**Minderoo UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre (MUDSRC)**
- Exciting opportunity for a passionate researcher to be part of a multi-disciplinary team, underpinned by state-of-the-art marine technology
- Level B, full-time appointment on a fixed term basis for 3 years
- Base salary range: $105,043 - $124,301 p.a. plus 17% superannuation
The University of Western Australia (UWA) is ranked amongst the top 100 universities in the world and a member of the prestigious Australian Group of Eight research-intensive universities. With an enviable research track record, vibrant campus and working environments, supported by the freedom to 'innovate and inspire' there is no better time to join Western Australia's top university.
**About the team**
The University of Western Australia and Minderoo Foundation joined forces in 2021 to establish a world leading deep-ocean research centre, to increase understanding about the deepest parts of the ocean - The Minderoo UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre - that is supported with a major five-year grant from Minderoo Foundation's Flourishing Oceans initiative. This collaboration aims to comprehensively explore the deepest areas; mapping the ocean floor, characterising and discovering new species, assessing marine biodiversity and charting deep-sea habitats, with a focus on abyssal plains and hadal subduction trenches.
**About the opportunity**
As the appointee, you will implement a research program to document and measure the biodiversity of mobile fauna (with a specific focus on fishes, but also including cephalopods, reptiles, and mammals) in shallow to mesophotic depths (>150 m), across tropical, subtropical and temperate reef systems. This Fellow will set these research findings in contexts both relevant to local and regional partners (i.e. local and Indigenous communities, Government agencies, and NGOs), and the global research community, helping to understand the interdependence of populations distributed across shallow to mesophotic depths (with relevance to fisheries management, for example), how species and populations are stratified according to local and regional environment and oceanography (with relevance to understanding potential climate change impacts, for example), and the processes influencing the assembly, maintenance and potential erosion of these assemblages across global gradients.
You will be part of a multi-disciplinary, geographically distributed team of ecologists, biologists, geologists, and oceanographers underpinned by state-of-the-art shallow-to-deep-sea technology. In this role you will identify and engage with opportunities for collaborative research within MUDSRC, and other academic institutions, nationally and internationally, to improve our knowledge of shallow to mesophotic environments worldwide. You will work with internal and external collaborators across multiple disciplines to identify research needs and funding opportunities to deliver world-class scientific discovery and exploration. You will be co-supervised, guided and mentored by UWA supervisors, and Massey University collaborators, to ensure research productivity is maximised and milestones are met.
**To be considered for this role, you will demonstrate**:
- Knowledge and skills to lead and implement an underwater video-based research program to understand the biodiversity and populations of mobile fauna on shallow to mesophotic reefs at multiple scales.
- Evidenced training in ichthyology and/or fish identification, and an interest in learning other mobile taxa and training project crew.
- Experience in working with Indigenous communities, and in project settings led by Indigenous values.
- Experience in planning and implementing scientific field work, working across diverse teams and organisations in temperate, subtropical, and tropical contexts.
- Evidenced training and experience in scuba diving and an interest in gaining accreditation as a scientific diver.
- Experience in generating and managing datasets including: measurements at the individual-specimen level, aggregating data to infer population or intraspecific traits and metrics, and compiling data across species to represent whole assemblages.
- Experience in univariate and multivariate analysis and statistical modelling of intraspecific and community (assemblage) datasets, including alpha, beta, and gamma diversity metrics based on species richness, species morphology, and functional diversity.
- Established or emerging reputation for research excellence and academic achievement relative to career stage and opportunity as evidenced by awards (e.g. scholarships, fellowships, appointments) and publication history (both peer-reviewed and technical reports).
- Team player with exceptional interpersonal skills able to foster an atmosphere of innovation, creativity, and excellence among others.
- Ability to engage, communicate, build relationships, and negotiate with a diverse group of people, including regional partners, loc