Forest Governance Scholarship for PhD

The Chair of Tropical and International Forestry,
as part of the Department of Forest Sciences at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences
is granting a

“Forest Governance Scholarship for PhD”                                                                   Dedicated to research on
“Analysing and governing trade-offs and conflicting interests among SDGs in forest landscapes”.

Duration & location: Possible funding period of the scholarship is up to 36 months. The awardee PhD candidate will be based at the Chair Group in Tharandt, TU Dresden, associated with the DAAD-funded project Internationalizing forestry curricula study tracks through a Global-SDG-Campus network, with envisaged research stays at partner universities in Asia, Africa and/or South America.

Project background: The project Internationalizing forestry curricula study tracks through a Global-SDG-Campus network aims to enable and enhance international university cooperation in the Global South for building up dynamic higher education networks in teaching and research regarding SDG-related topics with regard to forestry and forest landscapes in the (Sub-) Tropics. This comprises joint activities of the partner consortium, consisting of TU Dresden and its partner universities in Argentina, Thailand, Cameroon and Bangladesh, in curricula development, postgraduate teaching, student mobility, higher education management, and research.

Research focus: The candidate will do social science research on contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) originating from forests (e.g. biodiversity, forest ecosystem services, poverty reduction and food security) and emerging SDG-conflicts at landscape level (e.g. SDG 13 climate action vs. SDG 2 zero hunger). This includes research on the trade-offs resulting from divers land-uses in (mosaic) forest landscapes, the relevant actors’ interests and conflicts amongst them, and how to mediate and govern them based on the actors’ power capabilities. The doctoral candidate will work on the development of conceptual and methodological applications and multi-criteria assessment tools to facilitate such conflictive forest landscape governance and planning. The topic will be further specified in light of the project scope. It will consider the candidate’s background and interest, and guidance of the supervisor Prof. Dr. Lukas Giessen and daily supervisor Dr. Simon Benedikter. The research results will directly feed into an envisaged teaching module, which will be jointly developed by the partners and critically reflects on SDG-contributions and trade-offs from forestry and forest landscapes.

Requirements: An interdisciplinary master’s degree in forest sciences, (human) geography, development studies, natural resources/agricultural economics, or other fields combining natural and social sciences. The degree must be equivalent to a German master’s degree, qualifying the PhD-candidate in accordance with requirements identified here: https://tu-dresden.de/bu/umwelt/postgraduales/promotion. The candidate will need distinct analytical skills in the social as well as natural sciences, the ability to think in interdisciplinary terms and a high level of (conceptual) creativity. Research/work experience in the Tropics or Subtropics are an asset. Proficiency in English is required, other languages (e.g. German, Spanish), good intercultural communication skills and social competence are an advantage. The successful candidate should be highly motivated and willing to travel within the frame of the project.

Application: Please send your electronic application including the usual documents plus a selected own writing sample before 01.05.2022 as a single pdf document to: . Expenses incurred in attending interviews cannot be reimbursed.