Funded PhD Studentship * The Role of Knowledge in StrategicEnvironmental Assessment

This three year full-time PhD studentship provides the opportunity toinvestigate the role played by governance and different forms ofknowledge in supporting regional environmental sustainabilityobjectives. The successful candidate will work alongside UWE researcherson the UK case study: implementation of the EU strategic environmentassessment directive (SEA) in South West England.

Student fees will be paid and there will be a stipend of £12,300 for2006/7 and then annual increases thereafter

Research Project Overview
The project will compare the extent to which regional (and local)governance modes are able to manage and integrate different forms ofknowledge to produce more democratic and effective strategicenvironmental assessment. This project is directly linked to a major 3year EU funded Framework 6 inter-disciplinary project “Governance forSustainability” (G-FORS) which involves universities and researchcentres in 8 European countries as well as public sector practitioners(Metropolitan Region of Hanover) and Eurocities. G-FORS is developing aninnovative comparative model to analyse the use of different types ofknowledge by national, local and regional governance arrangements topromote sustainable policies using efficiency, effectiveness andlegitimacy benchmarks. By offering a comparative methodology anddeveloping a systematic dissemination strategy to end-users at alllevels of government, G-FORS will allow the development of direct linksbetween the collaborators in this GWR project (the student, BristolUniversity, UWE, Strategic Impact and Bevan Brittan) and the EuropeanG-FORS consortium as well as knowledge transfer on the interactionbetween modes of governance, knowledge and broadened participation. Inthis context, the PhD offers excellent opportunities to meet researchersfrom across Europe working on similar topics.

The PhD is jointly supervised by the University of the West of Englandand Bristol University and offers the opportunity to work withco-funders Bevan Brittan, leading national law firm and StrategicImpact, a local public affairs consultancy.

For information on how to apply and access to an online application formplease visit www.built-environment.uwe.ac.uk/research and follow the ‘PhD study’ linkor contact Carolyn Webb at carolyn.webb@uwe.ac.uk or on 0117 328 3102. The closing date forapplications is 15th July 2006.