Postdoctoral Research Fellows; in ERC-funded HydroConnect project

Organisation/Company Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) Research Field Anthropology » Other Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions Postdoc Positions Country Norway Final date to receive applications 1 Mar 2026 - 12:00 (Europe/Oslo) Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 37.5 Offer Starting Date 1 Sep 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Horizon Europe - ERC Reference Number  Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Chr.

Michelsen Institute (CMI) currently has two vacancies for two postdoctoral researchers with an interest in cross-disciplinary work and expertise and knowledge of fresh groundwater networks. The candidates should ideally have a background in social anthropology (or a closely related field, such as human geography) and/or archaeology. These are full-time, temporary positions spanning three years (36 months), working on the European Research Council (ERC) funded project Hydro Connect.

These two positions are based in Bergen, Norway at CMI, and will be included in the Climate and Natural Resources research group at CMI.

The two postdoctoral positions:

• Postdoctoral position 1:
  The study of fresh groundwater networks in Tonga or other Pacific Islands
• Postdoctoral position 2:
  The study of fresh groundwater networks on the Comoros Islands

Start date of both positions: 1st of September 2026.

Information regarding the project Hydro Connect:

The positions are part of a European Research Council (ERC)-funded project entitled Global Hydro Connectivities beyond Ocean, Seas and Rivers led by Prof. Edyta Roszko, the Principal Investigator (PI) helsen Institute in Bergen, Norway. Applicants are invited to design their own sub-project that aligns with the broader focus of the ERC project. The broader project focuses on connectivities afforded by hidden, underground water that surfaces along the coastlines of islands lacking accessible, perennial fresh water.

Specifically, the project explores how Austronesian-speaking seafarers transformed such freshwater ‘seeps’ into wells and other forms of water capture throughout the South China Sea and Indo-Pacific. The first aim is to develop the concept of hydroconnectivities that integrates fresh water, well infrastructure, and ecological and social exchanges through comparative historical ethnography of Austronesian Indigenous knowledge that has crossed oceans, generations and various groups of people.

The second aim is to map and theorize how present-day descendants and successors of Austronesian-speaking seafarers benefited from Indigenous knowledge, freshwater seeps and wells (link to the project ).

Information regarding the two postdoctoral positions:

Postdoctoral position 1:
Fresh groundwater networks in Tonga or other Pacific Islands

The position is part of work-package 2 (WP2) entitled ‘Hydroconnectivities in the Indo-Pacific’ coordinated by PI, Prof. Edyta Roszko. Ideally, the successful candidate will focus on Tongatapu and Eua (in Tonga) or, alternatively, other islands in the Pacific (e.g. Kiribati, Tuvalu), lacking surface waters and islanders’ current state of knowledge about coastal seeps, underground water caves, freshwater pools, as well as on specific rights to access water from those spaces.

The wider aim is to reconstruct the history of hydrological knowledge and the enduring engagement of local communities with the geological landscape and their strategies to navigate changes imposed by climate and other human‑induced factors. The successful candidate is expected to conduct individual and in‑depth ethnographic field research on one or two selected islands, collaborate with a Senior archaeologist/geomorphologist and contribute to archaeological survey, mapping and cataloging freshwater wells (or other forms of water capture).

It is expected that in combination with archaeological and geological mapping of the freshwater features, coastal landscape, and underground water seeps and caves, ethnographic fieldwork will provide in‑depth insights into the role of these water reservoirs in the hydroconnectivities that help(ed) to…