The jobholder will primarily collect data and develop a methodology applied to the assessment of environmental impacts of hydrogen technologies within both a European and non-European trade context. The main scope of the job is to provide scientific data and evidences in support to European policy initiatives and actions governing future trading of renewable hydrogen at the international level.

The selected candidate will support the unit activities regarding the assessment of
environmental impacts of hydrogen technologies and associated value chains, for example through life cycle assessment (LCA). The job will require to collect and structure intelligence on impacts of technological options for hydrogen production, transport, distribution and storage and for the use of hydrogen in various end-use sectors. Aiming at identifying and quantifying potential impacts on current and future systems will be the main task of the jobholder.

Attention to the international dimension will be required and the capacity to retrieve nonobvious information and detect trends is part of the job. This dimension will imply, for example, a study aimed at assessing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with
hydrogen trade as covered by the European Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
Support on methodological issues and identification of unwanted future consequences in the application of practices to quantify hydrogen footprints will have to be tackled as well. An additional aspect this work should consider is the interface of hydrogen applications with other systems, such as gas and electricity grids. The job holder would be in close contact with colleagues covering these aspects, and be expected to contribute relevant information on technical and environmental indicators.

The candidate is expected to be able to:

• retrieve and derive relevant carbon-footprint and environmental indicators able to
  characterise impacts of hydrogen technologies. This involves also the capability of
  negotiating and developing suitable collection and sorting methodologies, and theestablishment of an effective direct working relationship with all the parties involved;
• work with large and diverse sets of data and derive relevant statistical information;
• report the outcome of investigation activities in technical reports and peer-reviewed scientific publications;
• assist with scientific and technical expertise in institutional activities supporting policy in energy and environmental matters (e.g.: contribute to policy briefs and ad hoc requests from other European Commission services, the EU Parliament and the Council);
• be actively involved in international scientific networks such as International Energy Agency technical tasks,

Ideally, the candidate will also be able to define the current European and international state-of-the art for several key hydrogen technologies such as production technologies and hydrogen-using processes.

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) provides independent, evidence-based knowledge and science, supporting EU policies to positively impact society.
The current vacancy is with Directorate for Energy, Mobility and Climate, in the Battery and Hydrogen Technologies Unit of the JRC (Unit JRC.C.1) in Petten in the Netherlands. The Directorate provides support to Community policies in the field of sustainable, safe, secure and efficient energy production, distribution and use, making an important contribution to the European Green Deal. The Unit provides scientific and technical support to EU policies by means of laboratory-based and knowledge management activities, strongly entwined with other Units of the Directorate. – Further information: https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-mission-statement-work-programme_en#jrc-strategy.

The staff of the Unit (about 30) is based in Petten (NL) at the energy and health campus. A convenient bus service connects our offices to the cities of Alkmaar and Amsterdam. Children of employees can attend the European School in Bergen.

How to apply?

• If you are already on a valid CAST FG IV reserve list, or you have already applied to one of the calls below, you can directly submit your application at
  http://recruitment.jrc.ec.europa.eu/?type=AX.
  If not, before applying to this position, you must register for one of the two following:
• the Call for Expressions of Interest | EU Careers (europa.eu) (CAST Permanent FG
  IV), which is used by a wide range of organisations (institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the European Union), or
• the specialised call for researchers(JRC Call COM/1/2015/GFIV – Research), which
  is mainly used by the JRC.

Note that each of the calls above has different minimum eligibility requirements and
different selection tests.

The JRC cultivates a workplace based on respect for other people and the environment, and embraces non-discriminatory practices and equality of opportunity. In case of equal merit, preference will be given to the gender in minority.