Deadline: 5 January 2023 Midnight (GMT)
Interviews: 26 and 27 January 2023
Studentship Funding
The Sustainable Forest Transition (SFT) Project is
recruiting three full-time PhD students at the
Global Development Institute (University of
Manchester) from September 2023. The project
seeks to advance social and environmental
outcomes of reforestation globally. These positions
are fully-funded for four years, covering academic
fees, an annual maintenance stipend of £17,668
(TBC for 2023) and research travel. You will be part
of a multidisciplinary research team led by
Dr Johan Oldekop, including post-doctoral
researchers, case-country partners (initially Mexico,
Brazil, India, and Nepal), and affiliated researchers.
The project will study the changing nature of forest
cover and human development at unprecedented
scale and detail in Mexico, Brazil, India, and Nepal
and possibly expand to other countries.
Project Description
Scholars have devoted much attention to
deforestation, yet processes driving the reverse
phenomenon, reforestation, and their socioeconomic
implications are poorly understood.
SFT will conduct ground-breaking research to
better understand how reforestation drivers
(e.g., changes in migration, livelihoods or
forest governance) affect forests and the
communities that depend on them. SFT is a
five-year, £1.7 million project funded by a UKRI
Research Frontier grant based within the Global
Development Institute in the School of
Environment, Education and Development.
Supervisory team
Dr Johan Oldekop (Lead) with Dr Polyanna da
Conceição Bispo, Dr Upasak Das, Dr Tim Foster
and Dr Rose Pritchard.
The three PhD students will develop a collective
programme of impactful and world-leading research
to support communities, governments, and
practitioners achieve simultaneous improvements in
forest cover and human development. Your research
will help overcome existing conceptual,
methodological and data limitations by combining
public socioeconomic (e.g., national census) and
environmental data (satellite-derived forest data)
with statistical approaches that increase the causal
inference of analyses by emulating randomized
experiments (quasi-experimental methods). Where
applicable, your work will complement these
quantitative methods with analyses of secondary
qualitative data and targeted key informant
interviews, in particular to explore the wider political
economy of reforestation.
Person specification
Candidates must have strong quantitative skills and
experience of handling and analysing datasets from
diverse sources (e.g., remote sensing data and/or
representative household surveys), acquired through
relevant postgraduate training (e.g., in political
science, economics, or geography). Additional
research training will be available to support further
development and expertise in key analytical
elements (e.g., econometrics, spatial statistics
and/or remote sensing). Experience of working in
one or more of the case countries and relevant
language skills (e.g., Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi
and/or Nepali) would be very beneficial but not
essential.
Eligibility criteria
Academic:
In the majority of cases, eligible candidates will have
undertaken an undergraduate course and/or
Master’s course at a recognised higher education
institution and will have achieved a minimum of
Bachelor’s at 2.1 plus Master’s at Merit.
English language:
Candidates whose first language is not English
require one of the following:
• IELTS test
min. scores: 7 overall, 7 writing, 6 other sections
• TOEFL (internet based) test
min. scores: 100 overall, 25 writing, 22 other sections
• Pearson Test of English (PTE)
min. scores: 66 overall, 66 writing, 59 other sections
Further information
If you have any questions or would like to discuss
this further, please contact Dr. Johan Oldekop
(johan.oldekop@manchester.ac.uk)
Residential eligibility:
This scholarship is open to international students.
Application procedure
The deadline for applications will be 5 January 2023
Midnight (GMT). All supporting documents must be
received by the deadline and sent as a zip file
to pgr-seedfunding@manchester.ac.uk, using
‘Sustainable Forest Transitions (PhD)’ as the email
subject.
The application must include:
• Full CV, including a breakdown of your grades to
date.
• Personal statement of maximum 700 words
indicating why you would like to undertake this
studentship and explaining how your focus,
experience, and skills link to the research outlined
above.
• Example of a piece of academic writing produced
by the applicant of up to 5,000 words (applicants
may consider submitting two shorter pieces if
these deal separately with conceptual and
empirical analyses). This may be an academic
essay or chapter(s) from a dissertation,
in which case, an abstract or introduction
outlining the context/aims/research questions of
the study must also be included.
• Names and contact details of two academic
referees who can comment on the applicant’s
suitability for PhD study and to undertake the
advertised project.
About the Global Development Institute
(http://www.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/)
The Global Development Institute plays a major
role in supporting the University’s commitment to
addressing global inequality. It aims to create and
share knowledge to inform and influence policy
makers, organisations and corporations so that
they can make positive and sustainable changes for
people living in poverty. Promoting social justice is
at the heart of GDI’s ambition and is connected to
our core values of inclusivity, responsibility, equity
and sustainability. The Institute builds on the
University of Manchester’s world-leading reputation
for Development Studies research that saw us
ranked 1st for research environment in the UK
Research Excellence Framework 2021.
GDI has approximately 60 academic staff, up to
100 PhD students and over 600 Master’s students
who form part of the largest provider of
Development Studies research and postgraduate
education within Europe. Within the Institute,
the Rory and Elizabeth Brooks Doctoral College is
the first doctoral college for the study of global
development in the world.
GDI has a reputation for cutting edge research in
numerous areas. Recent major funded research
programmes have included the DFID-funded
‘Effective States and Inclusive Development
Research Centre’; the ESRC funded ‘Rising Powers
and Integrated Futures Programme’; and the
DFID-funded ‘Capturing the Gains’ programme.
GDI also hosts the Centre for Digital Development.
Current major funding programmes at GDI include
the UKRI-funded ‘FutureDAMS’ research consortium
and the newly formed ‘African Cities Research
Consortium’, which is funded by FCDO.