[Job Opportunity] Research Associate – Environmental Economics, Public Policy & Environmental Hazards

About the Project

Tropical Cyclone Yagi in September 2024 inundated approximately 1,300 km² of Vietnam’s Red River Delta and exposed nearly 900,000 people to flood waters, intensifying long-standing questions about why environmental vulnerability persists despite Vietnam’s comprehensive policy framework. Densely populated, low-lying, and exposed to compounding climate and non-climate stressors, the delta has become a critical site for examining how institutional arrangements shape household resilience.
The study combines household surveys across multiple Red River Delta provinces with qualitative policy document analysis. The current phase extends primary data collection and develops academic outputs for both peer-reviewed and Scopus-indexed conference publication.

Key Responsibilities

1. Literature Review and Policy Research

• Conduct literature reviews on environmental vulnerability, climate adaptation governance, political economy of adaptation, institutional implementation studies, and Vietnamese environmental policy.
• Review and synthesize academic studies, policy documents, and reports from both international and Vietnam-specific contexts, including Vietnamese-language legal and policy texts.
• Identify relevant theories, conceptual frameworks, research gaps, and empirical evidence to support manuscript development.
• Prepare synthesis notes, literature matrices, annotated bibliographies, and reference lists for the research team.

2. Field Research and Data Collection

• Lead the design and implementation of the second-phase household survey (n=500), including sampling strategy refinement, instrument review, and integration with the existing 500-household dataset.
• Coordinate fieldwork logistics across selected provinces, including engagement with local authorities, recruitment and training of enumerators, and scheduling of data collection rounds.
• Oversee data quality assurance during fieldwork, including spot-checks, enumerator supervision, real-time data validation, and back-translation where applicable.
• Manage ethical compliance and informed consent procedures throughout the data collection process.
• Document fieldwork progress, methodological decisions, and any deviations from the original protocol for inclusion in subsequent publications.

3. Data Preparation and Analysis

• Support the preparation, cleaning, coding, management, and quality checking of the combined household survey dataset (n=1000) and the corpus of Vietnamese policy documents.
• Assist with indicator development, composite index construction, and sensitivity testing of alternative weighting schemes for the Community Vulnerability Indicators (CVIs) and the Household Vulnerability Index (HVI).
• Support quantitative analysis, including descriptive statistics, group-level comparisons, and subgroup analysis by income, province, and livelihood category.
• Support qualitative analysis of Vietnamese policy documents using deductive thematic coding across pre-defined analytical categories and cross-reference coded segments with household vulnerability patterns.
• Prepare tables, figures, statistical outputs, and analytical notes for academic manuscripts and presentations.

4. Academic Writing and Research Communication

• Support the drafting, editing, formatting, citation checking, reference management, and submission preparation of academic manuscripts targeting Scopus-indexed journals and conferences.
• Assist with revisions to the Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences manuscript through to acceptance, including any subsequent rounds of peer review and response-to-reviewer correspondence.
• Co-develop a Scopus-indexed conference proceedings paper drawing on the extended dataset, including conference selection, manuscript drafting, and submission management.
• Contribute to research communication outputs as needed, including policy briefs and internal CEI knowledge products.

Required Qualifications

Applicants should have:

• A Master’s degree in environmental science, public policy, environmental management, sociology, economics, geography, development studies, or related discipline.
• Demonstrated experience with household survey administration, fieldwork coordination, or comparable primary data collection in a Vietnamese or developing-country context.
• Strong ability to read, synthesize, and write academic English.
• Fluency in Vietnamese, required for fieldwork coordination, engagement with local authorities, and analysis of Vietnamese policy documents.
• Good understanding of social science research methods, including survey design, sampling, and both quantitative and qualitative approaches.
• Familiarity with at least one statistical software or programming language, such as R, Stata, Python, SPSS, or similar tools.
• Experience with composite index construction, qualitative coding, literature review, or academic writing is an advantage.
• Familiarity with vulnerability assessment, climate adaptation, or Vietnamese environmental governance is an advantage but not required.
• Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and ability to manage parallel fieldwork and writing deliverables.
• Ability to work independently, lead small field teams, and meet deadlines.
• Interest in environmental governance, climate vulnerability, deltaic regions, political economy of adaptation, or Vietnamese environmental policy.

Application Package

Applicants should submit:

• CV
• One writing sample

Please send your application to tram.nhb@vinuni.edu.vn with the subject line: RA Application – Environmental Vulnerability & Governance Project – [Full Name]

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis until the positions are filled. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.