Collaborative studentship opportunity: Allerton Project, Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust

School of Geography University of Nottingham

‘Developing sustainable diets collectively: participatory approaches to addressing the challenge of dietary sources of pollution in the Eye Brook catchment, Leicestershire’

The School of Geography at the University of Nottingham invites applications from suitably qualified students for the following ESRC funded collaborative PhD studentship to cover maintenance and fees for full-time study.

This novel and transdisciplinary PhD research project embeds a social science research project within a larger natural science experiment on water friendly farming conducted by the project partner – the Allerton Project, Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust. It intersects with emerging societal and social scientific debates about the contribution of diet to sustainability transitions within the food system, the challenges of ‘diffuse’ pollution control and the role and practice of participatory and collective approaches in rural environmental governance, particularly at the spatial scale of the catchment.

The candidate will have, or be working towards achieving in 2016, an upper second or first class Bachelors degree in geography or cognate discipline, such as sociology, anthropology, social psychology or environmental studies. A candidate with a Bachelors degree will be expected to undertake a Masters degree (in Environmental Geography) that will be fully funded during the first year of the studentship. Alternatively, the candidate will have a Masters degree in any of the above disciplines and if this higher degree meets the ESRC’s research training requirements they will be eligible to begin studying immediately for a PhD and for 3 years of funding. Ideally, the candidate will also have relevant pre or post-degree experience of working with community groups and be able to demonstrate an academic interest in the relationships between food, eating and the environment. The candidate must fulfil relevant ESRC eligibility criteria: www.esrc.ac.uk/skills-and-careers/studentships/prospective-students/am-i-eligible-for-an-esrc-studentship/

The successful applicant will be entitled to a full-time, yearly tax free stipend at current RCUK rates (£14,057 for 2015/16, updated each year), plus tuition fees (£4,060 for 2015/16) and additional research funds.

Further details and application forms are available at: www.nottingham.ac.uk/geography or from Andrea Payne, Postgraduate Research Administrator, School of Geography, The University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD.  Tel: 0115 951 5575.  Email: Andrea.Payne@nottingham.ac.uk.  For an informal discussion about the project please contact the academic supervisors: contact Dr Carol Morris (Carol.Morris@nottingham.ac.uk) or Dr Susanne Seymour (Susanne.Seymour@nottingham.ac.uk).

The closing date for applications is 12^th February 2016 and the date for interviews for the position is Wednesday 2^nd March. The project will start in September 2016.