Funding: Funded PhD
Duration: 3 years (full-time) 5 years (part-time)
Supervisors: Dr Charlotte Hopkins & Dr Magnus Johnson
Application deadline: Friday 30 June 2023
Increasing and diverse uses of the marine environment are leading to cluttered physical and policy seascapes in the UK and elsewhere.
There are ambitious plans for large scale offshore wind deployments to meet our increasing energy needs and the drive for a low carbon economy. To tackle both the climate change and nature emergencies, increasing numbers of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are being designated. Historically, our seas have been used by a relatively small group of industries, but fishing, energy, telecommunications and aquaculture are increasingly competing for access to the same marine area. In the UK, marine use is controlled by different policies and strategies such as the future fisheries policy, Net Zero, 30 x 30, the multiannual national plan for the development of sustainable aquaculture and the UK’s targets for a fivefold increase in offshore wind supply to 50GW by 2030. These policies and strategies are in turn driven by big ideas such as sustainable food production, Blue Carbon, Marine Spatial Planning, Ecosystem services and Maximum Sustainable Yield. With increasing spatial squeeze the battle between different policies, strategies and big ideas is becoming more fraught with user and stakeholder groups becoming ever more polarised. This PhD will use policy analysis and social science methodologies to understand marine use, marine policies and targets in an increasingly competitive space. An aim of the PhD will be to recommend useful approaches to managing our common resource.
The successful candidate will be based on the University of Hull campus and will be provided with physical workspace and the specific equipment and resources needed for their research. They will benefit from interaction with stakeholders from both industries and from government. The successful student will benefit from joining a collaborative, multidisciplinary and nurturing environment, and will be provided with excellent opportunities for external networking. We will hold regular meetings with the entire cluster, with opportunities to present and discuss research, invite internal and external speakers and collaborators and foster networking.
