We are offering a PhD fellowship with focus on climate change, vulnerability, attribution and health commencing, the 1st of Jan 2025 or as soon as possible hereafter.
Project description
The PhD student will work on a DANIDA funded study on Vulnerability and Attribution in Kenya. In recent years, climate scientists have been able to measure the extent to which human-caused climate change is responsible for changes in the frequency and magnitude of such weather events. However, current studies predominantly focus on hazards affecting the global North and on understanding changes in weather patterns in isolation from socio-economic and political factors conditioning the resilience of a community. This raises a crucial question about how these advances in climate sciences can be combined with a human-centered approach to vulnerability to create climate resilient societies.
The student will define the PhD study within the larger project. The PhD candidate will conduct fieldwork in Kenya and work closely with the University of Nairobi and The Kenyan Meteorological Department.
Further, the PhD student is expected to support activities on the Building Stronger Universities (BSU) project funded by DANIDA.
Our group and research
This position will be based at the Global Health section with the disaster research group and be part of the Copenhagen Centre for Disaster Research. The section is inter-disciplinary, collaborative and brings together decades of Global South experience working with various topics of global health.
Our group works with various questions of climate change and disasters such as health and hygiene, resettlement and displacement, urban disaster rick reduction and climate change adaptation, vulnerability and power.
The University is situated in Copenhagen, which is consistently rated among the world’s top 10 most livable and sustainable cities. Life for families is made easier via a publicly supported daycare and healthcare system, dual-career opportunities, maternity/parental leave, and six weeks of annual vacation. International candidates may find useful information on living and working in Denmark. Useful information is also available at the university’s International Staff Mobility (ISM) office, which offers a variety of services to international researchers coming to and working at the University of Copenhagen.
The University wishes our staff to reflect the diversity of society and thus welcomes applications from all qualified candidates regardless of personal background.
Principal supervisor is Associate Professor Emmanuel Raju. Department of Public Health, Email: eraju@sund.ku.dk
Start: 1 January 2025
Duration: 3 years as a PhD student
Job description
Your key tasks as a PhD student at SUND are:
- Carrying through an independent research project under supervision.
- Completing PhD courses or other equivalent education corresponding to approximately 30 ECTS points.
- Participating in active research environments including a stay at another research team.
- Obtaining experience with teaching or other types of dissemination related to your PhD project
- Teaching and disseminating your knowledge.
- Writing a PhD thesis on the grounds of your project
Key criteria for the assessment of applicants
Applicants must have qualifications corresponding to a master’s degree related to the subject area of the project, e.g. climate change, global health, disaster risk management, sociology, political science and closely related fields of study. Please note that your master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree (two years).
We are looking for:
- A keen interest in qualitative methods, global health and disasters and a basic understanding of climate attribution.
- The candidate will be self-motivated with the ability to work independently as well as competent to collaborate as part of an interdisciplinary team.
- A creative and curious mindset and a strong drive
- Excellent communication skills in both spoken and written English.
Other important criteria are:
- The grade point average achieved
- Professional qualifications relevant to the PhD project – prior experience with scoping reviews, qualitative methods are an advantage
- Previous publications
- Relevant work experience
- Other professional activities
Place of employment
The place of employment is at the Global Health Section, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in dynamic and international research environment.
Terms of employment
The average weekly working hours are 37 hours per week.
The position is a fixed-term position limited to a period of 3 years. The start date is Jan 1st 2025.
The employment is conditioned upon the applicant’s successful enrolment as a PhD student at the Graduate School at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. This requires submission and acceptance of an application for the specific project formulated by the applicant.
The PhD study must be completed in accordance with The Ministerial Order on the PhD programme (2013) and the Faculty’s rules on achieving the degree.
Salary, pension and terms of employment are in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Taxation and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State. Depending on seniority, the monthly salary starts at approximately 30,700 DKK/ approx. 4,100 EUR (April 2024 level) plus pension.
Questions
For specific information about the PhD fellowship, please contact the principal supervisor.
General information about PhD studies at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences is available at the Graduate School’s website: https://healthsciences.ku.dk/phd/guidelines/
Application procedure
Your application must be submitted electronically by clicking ‘Apply now’ below. The application must include the following documents in PDF format:
1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page)
2. CV incl. education, experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position
3. Certified copy of original Master of Science diploma and transcript of records in the original language, including an authorized English translation if issued in other language than English or Danish. If not completed, a certified/signed copy of a recent transcript of records or a written statement from the institution or supervisor is accepted. As a prerequisite for a PhD fellowship employment, your master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree. We encourage you to read more in the assessment database: https://ufm.dk/en/education/recognition-and-transparency/find-assessments/assessment-database . Please note that we might ask you to obtain an assessment of your education performed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science
4. Publication list (if relevant)
Application deadline: 23 September 2024, 23.59pm CET
We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.
The further process
After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor.
The assessor makes a non-prioritized assessment of the academic qualifications and experience with respect to the above-mentioned area of research, techniques, skills and other requirements listed in the advertisement.
Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant him/herself.
You find information about the recruitment process at: https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/
The applicants will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.
The University of Copenhagen wish to reflect the diversity of society and encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.
