The research group on Global Forest Ecosystem Research & Big Data Analytics (https://www.researchgate.net/lab/Global-Forest-Ecosystem-Research-Big-Data-Analytics—GFBI-Hub-Lleida-Sergio-de-Miguel) is also a Hub and a key center of activity of the Global Forest Biodiversity Initiative (GFBI), a global network of scientists within the field of forest science. Settled at UdL, the research group also involves AGROTECNIO and the Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC) through the Joint Research Unit (JRU) between both institutions, as well as successful close cooperation with non-academic organizations such as Tecnosylva and Eurecat. The research group led by Prof. Dr. Sergio de Miguel also collaborates closely with key international academic members of the GFBI (gfbinitiative.net), e.g. Wageningen University, ETH, Purdue University, and University of Florida among many others, and has multiple collaborations with researchers from important international agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and NASA. Our aim is to develop cutting-edge interdisciplinary research in forest science at multiple scales, from local to global levels, covering multiple aspects of forest ecology and management in a global change context, including biodiversity, productivity, forest functioning and disturbance. From the research group we also coordinate the development of the GFBI Data Center, a portal to the largest individual-tree forest inventory database worldwide (https://gfbi.udl.cat/home), to promote collaborative global forest research through data sharing in accordance with the FAIR principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Our research is often published in top journals such as Science, Nature and PNAS. The core group is currently composed by ten members, including Associate Professors, PhD students, Postdocs, developer and computing systems administrator. The headquarters of the research group are located at the University of Lleida and the Joint Research Unit AGROTECNIO-CTFC, with proper facilities in terms of building, infrastructures and equipment including offices, desktops, connectivity and supercomputing services to carry out successfully any research activity on the interface between data science and forest ecosystems. Moreover, Tecnosylva SL (the enterprise within which the secondment will take place), with headquarters in Spain and offices in San Diego (USA), also has its own building and infrastructures including several proprietary HPC servers and cloud servers for both in-house and cloud computing such as Microsoft Azure and Google, machines, GIS (ESRI silver partner) and software engineering.

Building a multi-institutional and interdisciplinary “knowledge ecosystem” to foster international research and training through efficient and true cooperation between the academic and non-academic sector.

One of the main Hubs and groups of activity of the Global Forest Biodiversity Initiative, a global network of more than 200 forest scientists from renowned academic institutions and international organizations, where we contribute to global research on forest ecosystems and coordinate the global forest inventory Data Center (https://gfbi.udl.cat/home).

Outstanding research initiatives in relation to forest ecosystems worldwide, including large competitive projects such as two recently awarded H2020 – Green Deal projects on forest ecosystems restoration, biodiversity, ecosystem services and wild fires, with a total budget of more than 40 million Euro, to be developed in the coming years, as well as groundbreaking research publications published in top-journals such as Science, Nature and PNAS. Some of the most recent projects of relevance:

• Systemic solutions for upscaling of urgent ecosystem restoration for forest-related biodiversity and ecosystem services (SUPERB). [Grant No. 101036849]. H2020 – Green Deal: H2020-LC-GD-2020-3.
• Innovative Technologies and Socio-Ecological-Economic Solutions for FIRE RESilient Territories in Europe (FIRE-RES). [Grant No. 101037419]. H2020 – Green Deal: H2020-LC-GD-2020-3.
• Spurring Innovations for Forest Ecosystem Services in Europe (SINCERE). European Commission-H2020-RUR-2017-1-Innovation Actions [Grant No. 773702]. https://sincereforests.eu/
• Innovation Networks of Cork, Resins and Edibles in the Mediterranean basin (INCREDIBLE). European Commission-H2020-RUR-2017-1- Coordination and Support Actions [Grant No. 774632]. https://www.incredibleforest.net/content/project-0
• Mediterranean Forestry and Natural Resources Management (MEDfOR). European Commission-Erasmus+: Key Action 1-Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees (JMD-MOB). https://medfor.eu/

Moreover, the supervisor of the research group has valuable experience in Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, also as a postdoc fellow awarded a MSCA Individual Fellowship. He works collaboratively with both co-supervisors (Dr. Adrián Cardil, Tecnosylva SL; Dr. Carlos Alberto Silva, University of Florida) on a regular basis on different research projects leading to relevant results and publications, as for instance: Cardil et al. 2020. Recent deforestation drove the spike in Amazonian fires. Environ. Res. Lett. 15 121003, and Brancalion et al. 2020. Emerging threats linking tropical deforestation and the COVID-19 pandemic, Perspect. Ecol. Conserv. 18(4): 243–246.

Global Forest Biodiversity Initiative (GFBI).

Tecnosylva SL, Spain.

University of Florida, USA.

Eurecat, Spain.

JRU Agrotecnio-CTFC, Spain.

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), Switzerland.

Wageningen University, The Netherlands.

Purdue University, USA.

… and many others!

A secondment for 6 months is offered at Tecnosylva SL, which is a leading company at the international level working on smart technological solutions on forest ecosystems. The fellow will work together with Dr. Cardil as cosupervisor bringing research to multiple end-users through a closer interaction with the market and the industry demands at the moment. This applied research approach supported by scientific outputs aims to bring technology and software solutions to the forest industry to mitigate environmental impacts on Earth (natural and anthropogenic disturbances, climate and land use change, etc). The secondment will be also optimally aligned with complementary H2020 – Green Deal projects on data science on forest ecosystems.

It is desirable that candidates have wide expertise in some of the following fields: forest ecology and management, biodiversity, ecosystem services, fire at multiple scales (preferably with strong focus on large-scale to global level analysis) and excellent background in remote sensing (airborne and satellite LiDAR and imagery) and spatial analysis. Advanced skills in bigdata management and quantitative analysis (statistical modeling and artificial intelligence), including proficiency in programming languages such as R and Python are also desirable.