VACANCY NOTICE FOR POSITIONS OF
Expert - Climate change adaptation
Temporary Agent (AD6)
Reference no. EEA/AD/2024/17
Please send us your application by no later than 13 January 2025 at midnight (Copenhagen time), following the instructions in the ANNEX.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) is organising an open competition with a view to establishing a reserve list of experts to work in the area of climate change risks, resilience and adaptation.
THE AGENCY:
The EEA is an Agency of the European Union (EU) and one of the decentralised Union bodies. The EEA aims to support sustainable development and to help achieve significant and measurable improvement in Europe’s environment, through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy-making agents and the public.
The growing demands on providing the inputs to the policy developments on climate risks, resilience and societal preparedness require in depth understanding of current and future climate risks and their socio-economic implications. Equally importantly, knowledge on the effectiveness of measures and systemic solutions for EU and for the Member States (EEA member countries) needs to be provided.
As of 2025, the EEA will work on the new European climate risk assessment, the climate resilience indicators, the development of the adaptation platforms, the digitalisation in the adaptation, and support the development of the European adaptation plan. We will also respond to the exponentially growing demands to EEA from the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the member countries on climate risks and responses to them. The positions will cover the following topics:
1) Developing the new European climate risk assessment, notably assessing:
- Climate risk drivers (including selected tipping points with relevance for Europe);
- Past and projected impacts of climate change in Europe;
- Societal risks from climate change in Europe, including analysis of regional risks;
- Security risks from climate change outside Europe
- Expanded policy analysis, addressing the following policy levers;
- Solution on climate adaptation and increased Europe’s resilience to climate risks.
2) Supporting the development of knowledge for the European climate and health observatory in collaboration with the European Commission;
3) Supporting the further development of the European climate adaptation platform as a trusted knowledge source;
4) Supporting the member countries and the European Commission in developing indicators on measuring the progress on adaptation actions and resilience to climate risks;
5) Providing the EU institutions with (ad hoc) knowledge on costs and benefit of climate adaptation (fin particular the nature-based solutions) for adaptation to the current and future climate risks;
6) Further strengthening the collaboration between EEA and the Member States to develop climate risks assessments.
7) Supporting development of the climate risks and adaptation platforms by strengthening links with the Destination Earth initiative and the services under the Copernicus programme.
JOB DESCRIPTION:
The EEA is currently undergoing a reorganisation, and a new organisational chart will be available as of 1 January 2025.
Under the responsibility of the Head of the Unit ‘Climate Risk and Resilience’, reporting to the Head of Department ‘Climate’ (see organisational chart), the Expert will support the developments of knowledge linked to the new policies on adaptation by addressing climate risks, resilience and societal preparedness. This will involve furthering our understanding of adaptation solutions, including their benefits and trade-offs for Europe’s society, nature and economy.
The position will entail the following tasks:
- Playing a key role in the team developing the next European climate risk assessment, including knowledge development, collaboration with experts and communication to key audiences;
- Building current and systemic knowledge base for the European climate adaptation platform and the European climate and health observatory;
- Carrying out detailed analyses of EU and member countries’ progress in adaptation policy development and implementation of actions towards societal preparedness, as identified in the Climate law, the EU adaptation strategy and the 2024 communication on managing climate risks;
- Contributing to capacity building on societal preparedness for the member countries, in particular on developing indicators measuring the progress on adaptation in specific sectors and for human health;
- Evaluating the feasibility and sustainability of societal preparedness measures, such as nature-based solutions in sectors including human health, finance/insurance or agriculture;
- Supporting the EEA’s climate, environment and sustainability departments by facilitating access to information on climate risks based on the available data and information from variety of sources, reported information, scientific projects, Copernicus, etc;
- Maintaining and building relationships with relevant stakeholders, including European Commission and other European institutions and agencies, EEA member and cooperating countries, and expert and research communities;
- Communicating effectively on EEA’s knowledge to key policy and decision makers, politicians, public administrations and the general public.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA:
Candidates applying must satisfy the following eligibility criteria on the closing date for the submission of applications:
a) Successful completion of university studies attested by a degree relevant to the field concerned of at least 3 years; OR where justified in the interests of the service, professional training of an equivalent level;
b) A minimum of 3 years of relevant professional experience after award of the university degree.
In addition, in order to be eligible a candidate must:
- Be a national of one of the member countries of the EEA (Member States of the European Union plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Türkiye);
- Enjoy full rights as a citizen;
- Have fulfilled any obligations imposed by law concerning military service;
- Have a thorough knowledge of one of the languages of the EEA member countries and a satisfactory knowledge of another of these languages (corresponding to level B.2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for languages CEFR);
- Meet the character requirements for the duties involved;
- Be physically fit to perform the duties linked to the post.
Candidates should assess carefully and check before submitting their application whether they fulfil all the conditions for admission laid down in the vacancy notice, particularly in terms of qualifications and relevant professional experience.
SELECTION CRITERIA:
(In your application, please provide examples from current or past work experience where these competencies have been applied).
Essential:
- Thorough knowledge of climate and environment topics, including conducting cross-sectoral and systemic studies on climate risks and adaptation essential to achieve EU objectives on climate resilience;
- Excellent project management skills, extensive experience in structuring work processes, and proven experience of managing complex, team-based projects involving variety of stakeholders;
- Proven experience with analysing complex climate and socio-economic time series and geospatial datasets needed to follow the progress on climate risks and adaptation towards achieving climate resilience in the EU;
- Demonstrated experience in synthesising science into actionable policy-relevant messages and narratives;
- Excellent command of written and spoken English language, at least at level C1 in all categories according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Language.
