The School of Geography and Planning at Cardiff University, supported by the ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership for Wales, invites applications for funded PhD study. These ‘collaborative studentships’ involve liaison with a non-academic organisation. There are three such studentships available – more details are here.
I would be particularly keen on receiving applications for the project that I will be supervising, which is Biodiversity Enhancement via the Planning System: A comparison of the Welsh and English Approach. The main project partners would be the Wales Planning Directorate and the Wales Biodiversity Partnership. Details of how to apply are here. The deadline is 12 noon, on 3 February 2023. The project would start in October 2023.
The project is concerned with the Welsh government’s response to the biodiversity enhancement agenda via the planning system. The Welsh response has been different to that of the other UK nations, particularly England, which has adopted a more market-based approach. The core aim of the research project is to identify the factors that inhibit or enhance the delivery of biodiversity enhancement via the planning system in Wales. More broadly, the project will compare the emergence of the English and the Welsh approaches to understand the political and institutional factors that have differentiated these. However, it is important to emphasise that there is potential to adjust the scope of the project through a process of co-design between the successful PhD applicant and the project partners.
This would be a great opportunity to do fully-funded research that would have real potential for policy impact.