About the Project
This studentship would support the ESRC funded project “COASTMAN”, which is a joint endeavour with the University of British Columbia (UBC), the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO) and the University of Cape Coast. COASTMAN’s overarching research question is “how mangrove-dependent coastal communities can become more resilient to climate change”. The primary output of the COASTMAN project will be a co-produced novel Multi-Criteria Decision Support System (DSS) to guide community groups and decision-makers to foster regenerative practices enabling thriving co-dependent human-environment relations in otherwise rapidly degrading coastal mangroves. The wider research team combines expertise in remote sensing, ecology, fisheries economics and qualitative social sciences. The project is in its initial stages of data collection in two countries, Ghana and Tanzania. Social science data collection will consist of a household survey and establishment of community youth groups for co-production of data and decision-making. The student would co-develop relevant socio-ecological data collection for monitoring the impact of mangrove restoration and conservation activities. They would augment ongoing ethnographic work to ensure community input to a long-term decision support tool and work with remote sensing experts to ensure reliable ground-truthing of observed land cover changes.
The impact of this work would be extremely valuable learning around socio-ecological, co-benefits and trade-offs in mangrove restoration/conservation for vulnerable communities experiencing changing climate as well as a co-produced mechanism for impacted communities to directly influence decision makers.
For informal enquiries about the project, contact Dr Alexandra Morel: amorel001@dundee.ac.uk
APPLICATION PROCESS
Step 1 – Applicants are recommended to make contact as early as possible ahead of the deadline with the lead supervisor and (1) send a copy of your CV and (2) discuss your potential application and any particular needs.
Step 2 – After discussion with the lead supervisor, formal applications can be made via the following form: REGNR8-I Scholarship Application Form 2025_UK Students.docx. Please use this form instead of the register of interest form below.
QUALIFICATIONS
Applicants should have first-class, or an upper second-class (2.1) Honours degree AND a Master’s degree in discipline(s) relevant to their selected topic, unless applying for the Master’s Plus with its alternative requirements (see application form).
English language requirement: IELTS (Academic) overall score must be at least 6.5 (with not less than 5.5 in reading, listening, speaking and 6.0 in writing). The University of Dundee accepts a variety of equivalent qualifications and alternative ways to demonstrate language proficiency; please see full details of the University’s English language requirements here: www.dundee.ac.uk/guides/english-language-requirements.
