PhD Studentship – Measuring the Resilience of Communities

Applications are invited for a PhD studentship funded by the University and industrial sponsor, the Building Research Establishment (BRE), to start in January 2016. The project will be based principally in the School of Civil and Building Engineering at Loughborough University. It is associated with the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Building Design, based at Loughborough.

The subject of resilience to all types of hazards has attracted increasing attention globally in recent years, in response to major flooding, storms and earthquakes. While extensive research has been undertaken to better understand the technical aspects of 'resilience', there is a lack of understanding of how to measure resilience for different community groups in a consistent way, such that improvement actions can be better prioritised. So, there is a need for research on what makes communities more resilient, e.g. in the context of macro drivers of risk such as climate change and rapid urbanisation. This project will focus on how to measure the resilience of communities in a low or middle income country context. This work will provide an opportunity to link into the QSAND Project (http://www.qsand.org/), which has developed a tool to promote sustainable approaches to relief, recovery and reconstruction after a disaster. The successful candidate will be expected to draft a more detailed PhD research proposal on appointment.

This studentship will be supervised by Dr Lee Bosher and Dr Robby Soetanto at Loughborough.

The studentship is for three years and is intended to start in January 2016. The studentship provides a tax-free stipend of £18,057 per annum (which includes an additional top-up of £4k per annum from the industry sponsor), plus tuition fees at the UK/EU rate for up to three years. International (non EU) students may apply but will need to find the difference in fees between those for a ‘UK/EU’ and ‘international’ student themselves.

Students will normally need to hold, or expect to gain, at least a 2:1 degree (or equivalent) in a built environment or relevant engineering discipline.  A relevant Master’s degree and/or experience in one or more of the following will be an advantage: construction management, civil/building engineering, social sciences, human geography, development studies, emergency planning.

The successful candidate will be joining a lively community of research students and staff at Loughborough, where doctoral students are given great academic and administrative support and are an integral part of the University's research culture. General information about the School of Civil and Building Engineering can be found at: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/civil-building/

The student will also be expected to spend time at the BRE campus, just outside of Watford; please visit www.bre.co.uk for details of the organisation and its location. The successful candidate will have regular contact with a nominated supervisor within BRE, plus access to an annual travel, training and conference budget of £3,000 (this includes an allowance for travel to and from BRE).

For informal enquiries about this studentship, please contact Dr Lee Bosher (L.Bosher@Lboro.ac.uk or 01509 222887). For enquiries about the application process only please contact our Research Administrator, Berkeley Young (B.K.D.Young@Lboro.ac.uk).

To apply, please complete the online application using the following link:https://luis.lboro.ac.uk/web_apx/f?p=100:1

The closing date for applications is Friday 13 November 2015. Interviews will take place week commencing Monday 23 November 2015.

This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/finance/research/studentships/studentships/phd-studentship--measuring-the-resilience-of-communities-.html