Advantageous:
- Proven experience in presenting work to high-level stakeholders through speaking engagements and preparing workshops, and roundtable discussions;
- Specific knowledge and experience in one of the following topic areas under climate adaptation: health, finance, nature-based solutions or agriculture.
Candidates invited to the written test and interview stage will also be assessed against the following behavioural competencies:
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills and ability to establish and maintain effective working relations with colleagues and stakeholders;
- Empathy and a collegial attitude, valuing teamwork and collaboration over personal recognition;
- Diversity awareness and sensitivity;
- Well-developed solution-oriented and problem-solving approach;
- Ability to take responsibility for specific areas of work and to deliver to high standards;
- Service orientation and ability to understand stakeholder needs and requirements;
- Ability to seek out learning opportunities proactively, to handle situations and problems with innovation and creativity.
- Self-reflection and focus on continuous personal and professional development.
EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS:
The successful candidate will be offered a Temporary Agent contract in accordance with Article 2f) of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Communities. The selected candidate will be employed for an initial time period of four years, renewable.
Successful candidates who are recruited undergo an initial probation period of 9 months.
Should the successful candidate currently hold a Temporary Agent 2(f) contract and qualify for a transfer under the terms of the CEOS, the band width for this position which can be accommodated is in accordance with Annex I of the Staff Regulations.
For information on salary, please see information published under Temporary Agents.
The place of work will be Copenhagen, Denmark.
It is brought to the particular attention of candidates that the provisions of Articles 11 to 26 of the Staff Regulations, concerning the rights and obligations of officials, shall apply by analogy to Temporary Agents. These rules specify that:
“An official shall carry out his duties and conduct himself solely with the interests of the Union in mind. He shall neither seek nor take instructions from any government, authority, organization or person outside his institution. He shall carry out the duties assigned to him objectively, impartially and in keeping with his duty of loyalty to the Union.
An official shall not without the permission of the appointing authority accept from any government or from any other source outside the institution to which s/he belongs any honour, decoration, favour, gift or payment of any kind whatever, except for services rendered either before his appointment or during special leave for military or other national service and in respect of such service.
Before recruiting an official, the appointing authority shall examine whether the candidate has any personal interest such as to impair his independence or any other conflict of interest. To that end, the candidate, using a specific form, shall inform the appointing authority of any actual or potential conflict of interest. In such cases, the appointing authority shall take this into account in a duly reasoned opinion. If necessary, the appointing authority shall take the measures referred to in Article 11a(2).”
For further information on the Staff Regulations and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Union see:
Staff Regulations
SELECTION PROCEDURE:
A Selection Committee is set up for the selection procedure. It consists of members designated by the Appointing Authority and the Staff Committee. The Selection Committee is bound by the principle of confidentiality as enshrined in Article 6 of Annex III to the Staff Regulations. This works in two ways: first, it imposes obligations to ensure equal treatment for candidates; and second, it seeks to protect the Selection Committee to ensure that its decisions are totally impartial.
The Selection Committee adheres strictly to the conditions of admission laid down in the vacancy notice when deciding whether or not candidates are eligible. Candidates admitted to a previous selection procedure will not automatically be eligible. Candidates are strictly forbidden to make any contact with the members of the Selection Committee, either directly or indirectly. Any infringement of this rule will lead to disqualification from the selection procedure.
In a spirit of transparency, and in order to align our working methods with current practice in certain Member States, the administration has decided to proceed with the publication of names of Selection Committee members.
Should the Selection Committee discover at any stage in the procedure that the candidate does not meet one or more of the general or special conditions for admission to the selection procedure, the candidate will be disqualified.
The Selection Committee decides on those candidates who are admitted to the selection procedure in accordance with the requirements as specified under eligibility criteria. The applications of the candidates admitted to the selection procedure are reviewed to establish whether or not they show evidence of all requirements as specified under selection criteria.
The Selection Committee will invite to the interview and to the written test phase the best qualified candidates (maximum of 35). Should the case arise that there are various candidates scoring the same number of points in the 35th ranking, the number of candidates to be invited may be increased accordingly to accommodate this.
The interview will be held in English and the candidate’s knowledge of other languages will also be assessed during the interview. Candidates invited for an interview will be asked to undergo a written test in English, in the area of expertise required for the post. The test and the interview will take place online.
At the end of the interviews the Selection Committee will submit the list of suitable candidates to the Appointing Authority who will decide on the appointment of the successful candidate and the establishment of a reserve list for the post advertised or similar posts that may become available. There may be conducted follow-up recruitment interviews with the suitable candidates. Candidates shall note that inclusion on the reserve list does not guarantee recruitment. Recruitment will be based on availability of posts and budget.
The reserve list for this post will be valid until 31 December 2026 and may be extended at the discretion of the Appointing Authority.
Prior to contract signature, the successful candidate will be asked:
- to provide original or certified copies of all relevant documents proving his/her eligibility, including a police certificate confirming the absence of any criminal record;
- to undergo a compulsory medical examination to establish that he/she meets the standard of physical fitness necessary to perform the duties involved.
