Scientist at the Federal Environment Agency

The main field of work for scientific staff at the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) is scientific policy advice. For this purpose, specialist brochures are created for political decision-makers and other stakeholders involved in the political legislative process.

Research assignments and research questions from the Federal Environment Ministry are processed both directly in the UBA and externally and scientifically supervised. The UBA acts both in the sense of a research institution and in official interaction on the basis of decrees for the development of scientific backgrounds and professional statements on questions at the political level. Furthermore, the UBA also brings current research questions to the Federal Ministry for the Environment. In addition to research activities in policy advice, the UBA is also responsible for network and communication work and thus promotes the networking of actors and multipliers in Germany. Depending on the topic, the UBA also networks internationally.

Susanne Schubert (research assistant UBA, specializing in sustainable spatial development and environmental assessments)

The UBA's scientific policy advice is based not only on research but also on networking and communication work. Interested parties should be open to familiarizing themselves with new topics.

Research work is the focus of everyday work. This includes the actual research, the creation of reports and presentations of results as well as agreements in the team. Furthermore, communication with contractors for externally awarded research projects and with the Federal Ministry for the Environment is a large part of the daily work. There are also internal team meetings and meetings with research institutes with which we work together.

A not insignificant proportion is accounted for by less technical work orders, the administrative work required by the authorities. Award notes and files are created and invoices are processed.

In principle, many processes run at the same time, since in addition to the research carried out in-house, several externally commissioned research projects are supervised and which must be followed up.

The actual research work is less intensive than during a doctorate, the research is more superficial and rather targeted research on individual questions and working with quintessences. Overall, the research can be described more as a processing of the knowledge already gained, on the basis of which political recommendations are then formulated.

Furthermore, the UBA organizes events and scientific employees take part in conferences as speakers and/or participants.

A personal openness towards different topics is particularly important for the work as a research assistant at the UBA. In daily research work, it is necessary to familiarize yourself with various new topics and to be able to evaluate the existing knowledge and make policy recommendations based on it, even without detailed background knowledge. Due to the rather quintessence-based research work, this job is particularly interesting for someone who likes to work more comprehensively and does not want to delve into the research of a topic in detail. Furthermore, working in a team with a large number of agreements plays a major role.

In principle, the following skills are also helpful in everyday work at the UBA:

  • self-organisation
  • In addition to German as everyday language, good knowledge of English
  • Certain joy in the writing process
  • Team and communication skills

In addition, people should have patience for administrative processes and (compared to everyday university life) acceptance of the partially hierarchical work environment and less agile work processes.

At the beginning of the activity, specialist knowledge is expected (e.g. in the area of ​​spatial and infrastructure development for a position in this subject area). Basic specialist knowledge of spatial planning can be acquired, for example, in the following modules:

  • Basics of spatial planning
  • Planning, construction, land and environmental law
  • Introduction to urban and regional planning in Hesse

Furthermore, the module GPEK (basics of planning, drafting and construction) provides an insight into typical work processes in spatial and infrastructure planning.

Further professional skills for everyday work can be acquired at Master's level in the following modules:

  • Infrastructure Planning
  • environmental planning

The department also offers further seminars and project work:

  • Spatial development in a national and international context
  • Interdisciplinary project for infrastructure solutions in developing and emerging countries
  • Project infrastructure with a realistic business game
  • Spatial development and planning practice in Germany

In-depth knowledge of scientific work and an interest in it are an advantage. A doctorate can make the work process easier, especially with regard to cooperation with research institutes, as it provides in-depth knowledge of research design and scientific issues. However, a doctorate is not a basic requirement for working at the UBA and it is not uncommon for people just starting their careers to be hired as research assistants. For positions as a research assistant with coordination tasks, further qualification after the master's degree in the form of professional experience or a doctorate is expected.