Transdisciplinary development of marine restoration solutions to boost climate resilience in coastal communities.
Summary of work plan
Framed in the European Commission Mission on “restore our ocean and waters by 2030” the PhD work plan is integrated in the CLIMAREST project – Coastal Climate Resilience and Marine Restoration Tools for the Arctic Atlantic basin in collaboration with the sister project A-AAGORA – Blueprint for Atlantic-Arctic Agora on cross-sectoral cooperation for restoration of marine and coastal ecosystems and increased climate resilience through transformative innovation.
Fighting the climate crisis often results in conflicts, both with stakeholders and nature. Weighting the climate crisis against the biodiversity crisis is challenging, sacrifices need to be made. In addition, citizens and other stakeholders directly affected by the ongoing climate change and biodiversity loss are also affected by the solutions to prevent it. The most optimal solutions to combat climate change that at the same time are most optimal both for nature and society may be the most expensive ones and for that reason they may not be prioritized. The work plan addresses the following research question – How to integrate environmental, technological, social, and economic aspects in ecosystem restoration to improve local climate resilience?
The objective of CLIMAREST is to develop standardized protocols and tools for restoration of marine and coastal ecosystems impacted by human activities including developing innovative solutions for climate resilience in coastal communities. In this context the candidate will work transdisciplinary to develop strategies and weighting factors for the restoration tools to integrate environmental, technical, social, and economic aspects in coastal restoration in a systematic way. The work will be carried out in close collaboration with social scientists, natural scientists, economists, data scientists and modellers in the CLIMAREST and A-AAGORA teams. The candidates research will benefit from data and information generated through technical, social and economic innovations for marine restoration resulting in protocol and models that will be tested in large-scale demonstrations across the Arctic Atlantic Sea Basin. In order to find the most beneficial solutions in each restoration case all these aspects need to be taken into account and weighted against each other. Cost-benefit analysis are important tools, however they should not only consider economic cost and profit, but include the cost and value for the ecosystem, humans and society on a broader level.
The work to be carried out by the grant holder will also include the following of crosscutting tasks: Bibliographic research, literature review, document and data analysis; Writing and contributing to publications in journals and/or reference scientific events within the scope of the research topic; Elaboration of technical and scientific reports and of documents intended for different stakeholders and audiences; Participation at the related project/projects meetings (national and/or international); Development of actions for the communication and dissemination of the project(s) and its results.
Profile of applicants
The candidates should have an academic background in marine science, marine ecology, or marine social sciences. Experience in transdisciplinary work is valued. Skills in computing programming and database analyses are required.
Supervisors
Ana Lillebø (CESAM, University of Aveiro, Portugal); Ida Beathe Øverjordet (SINTEF Ocean, Norway);
Hosting institutions
SINTEF Ocean (Norway); University of Aveiro (Portugal)
Doctoral programme
Do*Mar – Marine Science, Technology and Management
Evaluation panel
Henrique Queiroga (CESAM and Department of Biology, University of Aveiro)
Ana Hilário (CESAM and Department of Biology, University of Aveiro)
Ricardo Calado (CESAM and Department of Biology, University of Aveiro)
NOTICE OF THE CALL ( english version)
NOTICE OF THE CALL ( portuguese version)
We are no longer accepting applications for this scholarship. Thank you.