Fellowships

PhD Stipend
Collaborative Research and Fisheries Management
Aalborg University, Denmark

At the Faculties of Engineering, Science and Medicine, Department of Development and Planning a PhD stipend is available within the Innovative Fisheries Management research centre. The stipend is open for appointment from April 1, 2011, or shortly, thereafter and has a duration of three years.

The purpose of this research is to evaluate, whether, when and how participatory research involving fishers and natural scientists makes a difference to empirical knowledge and to fisheries management.

The proposed investigation has four main research tasks that involve both qualitative and quantitative (survey-based) research.

1. The first task places three case-studies of collaborative research into context through an examination of overall institutional framework for the participatory research for three case studies of collaborative research in different parts of Europe. These case studies are funded by the same programme as the PhD stipend.
2. The second task examines the impact of the participatory research process on the attitudes of the participants by comparing attitudes and agreement among fishers and scientists at the beginning and near the end of the project.
3. The third task examines the impact of the new learning process on management decision making both from the perspective of the characteristics of the knowledge produced and the characteristics of the management system receiving the knowledge.
4. The forth task synthesizes Tasks 1-3 along the key dimensions of credibility, salience and legitimacy.

PhD stipends are allocated to individuals who hold a Masters degree. The successful candidate will have a strong interest in the subject matter, a background in social science or interdisciplinary environmental studies with solid training in qualitative and quantitative social science methods.

It is a prerequisite for allocation of the stipend that the candidate will be enrolled as a PhD student at the Doctoral School of the Faculties of Engineering, Science and Medicine, in accordance with the regulations of Ministerial Order No. 18 of January 14, 2008 on the PhD Programme at the Universities. According to the Ministerial Order, the progress of the PhD student shall be assessed every six months. It is a prerequisite for continuation of salary payment that the previous progress is approved at the time of the evaluation.

For further information please contact Doug Wilson at dw@ifm.aau.dk

Social Science Fellowship with The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

For detailed information and applications, refer to the NERRS website at www.nerrs.noaa.gov.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM), Estuarine Reserves Division, in collaboration with NOAA's Coast Services Center (CSC) and the Sectoral Applications Research Program (SARP) of teh Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, Climate Program Office, are offering fellowships for masters and doctoral students to conduct social science research within the Natioanl Estuarine Research Reserve Ssytem. NERR social science research funds will be provided to support research projects that will provide information needed by reserve management and coastal management decision-makers, and improve public awareness and understanding of estuarine ecosystems and estuarine management issues (15CFRS 921.50).

The National Estuarine Research Reserve System will focus on the following areas of research for this opportunity. Proposed research projects submitted in response to this announcement should address social, cultural, economic, or policy aspects related to one of the following topics:

1. Community resilience (e.g., individual and community vulnerability; resistance, response, and adaptabilitiy to continuous or episodic natural and anthropogenic stressors; risk perception).

2. Ecological restoration (e.g., human behaviors; advocacy and volunteerism; responses to social and ecological change; personal and societal value orientations).

3. Ecosystem-based management (e.g., collaborative decision-making; motivations or preferences for resource uses or managenet practices; ways in which people affect or are affected by natural resource mmanagement decisions; cultural history).

4. Landscape or seascape change (e.g. current or potential effects on or threats to the traits, patterns, or structure of a specific geographic area of the terrestrial or aquatic environment, including its biological, physical, and anthropogenic attributes; population and demographic change; coastal urbanization and habitat fragmentation).

5. Climate variability and change (e.g. sea level rise; extreme weather events; seasonal or interannual climate fluctuations; effects on water resources, living marine resources, agricultural productivity, delivery of ecosystem services, or public health and safety).

For detailed descriptions of the reserves and a copy of this funding opportunity, refer to the NERRS website at www.nerrs.noaa.gov

The U.S. Community Forestry Research Fellowship Program

The U.S. Community Forestry Research Fellowship Program provides fellowships to graduate students to support their field work in communities in the United States. The awards are up to $15,000 for dissertation fellows, up to $7,000 for masters fellows, and $2,000 for pre-dissertation fellows.

The program accepts proposals dealing with the broad array of issues and resources in community forestry, including, but not limited to, collaborative processes and conflict resolution, social networks, political ecology of forest communities, urban forestry issues, watershed restoration, park creation and management, forest labor issues, non-timber forest product production (floral greens, basket-making materials, wild mushrooms, maple syrup, etc.), and revitalization of local life-ways and cultures. Questions concerning issues of social justice and equity are especially welcome.

Eligibility: Students at any institution of higher learning may apply for a fellowship. The applicant must be enrolled in a degree-granting program in the social sciences, economics, environmental science, forestry, agriculture, or natural resource management, policy and planning at their home institution. Applicants must be engaged in research that deals directly with or is explicitly relevant to U.S. forest communities. Field work must be participatory; Fellows must work actively with members of the community in which they are conducting research to engage them in the research process.

Deadline: Applications must be received by February 1, 2007.

For more details about the program and information on how to apply, please see our website: http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/community_forestry/.

For more information, contact:

Kelly Perce
Program Assistant
Community Forestry Research Fellowships
College of Natural Resources
UC Berkeley
101 Giannini Hall, #3100
Berkeley, CA 94720-3100
PH: 510.642.6109
FAX: 510.642.4612
perce@nature.berkeley.edu
http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/community_forestry

Grants

The NCCOS Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research at NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS) has announced a funding competition under their Prevention, Control, and Mitigation of Harmful Algal Blooms (PCM HAB) Program. The RFP is available at: http://www.cop.noaa.gov/news/fs/funding2011.aspx . If you know of anyone who might be interested in this RFP, please forward the announcement along to them. The goals of PCM HAB are as follows:

1. Develop and make widely available new socially and environmentally acceptable strategies and methods for preventing, controlling, and mitigating HABs and their impacts; and
2. Assess the social and economic costs of HAB events and the costs and benefits of prevention, control, and mitigation to guide future research and aid in the selection of the most appropriate management strategies and methods.

More specifically, related to the social and economic sciences, the program seeks to enhance HAB response and ensure socially responsible development and effective implementation of prevention, control and mitigation by:

• Measuring social and economic costs of HABs and their impacts, and the costs and benefits of HAB PCM
• Improving communication strategies and approaches for facilitating changes in human behavior/attitudes
• Improving coordination of researchers, decision-makers, and stakeholders in implementing PCM research.

Letters of intent must be received by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on August 16, 2010, and should be submitted by email to Mary.Payne@noaa.gov. If you have questions about the RFP or program, please contact Dr. Quay Dortch, Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (ECOHAB) 
Program Program Coordinator, by phone at 301-713-3338 ext 157 or by email at Quay.Dortch@noaa.gov .