Research Assistant/ Post Doctoral Position in the resilience of hospital infrastructure in Zürich

The Chair of Infrastructure Management led by Professor Dr Bryan T. Adey in the Institute of Construction and Infrastructure Management of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering has an opening for a post-doctoral student focused on the evaluation of the resilience of hospital infrastructure.

The provision of health services is central to the humanitarian mandate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). This includes ensuring that a considerable amount of complex infrastructure can function as intended over long periods and to be able to quickly restore it if damaged. The infrastructure includes small speciality clinics to large multi-function hospitals, as well as the electricity and water infrastructure networks.

In a new “ETH for development” project, a team of researchers are co-designing and developing a framework and decision support tool to be used to evaluate the resilience and decide on resilience enhancing interventions for a broad range of health care facilities managed by ICRC. In the medium term, this framework will facilitate communication among the various stakeholders of health care facilities, including donor and implementing organisations, government authorities and local communities, enabling them to unpack the complex systemic interactions affecting health facility resilience.

In the “Building Resilience in Health Infrastructure” project (https://eha.swiss/case-study/building-resilience-in-health-infrastructure/), the research team aims to go beyond a conventional risk analysis, which focuses on quantifying the frequency and minimising impacts of disruptive events. The project will enable the development of resilience strategies for health infrastructure in unstable conflict-affected settings that will include both the minimisation of performance losses due to potentially disruptive events and the minimisation of the recovery period if performance losses occur. The resilience strategies will include both social and technical aspects of the system. The case study will be the Rafik Hariri University Hospital (RHUH) in Beirut, with a special focus on its multi-level system components: building services, building structures, and their socio-technical and organizational systems.

The first part of the project will be a rapid resilience assessment investigating how indicators of the diversity and connectivity of systems and their related sub-systems allow for measuring the adaptive capacity and stability of the related system. The second part of the project will be the modelling of the system's response to disruptive events. This will include modelling the structural behaviour of buildings, medical services provided by the hospital, functionality of emergency rooms, services provided to the hospital, e.g., power and water, and lastly, the sequences of restoration and the speed of restoration of the functionality of the hospitals. The third part of the project will be the development of a resilience monitoring framework to enable the regular and efficient monitoring of the gains and losses of the resilience of health infrastructure, considering specific requirements, capabilities and constraints for this infrastructure, in protracted unstable settings.

In summary, the “Building Resilience in Health Infrastructure” project will improve the management of health infrastructure in parts of the world that rely on it the most.

The goal of this position is to develop a complete model of how the health care system including the infrastructure of the Rafik Hariri University Hospital works and how it will be restored following the occurrence of potentially disruptive events. This will include consideration of the socio-spatial dimension, the socio-technical structure of its construction and supply processes, its institutional and organizational dimensions as well as its interdependencies with the territorial and environmental systems with regards to resource, interest area and peoples habitat and movement. The model will integrate different levels of detail in information ranging from the results of advanced models to the opinions of experts. For instance, modelling of infrastructure network behaviour is often done with advanced models, whereas the sequences of restoration and the speed of restoration of the functionality of the hospitals are often done with expert opinion. Methods such as agent-based simulations, discrete event simulations, and fuzzy logic methods would be appropriate for such hybrid socio-technical models. Detailed resilience modelling will support the identification of resilience-enhancing interventions and testing of their impacts. Alongside this model-based impact assessment, the practical viability of potential interventions will be assessed about local organizational and technical constraints that will be investigated through semi-structured expert interviews and local stakeholder questionnaires and focus groups.

The successful candidate for this position will be expected to work closely with numerous other researchers and stakeholders with a wide range of backgrounds to develop the appropriate model.

The successful candidate for this position will have a Master’s or PhD degree in civil engineering, geospatial engineering, systems engineering or a related field. A good grasp of probability theory, risk and resilience assessment, system dynamics and agent-based simulation, R, python and GIS are beneficial. The ideal candidate has solid command of the English language, as all reports and discussions will be in English. If the successful candidate does not have a PhD, interest in doing one is a possibility.

ETH Zurich is a family-friendly employer with excellent working conditions. You can look forward to an exciting working environment, cultural diversity and attractive offers and benefits.

In line with our values, ETH Zurich encourages an inclusive culture. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment in which the rights and dignity of all our staff and students are respected. Visit our to find out how we ensure a fair and open environment that allows everyone to grow and flourish.