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PHD SCHOLARSHIPS ANNOUNCEMENT

Climate Change Mitigation in Agroforest Landscapes through Sustainable Sourcing Policies (CAFSUS)

We invite interested and qualified candidates to apply for four PhD scholarships within the project “Climate Change Mitigation in Agroforest Landscapes through Sustainable Sourcing Policies” (CAFSUS), which is funded by the Danida Fellowship Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.

The project is implemented over five years between University of Copenhagen (UCPH), University of Sydney (USYD), National Economics University in Hanoi (NEU), Ho Chi Minh University of Social Sciences and Humanities (HCMUSSH), Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST), and Development and Policies Research Center (DEPOCEN).

The overall objective of CAFSUS is to generate knowledge and build capacity on the role, effectiveness, and equitability of the new EU deforestation regulation (EUDR) in climate change mitigation. Each of the four PhD students should focus on one of the following four research themes:

1. Assessing the environmental impact of the EUDR on regional production landscapes, including land use patterns and deforestation,
2. Gaining new knowledge on the patterns of household adjustment to the EUDR affecting wellbeing and livelihood resilience, at the producer household level and particularly among disadvantaged groups,
3. Gaining new knowledge on the perceived and actual impact of the EUDR among various local and global post-farmgate value chain actors, and
4. Gaining new knowledge regarding emerging systems of global environmental governance and how these are affected by initiatives enacted along global value chains.

The PhD students will be enrolled at the Faculty of Statistics, NEU or the Faculties of Anthropology or Geography, HCMUSSH and they are expected to write and submit paper-based PhD dissertations in English. Each PhD student will have at least one supervisor from NEU or HCMUSSH and at least one supervisor from HUST, UCPH or USYD. There will be an opportunity for each PhD student to visit Copenhagen for around 12 months with the purpose of attending PhD-level courses, receiving close supervision from their supervisors at UCPH, reviewing literature, preparing for fieldwork, analyzing data, and writing and presenting their papers. The students will also have an opportunity to collaborate closely with other partner institutions in relation to research, fieldwork, and data collection.

The CAFSUS project embraces equal opportunities in the recruitment of PhD candidates. Female candidates are encouraged to apply, and they will be given priority when applicants of both sexes have the same qualifications.

Description of the research project
The overall objective of CAFSUS is to generate knowledge and build capacity on the role, effectiveness, and equitability of the EUDR in climate change mitigation. Focusing on the coffee sector in Vietnam, CAFSUS aims to analyze the implications of the EUDR for: landscape cover, household livelihoods, value chain structures, and systems of global environmental governance. The CAFSUS project will collect geo-coded panel data based on two rounds of quantitative surveys administered among producer households in Dak Nong and Son La provinces. These will be supplemented by in-person qualitative interviews and high spatial and spectral resolution satellite imagery from various sources. This interdisciplinary effort is crucial for obtaining unique data, strong capacity building, generation of policy-relevant research, and dissemination and uptake of the project findings in climate mitigation and environmental governance strategies.

Qualifications of the PhD students
The interested candidates should hold an MSc/MA degree in geography, geoscience, computer science, data science, human geography, economics, agricultural economics, environmental and natural resource economics, anthropology, sociology, political economy, environmental studies, environmental and natural resource management, mathematics (major in statistics), statistics, or any other relevant discipline.

The candidates must meet the admission criteria for a doctoral degree at NEU (if applying for a PhD position at NEU) or HCMUSSH (if applying for a PhD position at HCMUSSH). In addition, the candidates must have some or all of the following qualifications:

General requirements
● Interest in the topics of deforestation, livelihoods, rural development, agrarian studies, value chains or environmental governance
● Knowledge in triangulating research methods or mixed methods is highly desired
● Experience and some soft skills in engaging with producer households, local communities, industry stakeholders, and government actors would be an advantage
● Additional research skills, knowledge, techniques, data collection from producer households or enterprises, and computer-based research applications would be an advantage
● Excellent spoken and written communication skills in English
● Excellent spoken and written communication skills in Vietnamese

Specific requirements for each research theme

Research theme 1
● Demonstrated knowledge, skills and experience in satellite remote sensing and cloud-based image processing and analysis of various types of state-of-the-art optical and microwave satellite data (such as Google Earth Engine) is considered important
● Knowledge of machine learning applied to satellite image classification of land use/cover and vegetation/forest ecosystems is considered an advantage
● Experience with Python coding and platforms for deep learning (TensorFlow, PyTorch, Keras, etc.) is desirable
● Solid knowledge about AI deep learning architectures (for example CNN) and attention mechanisms is considered an advantage
● Experience with field work and collection of relevant ground observations for the machine learning/remote sensing is considered an advantage

