields, an ecosystem with private and public sector stakeholders and a front row seat to explore the field of water research and innovations. In addition to furthering your career as a researcher, you have a great opportunity to build a career in the private sector.

Topics

Digital Water Flagship focuses on computational hydrology and water research, building Digital Twins of catchment with integration of Source-to-Sea and Critical Zone approaches. 

We especially welcome application on the following topics: 

• Fluvial and Coastal Research Group: fluvial geomorphology, coastal processes, river dynamics, sediment transport, fluvial geomorphology, climate change impacts on rivers and coasts, human impact on fluvial and coastal systems, remote sensing, GI, hydrodynamic modeling, drone-based monitoring, lidar and sonar mapping
• Turku Intelligent Embedded and Robotic Systems Research Group: Collaborative robots, swarm intelligence, heterogeneous multi-robot systems, situational awareness, multi-modal perception, sensor fusion, human-robot interaction, edge AI, navigation in unknown and dynamic environments such as coastal, river and marine environments.
• Sustainable Landscapes Systems Research Group: human-nature interactions, socio-ecological systems, transformative water management,  landscape research, participatory mapping, Participatory GIS (PGIS), Public participation GIS (PPGIS), landscape values, diverse values of nature, multispecies justice, green infrastructure, outdoor recreation, participatory spatial/urban planning, participatory methods in 3D context

List of supervisors: 

Petteri Alho, Ville Kankare, Tua Nylen, Carlos Gonzales Inca, Elina Kasvi, Nora Fagerholm, Tomi Westerlund

Contact info: 

Petteri.alho@utu.fi (FCRG), nora.fagerholm@utu.fi (Landscape), tomi.westerlund@utu.fi (TIERS)

Expected qualifications: The candidates should meet as many as possible of the following criteria:

• A recent and relevant PhD (after 2020)
• Good publication record, including Q1 journals
• International experience
• Good command of spoken and written English

Expected timeline

1. Preproposal and research idea for MSCA grant: DL 16th May 2025
2. Invitation for a research visit: by May 2025
3. Research visits to develop the MSCA proposal: May-Sept 2025
4. DL to submit the MSCA proposal is 10th of Sept 2025
5. Decisions on the MSCA grant February 2026
6. Start of the funded MSCA project at UTU Sept 2026 or Jan 2027
7. For best applicants: 3rd year funded for Sept 2028 – Sept 2029

Assessment and selection of candidates

In the first step of the process, we will choose the candidates for developing competitive MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships grant applications. Applicants will be shortlisted by an internal panel and informed if they have been selected for the next stage asap or by 30th May 2025.

The selected applicants will develop their MSCA PF proposal in cooperation with the UTU and/or UOULU research services and their future supervisors. In addition, they will be offered individual consultations and review of their MSCA PF proposal by the research services via online platform.