Physical Science | Scholarship for Nigerians and Africans - Part 529

Medical Research Council Fellowships, Methodology Research, UK

MRC fellowships enable outstanding individuals to undertake challenging projects in excellent research and training environments. An MRC award is there to enable you to do something truly out of the ordinary in training and developing you as a potential research leader.

This Fellowship is open to applicants already working in, or who wish to move into, health related research. It provides up to four years’ funding for multidisciplinary research training into innovative statistical methods and their application in clinical research. Applicants should present not only a challenging research project but also clear and ambitious plans for their development as researchers able to apply advanced skills to an increasingly broad range of problems.

Who can apply?

Applicants should either hold, or expect to receive before the award starts, a doctorate in statistics, biostatistics or a related discipline and less than 5 years post-doctoral experience. However, please note that candidates without medical statistical experience are welcome to apply; provided they specify a training package appropriate to the aims of this fellowship.

At the postdoctoral level, all Fellowships provide the Fellow’s competitive salary and necessary research training costs (e.g. consumables, travel, equipment etc) and other costs allowable under Full Economic Costs (FEC). Any research staff required should be requested and clearly justified but this would be considered exceptional.

The deadline for applications is 4.00pm on Friday 8th October 2010

Erasmus Mundus UNESCO-IHE Masters on Flood Risk Management Scholarships

Erasmus Mundus Grant Committe has selected UNESCO-IHE’s proposal on a new Masters Course on Flood Risk Management for funding under the 2010 Erasmus Mundus Action 1 Call for proposal. The new Masters Course will be offered in collaboration with the Technical University of Dresden (Germany), Technical University of Catalonia (Spain) and University of Ljubljana (Slovenia).

Integrated flood risk management aims to reduce the human and socio-economic losses caused by flooding while at the same time taking into account the social, economic, and ecological benefits from floods and the use of flood plains or coastal zones. The need for the adoption of a holistic integrated approach to managing flood risks has been reflected in the Flood Directive of the European Parliament. Existing Masters programmes on floods offered at EU cover many technical aspects but lack integration. The programme follows the holistic approach and is explicitly designed to cover a wide range of topics – from drivers and natural processes to models, decisions and socio-economic consequences and institutional environment, and is therefore an important advance in water education for Europe.

The Erasmus Mundus Masters Course on Flood risk management is offered by the consortium consisting of UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education (the Netherlands), the Technical University of Dresden (Germany), the Technical University of Catalonia (Spain) and the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). The associated members include European hydraulics laboratories, namely, DHI (Denmark), Deltares and HR Wallingford (UK), and from key national organisations responsible for flood management, including Rijkswaterstaat (the Netherlands). ICHARM (Japan), and three organisations from Bangladesh are associated members as well. All these partners bring their specific complementary expertise in flood risk management to the EMMC, which graduates educated flood risk professionals with a broad vision of the processes occurring in river basins and in coastal zones at different spatial and temporal scales, and who can master the links between systems, processes and natural and socio-economic constraints for all the aspects of the water cycle.

During the 2-year programme students start at the Technical University of Dresden, where they complete their first semester with 30 ECTS with courses on hydro-meteorological processes, global change and its impact, flood risk management and GIS. Then the students move to UNESCO-IHE for their 2nd semester with 30 ECTS where they receive courses on modelling for planning, forecasting, control and decision support, hazard mapping, ICT, and fluvial flooding and urban flood disasters. Subsequently, the students move to the Technical University of Catalonia to follow part of their 3rd semester with 20 ECTS with courses on hazards due to flash floods, debris flow, coastal flooding, and climate change. The last part of the 3rd semester is hosted by the University of Ljubljana where students follow courses on spatial planning, and socio-economic and institutional framework of flood risk management to earn 10 ECTS. Each semester provides a number of electives, and there are international fieldtrips. Finally, the students carry out their thesis work (30 ECTS) at one of HIEs or with an industrial partner. Successful candidates receive MSc degrees from the Technical University of Dresden, UNESCO-IHE and the Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona.

Partners:

  • UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, the Netherlands (Co-ordinating Institution)
  • Technical University of Dresden, Germany
  • Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain
  • University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Duration: 2 years, starting September 2011

Contact:

Dr Biswa Bhattacharya
Hydroinformatics & Knowledge Management
Westvest 7
2601 DA Delft, Nederland
E-mail:  b.bhattacharya@unesco-ihe.org

PhD Researcher in Innovation Studies, Netherlands

Energy transition processes take a very long time. One of the reasons is the huge inertia of existing systems and the unwillingness of very powerful regime actors to quickly move into new directions. Entrepreneurs with novel ideas often do not posses the power to break through these inert techno-institutional complexes. Therefore, they need to develop specific strategies in order to become successful.
This project focuses on the fundamental mechanism that strongly influences all energy transition processes: the interplay between strategies of entrepreneurs who strive to introduce novelty and strategies of incumbents who have strong vested interests and therefore often resist these processes of change. The two types of actors differ strongly in their respective power positions and therefore very different strategies are likely to be pursued. The government is often confronted with the strategies of both types of actors and needs to find a balance in dealing with both interests. Surprisingly hardly any information on this issue can be found in the literature while this is crucial information to accelerate transition processes. In the project, two empirical domains will be studied that strongly differ in the structure of the incumbent regime: the automotive sector and the built environment in The Netherlands. The PhD-student will study one of these empirical domains.

Qualifications:

The ideal candidate holds a M.Sc. (or equivalent) degree in a relevant field (e.g. innovation studies, sustainable development, evolutionary economics, organisation science, policy science) with experience in empirical research.

Contact Person: Prof. dr Marko Hekkert (M.Hekkert@geo.uu.nl; phone: +31 30 253 6112).

You may also visit the faculty’s website at: www.geo.uu.nl.

How to apply:

Please send your written application, before 15-08-2010, consisting of a letter of motivation, curriculum vitae and addresses of two referees, to:

Utrecht University, Faculty of Geosciences
Personnel Department
Postbus 80115,
3508 TC Utrecht
The Netherlands or (preferably) by email to PenO@geo.uu.nl

Please mention vacancy number 72178 in all communications and mention where you first saw this advertisement.