About the Carboun Institute
The Carboun Institute is the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region's first and only independent climate and energy policy think tank. Established in 2025 as a Dutch foundation (Stichting), the Institute is dedicated to driving change through evidence-based research, policy analysis, and policy advocacy. Our work centers on accelerating the energy transition and green industrialization, and enhancing climate resilience and adaptation, by leveraging finance in a just and sustainable way, and strengthening regional climate diplomacy and cooperation.
About the Engagement
The Carboun Institute is looking for a technically competent and policy-driven policy researcher to support the delivery of the climate diplomacy project focusing on China-MENA-Central Asia triangle.
The ideal candidate for this project-based engagement will combine technical expertise with policy and diplomacy analysis and possess convening and project management skills to ensure the timely completion of deliverables under this project.
Background and Context
The Iran war has fundamentally restructured the political environment, accelerating the timelines on which MENA actors must respond to already changing dynamics, and sharpening Gulf economic-diversification imperatives, pushing sovereign capital to look harder at mineral and energy frontiers across the Global South.
As Chinese clean-tech capital, technology, and minerals supply chains deepen across the region, MENA states are increasingly positioned between Chinese engagement and the diversification strategies of other partners. The deepening of Chinese-financed clean-tech deployment across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Morocco, and Oman is binding the region’s industrial future to Chinese supply chains in ways that simultaneously enable and complicate the region’s wider partnerships. The most consequential expression of this is the region’s emerging role as a processing and capital hub linking external mineral and energy frontiers to Chinese supply chains.
About the Project
This project sits within the Diplomacy, Geopolitics, and Cooperation program and most directly advances that program’s geopolitical nexus work, which identifies the growing role of China as a clean-energy investor and technology partner, and the question of how MENA states balance their relationships through the energy transition. The project also applies two cross-cutting priorities: green industrialization (including CBAM exposure, critical-minerals value chains, and trade corridors) and energy transition finance (including allocation of Gulf sovereign capital).
The first year of the Carboun China–MENA Project produced three policy papers and a flagship status report. The first paper, From Transactions to Strategic Partnerships: China’s Expanding Green Engagements in Gulf States, covered the changing dynamic in the relationship between China and GCC countries, while the second paper, Securing Critical Minerals for the Middle East’s Energy Transition, focused on cooperation on critical minerals. A third paper, In the Shadow of the Iran War: How MENA Importers and China Can Accelerate the Energy Transition analyzes the implications of the Iran war for the energy-importing countries of North Africa and the Levant, and China-MENA Energy Engagement 2026 Status Report is a flagship report on the state of China–MENA. It also saw the development of a structured contacts database with 130 stakeholders across Chinese, MENA, and multilateral institutions.
This project builds directly on this evidence base, expanding along two tracks in parallel: the research shifts into the key triangulations, while the engagement model shifts toward a smaller set of durable institutional relationships and one high-leverage convening.
A central analytical question for this project is how the Iran war is reshaping the China–MENA relationship, and how it accelerates the energy transition and electrification, which has become an overarching target across multilateral climate processes such as COP31.
The research also will examine whether the war is accelerating Chinese clean-tech capital, technology, and infrastructure flows into the Gulf as part of a deepening structural pivot, pulling the region back toward hydrocarbon-anchored Chinese engagement and the oil-and-gas trade that has been the spine of the China–Gulf relationship for decades, or leading to a combination of both across different sectors and policy domains.
Key Responsibilities and Deliverables
Deliverable 1: Publish a policy paper on the China-MENA-Central Asia triangulation
This triangle is both resource and energy focused with three vertices: Central Asian mineral and energy frontiers, MENA capital and processing ambitions, and Chinese supply-chain and infrastructure dominance. Central Asia has moved to the center of the global critical-minerals conversation: Kazakhstan is the world’s largest uranium producer; Kyrgyzstan holds significant antimony reserves; and Uzbekistan, with tungsten, lithium, molybdenum, and titanium, launched a $2.6 billion program covering tens of projects and minerals.