Research theme 2
● Strong background in economic modeling
● Demonstrated knowledge and skills in quantitative data analysis, including data handling, statistical and econometric methods
● Experience with statistical softwares like STATA or R is desirable
● Experience with big geo-referenced datasets would be an advantage
● Experience with softwares such as ArcGIS or QGIS would be an advantage
● Experience with programming languages for data analysis and data presentation like Java, JavaScript or Python would be an advantage

Research theme 3
● Understanding of global economic change, including in areas such as global value chain analysis, international political economy, business studies, international trade, development studies or economic geography
● Demonstrated knowledge and skills in qualitative data collection methods including in-person stakeholder interviews, life histories, and focus group discussions
● Knowledge of the specific challenges affecting ethnic minority groups, or a commitment to ensure policy initiatives do not adversely impact these groups
● Experience in working together with diverse stakeholders, including private sector firms, development agencies, NGOs and government agencies
● A willingness to undertake field research in the Northwest Highlands and the Central Highlands
● Previous knowledge of the Vietnamese coffee sector, or other agricultural development, would be an advantage
● Experience in undertaking content or discourse analysis, and knowledge of software such as NVivo, Taguette or QualCoder, would be an advantage

Research theme 4
● Knowledge of global environmental governance, global environmental politics, or environmental management, and international initiatives and expectations to address key challenges like climate change and deforestation
● A good understanding of Vietnamese government policies with respect to environmental and natural resource management, forest management, or land use and spatial planning
● Demonstrated knowledge and skills in qualitative data collection methods including in-person stakeholder interviews, life histories, and focus group discussions
● Experience in working together with diverse stakeholders, including private sector firms, development agencies, NGOs and government agencies
● A willingness to undertake field research in the Northwest Highlands and the Central Highlands
● Previous knowledge of the Vietnamese coffee sector, or other agricultural industries would be an advantage
● Experience in undertaking content or discourse analysis, and knowledge of software such as NVivo, Taguette or QualCoder, would be an advantage

General conditions for the PhD positions
This call is only a pre-selection step to find candidates whom we will help and support for the formal PhD application at NEU or HCMUSSH. The PhD candidates will be selected to work full-time for the project, provided that they meet the qualifications set up by the PhD selection committee at NEU or HCMUSSH. The scholarships will commence on November 01, 2024, for four years (48 months) inclusive of two stays in Copenhagen. The PhD students will receive a monthly stipend of 6,300 DKK (around 20 million VND) inclusive of personal income tax, while the CAFSUS project will additionally cover travel costs to Copenhagen, living expenses in Copenhagen, costs of participation in conferences, costs of fieldwork, and other research costs. As the PhD students are expected to commit themselves full-time to their studies, these positions are not appropriate for part-time applicants. Successful applicants should seek leave from other work commitments from employers if necessary. The selected PhD scholars must work on topics that fit with the project objectives. They must be comfortable in collaborating and sharing data with the other PhD students and project researchers for mutual benefit and coherence.

The application
The applicants are required to submit an application containing the following documents:
1. A cover letter including a motivation statement on why they are interested in the PhD program and specifying which Research Theme they are applying for.
2. Curriculum vitae
3. A passport-size photo
4. Certified copies of degree certificates and transcripts
5. A research concept note (max 3000 words).
○ The concept note should have (i) Introduction (background, problem statement, and rationale), (ii) Objectives, including an explanation of how the proposed PhD project contributes to the objectives of the CAFSUS project in general and to the selected research theme in particular, (iii) Methods (proposed source(s) of data, method of data collection/instruments, specific methods of data analysis), (iv) Contribution to knowledge, (v) References.
6. Two letters of reference, of which at least one must be from an academic referee.

The following conditions apply:
● Each applicant can send only one application, but the application can indicate that the applicant is interested in more than one research theme of the CAFSUS project.
● Applicants must not be receiving another PhD scholarship at the time of submission of their applications.
● The successful candidate will be offered a scholarship under the condition that they successfully enroll to NEU or HCMUSSH in October 2024.

The deadline for submitting the application is 31 May 2024 at 11.59 PM Indochina Time (ICT). Short-listed candidates will be interviewed by the project selection committee.

Applications should be sent to cafsus@econ.ku.dk

Inquiries
General inquiries about the research project and PhD positions should be addressed to: Assoc. Prof. Tran Thi Bich (bichtt@neu.edu.vn, National Economics University), