Measuring
the resilience of communities (Ref: GS15CBE1/M5)
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 Excelle
nce 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.
Please quote the
following reference when applying: GS15CBE1/M5
