EU Funding Announced for Ph.D. Positions at University College Dublin

Friend of the network Claire Collins (University College Dublin) has written to announce the availability of EU funding for three Ph.D. positions on environmental governance and compliance.  A summary is below; further information can be obtained from Niamh McCabe.

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Three EU-funded Ph.D positions on Environmental Governance and Compliance (4 years) - University College Dublin, Sutherland School of Law
This is an exciting opportunity for talented students to play an important role in a cutting-edge project at the intersection of law, governance, psychology and economics, investigating the way that laws influence our decisions to engage (or not to engage) in environmentally compliant behaviour in Europe. Non-compliance with the EU’s environmental rules is one of the key weaknesses of the EU’s environmental policy, and the EU has over the past decade brought in rules to encourage decentralised, society-led governance by local private actors, including environmental NGOs but also private individuals and companies, in an attempt to improve compliance levels. Yet surprisingly little is known about the extent to which this major change in environmental governance rules has actually influenced compliance levels in practice, and why. The central question of this project is therefore: Can the design of environmental governance rules influence us not only to comply with the letter of the law, but also to go further?

Funded by the European Research Council, you will form part of an interdisciplinary team of six people, comprising the Principal Investigator Dr. Suzanne Kingston, a postdoctoral researcher, the 3 Ph.D. students and a research assistant. Specifically, we are looking for:

• 1 Ph.D. candidate with a degree in Irish law or the law of another common law jurisdiction, or cognate discipline. Where the application is for this position, the applicant should be proficient in English;
• 1 Ph.D. candidate with a degree in French law, or cognate discipline. Where the application is for this position, the applicant should be proficient in French and English;
• 1 Ph.D candidate with a degree in Danish law, or cognate discipline. Where the application is for this position, the applicant should be proficient in Danish and English.

In addition to desk study methods, the position will involve the collection and analysis of relevant empirical data on the relevant jurisdiction (Ireland, France or Denmark), including surveys and interviews with interested stakeholders. As a result, the positions will involve some travel from time to time to the relevant jurisdiction with some of the rest of the team, as well as presentations at international events abroad. The successful candidates will have their Ph.D. fees paid, and will receive a stipend of €18,000 for each of the 4 years of the Ph.D. They will be located in the UCD Sutherland School of Law (http://www.ucd.ie/law/), and will liaise closely with the UCD Earth Institute (http://www.ucd.ie/earth/), Ireland’s leading interdisciplinary institute providing research-driven solutions to the most pressing global environmental challenges.

Applications should be e-mailed by Friday 15th May 2015 to environmentalphd@ucd.ie, and should comprise:

• A covering letter (no more than 2 pages) explaining why you are interested in and suitable for the position;
• Your CV and one recent paper, essay or publication;
• Your academic transcripts and, for applicants for whom English is not their mother tongue, proof of proficiency in English. Additionally, for applicants for the French and Danish law positions for whom these languages are not their mother tongue, proof of proficiency in these languages.

Candidates should be available for interview (in person or by Skype) in the week commencing 14th June 2015 and should be available to start from September 2015. Enquiries to Ms. Niamh McCabe.