Fully-funded studentship available: Resilience and sustainability

As part of the UKRI- and Defra-funded ARISE Initiative we are delighted to announce that a fully-funded PhD studentship in resilience and sustainability policy is open for applications.

Held in conjunction with the Leverhulme Trust’s Sustainable Transitions Doctoral Training Programme and following on from the Office for Students’ Transitions and Transformations: The Black Researchers Journey at the University of Essex, the studentship is aimed at applicants from underrepresented groups; please see eligibility criteria here.

Project Overview 

ARISE: Advancing Resilience and Innovation for a Sustainable Environment is a ground-breaking £3 million research initiative created and led by Professor Gina Yannitell Reinhardt at the University of Essex.

ARISE studies how to develop resilience within coastal seas and communities, working with local stakeholders to design and test different ‘interventions’, or ways of tackling problems related to climate change, sea level rise, and environmental, political, and social threats.

At the end of the project, we will have a powerful and practical toolkit that informs policy and public management scholars and practitioners on how to address the challenges facing our coasts, particularly those posed by the effects of climate change on the natural, human, and built environments.

The studentship

The successful applicant would be supervised by and have access to the ARISE initiative in terms of conceptual development, data collection, and opportunities to learn from a diverse and dynamic transdisciplinary group of scholars studying and testing the efficacy and impact of resilience-building policies along the coast of the East of England.

The studentship fuses social and natural sciences, combining an understanding of coastal ecology with policy and public management studies. The successful applicant will propose a project related to resilience in terms of natural/physical resources and human/social capital, which could include intertidal areas, coastal defence, the built environment, trust, connectedness, heritage, civic engagement, and more.

Potential methods include social network analysis and machine learning, surveys/questionnaires, interviews, focus group mapping, citizen science, participatory action research, survey/field experiments, physical surveys, and/or sampling soil, flora, or other coastal ecology.

The applicant does not need a background in all these fields, but would need to have an interest in learning the appropriate methods for the project they propose. The student’s supervisors will be Professor Gina Yannitell Reinhardt (Government – primary) and Dr Natalie Hicks (Life Sciences – secondary).

Training and Support

The Sustainable Transitions training programme offers interdisciplinary research methods, secondary discipline training, and ongoing development. Doctoral scholars also have access to £12,500 for training and research and support from both the Sustainable Transitions management team and the ARISE supervisory team. Additionally, all scholars can join the University of Essex’s ‘Centre for Environment and Society,’ which provides events and networking opportunities.

Person Specification

This project will be ideal for someone passionate about investigating climate change at the local level, learning about coastal community resilience, and deriving lessons to inform public policy makers. The opportunity would suit a candidate with a degree/background in environmental sciences, marine sciences, policy studies, political science, economics, and related fields. It is not necessary for the candidate to have prior training in data analysis or fieldwork, as this can be provided on the programme.

Research Proposal

The project area is broadly defined, leaving scope for the applicant to develop their own specific research proposal as part of the application. The successful candidate will further develop their proposal in close consultation with the supervisory team.

How to Apply

Please see detailed instructions here. The deadline is 18 April 2025.

Closing Date: 11:59pm GMT on Friday 18th April 2025