CaSTCo Citizen Science Officer

Employer: Norfolk Rivers Trust

Reports to: Operations Director

Purpose: Working with Citizen Scientists to deliver monitoring programmes in the River Wensum catchment and supporting initiatives in the River Lark catchment.

Location: Office-based, or a mixture of office and home-working

Salary details: £26,000

Contract: Full time, permanent position

Overview:

The Catchment Systems Thinking Cooperative (CaSTCo) is a collaborative national partnership between the Rivers Trust, United Utilities and other partners from the water, environmental NGO and academic sectors. The partnership seeks to revolutionise the way crucial water environment data in England and Wales is gathered, and how this data evidence can be used to drive collective action and make decisions about the river catchment health.

The partnership will be running eight ‘Demonstrator’ projects across England to pilot-test different approaches towards monitoring river heath, including water chemistry, biodiversity, plastic pollution and others. The different projects will focus on: monitoring equipment and methods used; data collection, analysis, visualisation and sharing; and the use of citizen science data for catchment partnership decision making and planning.

In East Anglia there are two ‘demonstrator’ projects: the River Lark Catchment Partnership and the Wensum Catchment partnership. Both are supported by Anglian Water as our main partner. The volunteer coordinator will support both catchments to develop their citizen science (CS) volunteers into effective and empowered community-based groups, with the skills and knowledge to independently carry out river health monitoring. The VC will manage the analysis and visualisation of citizen science data in collaboration with catchment partnership members and promote the use of CS data in catchment planning and decision-making.

This is a great opportunity to contribute your volunteer management and conservation skills to improving the health of our precious rivers!

The successful applicant will be responsible to:

• Recruit, train and coordinate a community of volunteers to undertake water quality and ecological surveying in the Wensum catchment, and support existing citizen science work in the River Lark catchment
• Field test, compare and review the efficacy and accuracy of different water chemistry equipment and methods
• Collate, store and analyse water quality data and produce visualisations to communicate data evidence to others
• Provide baseline and monitoring data evidence to the Lark and Wensum Catchment Partnerships in order to target restoration strategies and inform catchment-scale planning
• Identify short- and long-term equipment requirement and seek funding opportunities to sustain project delivery
• Collaborate with academic research and empower CS groups to participate in project development and review
• Identify and engage with other river health monitoring on the Lark and Wensum catchments
• Work closely with the CastCO project delivery officer and report on project progress against implementation plans for both catchments
• Assess the impact that citizen science data has on triggering interventions on the ground, i.e.water sensitive farming, integrated wetlands, improved sewage/water management
• Maintain a GDPR compliant volunteer management system, and ensure compliance with the Trust’s Health and Safety policies and procedures
• Support the communication and promotion of volunteer and community events and training
• Supporting the wider NRT team with communications outputs
• Any other duties as reasonably required by NRT
• The successful applicant will be required to travel frequently across Norfolk for visits and meetings. Travel expenses will be reimbursed at 0.45p per mile when not travelling to NRT Head Office

Person description:

We are looking for someone who is passionate about the natural world and has the ability to convey this enthusiasm to a diverse mix of communities and people. The post holder will have experience of managing volunteers, and along with being highly organised, they will approach this job with energy and a can-do attitude.

Essential criteria

• You will have a passion for conservation and ecology, especially freshwater habitat protection and restoration
• A degree or equivalent in a related field with experience of field work and surveys
• Experience of working with a wide range of volunteers or outreach projects
• Strong data management and analysis skills
• Outstanding organisational skills and good attention to detail with the ability to work on a range of tasks (as identified in the Job Description) both independently and as part of a team
• Strong IT skills, including the use of Office systems and mapping programmes
  • Keeping up-to-date timesheets and records of expenses incurred
  • Understanding of GDPR regulations and the need for confidentiality and sensitivity
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to effectively manage relationships with a wide range of partners in the Lark and Wensum catchment partnerships
• Excellent spoken and written English language skills
• Full and valid UK driving licence, own car and insured for business use
• The willingness to travel to meetings/events and work unsocial hours during school holidays, at weekends and evenings

Desirable criteria:

• Water Chemistry knowledge and experience
• Good knowledge of working with catchment or other partnerships
• Several years’ experience of working within the voluntary sector, inspiring audiences and effectively managing stakeholder relationships

Applications

To apply, please send your job application form and covering letter to [email protected] by 5pm on Monday 31^st October 2022.

Contact: Ed Bramham-Jones on 07788377617

Website: www.norfolkriverstrust.org

Interview date: Tuesday 8^th November 2022