This triangle has a distinctive feature: Gulf engagement in Central Asian mining and metallurgy has so far been modest, while Gulf clean-energy investment has been more prominent, with the UAE’s Masdar and Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power financing large-scale solar and wind across Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
The research question is whether MENA, and Gulf capital in particular, becomes a genuine processing-and-investment bridge between Central Asian resources and global markets, or remains a renewables-only partner while the minerals value chain stays anchored in China. The research maps Gulf transactions, tracing Central Asia–GCC dynamics as well as Middle Corridor logistics, and examining the minerals-versus-renewables asymmetry.
Deliverable 2: Build a network with key institutions in China and a deepen partnership with regional centers
A key task is to help the Carboun Institute develop the project’s network in China (at both the institutional and individual expert level) drawing systematically on existing stakeholder engagement mapping and the Institute’s stakeholder database to identify and engage the partners, researchers, and advisers most relevant to the triangulation work, with a focus on energy, climate, industrial-policy, trade, and investment actors. This could entail a research collaboration with a mainland Chinese partner (to be confirmed from the stakeholder mapping), with a co-authored policy brief or a deepened partnership with a determined regional institute.
Deliverable 3: Deliver one high-leverage Track-2 convening in Central Asia
Organize one closed-door Track-2 roundtable in Central Asia, bringing together policy makers, financiers, private sector players and civil society from Central Asia, MENA and China, designed to move beyond awareness-building toward substantive dialogue among a smaller set of high-leverage participants. This deliverable includes drafting the concept note, developing the agenda, identifying speakers and participants preparing the scene-setting presentation based on the findings of the report.
Qualifications
Background
· A Masters or Ph.D. in Economics, Public Policy, Energy, International Relations, Environmental Science, or a closely related discipline is strongly preferred, combined with significant research experience.
· Demonstrated expertise in at least two of the following areas: International Trade Law, Energy Policy, Energy Economics, or Climate Policy.
· A strong track record of publishing high-quality, peer-reviewed research, policy reports, or substantive briefs on trade, climate, or energy issues in reputable academic or policy venues (including from before 2023).
Core Competencies and Technical Knowledge
· Understanding of the linkages between trade regimes (e.g., WTO rules, regional trade agreements) and climate mitigation instruments (e.g., carbon pricing, Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms (CBAM)).
· Expertise in qualitative research methodologies, including comparative policy analysis, stakeholder mapping, and institutional analysis.
· Detailed knowledge of current energy market dynamics, the technical challenges of the energy transition (e.g., grid integration, technology scalability), and the policy frameworks governing emissions reductions.
Experience and Professional Requirements
· A minimum of 5–8 years of professional experience in policy research, academic research, think tanks, governmental organizations, international institutions, or the private sector.
· Proven ability to lead complex, interdisciplinary research projects from conceptualization through to publication and dissemination.
· Proven ability to synthesize complex technical and legal arguments into accessible language for diverse audiences, including policymakers, business leaders, and the general public.
· Track record of public speaking
· Ability to organize and convene workshops and roundtables
· An established professional network within the global trade, energy, or climate policy communities is highly desirable.
· Arabic or Mandarin proficiency is desirable.
· An understanding of the Central Asian energy and industrial landscape.
Application Process
Qualified candidates are invited to submit:
1. A detailed CV highlighting relevant research and policy experience
2. Writing samples demonstrating your analytical and communication skills, including work published in 2023 and before.
3. Names and contact information of two professional references
Applications should be submitted through the application form. If you face technical challenges please let us know by emailing careers@carboun.com with the subject line “China-MENA Research Fellow (Central Asia Axis)”.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the role is filled. Short listed candidates may be invited for an interview to outline their approach to this engagement. Due to the large volume of applications expected we cannot guarantee a response to all applicants.
For more information about the Carboun Institute and our work, please visit our website and follow our social media outlets.