Postdoctoral Researcher – Bicycle Ridership Modelling
Institution: Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB)
Group: City Lab Barcelona
Location: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain
Position Duration: 2 years
Salary: €35,000 gross annually
Start Date: As soon as possible
About the Position
City Lab Barcelona at ICTA-UAB invites applications for a postdoctoral researcher to join our interdisciplinary team working at the forefront of sustainable urban mobility. The successful candidate will lead and support research efforts to model bicycle ridership patterns in urban settings, with a primary focus on the city of Barcelona.
This position offers a unique opportunity to work with an exceptional citywide dataset on micromobility—collected through over 350 automated counters installed across Barcelona by the City Council—and to collaborate with a vibrant group of researchers specializing in mobility, sustainability transitions, and citizen science.
We are particularly interested in candidates with expertise or interest in:
- Integrating machine learning techniques with large-scale sensor and citizen science datasets.
- Developing a ridership model with a gender perspective, helping to uncover and address structural inequalities in access and safety for women and other underrepresented groups in urban cycling.
The postdoctoral researcher should be able to work independently and take initiative in developing models and publications. At the same time, they will be embedded within a supportive team of PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and senior researchers, and will be expected to contribute actively to shared scientific outputs and collaborative projects.
In the past year, our research group has built collaborations with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, bringing high-performance computing capacity to our modelling efforts, and with local bicycle advocacy organizations, including the Bicicleta Club de Catalunya, to connect research with policy and civic action.
Key Responsibilities
- Advance a research agenda on bicycle ridership modelling in urban environments.
- Design and implement statistical and machine learning models using high-resolution micromobility datasets.
- Contribute to the analysis and integration of crowdsourced and sensor-based data, including data from the City of Barcelona and the BiciZen citizen science app.
- Help conceptualize and develop a gender-sensitive ridership model, attentive to diversity and equity in mobility experiences.
- Collaborate on the development of open-access tools and platforms to support cycling research and advocacy.
- Participate in publications, policy briefs, and presentations to academic, policy, and civil society audiences.
Required Qualifications
- A PhD in a relevant field such as transportation engineering, urban planning, geography, data science, or environmental science.
- Demonstrated experience in modelling of bicycle, pedestrian, or traffic flows.
- Strong quantitative skills, including statistical analysis, GIS, or machine learning for mobility data.
- Ability to work independently while also contributing to collaborative team efforts.
- Strong writing and communication skills in English.
Desirable Qualifications
- Familiarity with citizen science methodologies or participatory data collection.
- Interest or experience in gender-sensitive or inclusive mobility research.
- Programming skills in Python, R, or similar tools for data analysis and visualization.
- Spanish or Catalan language skills (not required but helpful).
Context and Ongoing Projects
In Fall 2024, City Lab launched a city-scale citizen science initiative to build Barcelona’s first crowdsourced bicycle traffic model. This initiative, developed in collaboration with municipal partners, invites residents to contribute bike trip data through a simple, privacy-preserving app, aiming to create a more equitable and data-informed cycling infrastructure strategy.
More about this initiative →
In parallel, we are also developing the BiciZen app, a community-based platform to monitor and improve bicycle infrastructure quality based on rider feedback.
See our publication on BiciZen →
Why Join ICTA-UAB?
The Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB) is an exceptional place to grow as a researcher. As a leading interdisciplinary research center based at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, ICTA-UAB brings together natural, social, and engineering sciences to tackle major environmental and sustainability challenges. Its researchers address key societal issues across five core themes: Oceans, Land, Cities, Consumption, and Sustainability Policy.
ICTA is home to a vibrant and international community, with over 130 researchers, including senior scientists, postdoctoral fellows, and PhD students. The institute has a strong global reputation, hosting 29 ERC projects since its founding in 2003, and housing seven ICREA Research Professors, making it the Catalan institute with the highest ICREA concentration. Research outputs regularly appear in top-tier journals like Science, Nature, and PNAS, and contribute to major global policy assessments including the IPCC and IPBES.
The institute is housed in an award-winning, purpose-built building designed for sustainable research and collaboration, with state-of-the-art laboratories, spacious offices, and dynamic common areas for seminars and networking. ICTA fosters a supportive and interdisciplinary environment, ideal for advancing impactful research on sustainability and global change.
How to Apply
Please send the following documents in a single PDF to Jordi.Honey@uab.cat
- A cover letter outlining your motivation and relevant experience.
- Curriculum Vitae (CV).
- A writing sample (e.g., a published article or dissertation chapter).
- Contact details for two references.
Deadline: CVs will be reviewed until the position is filled.
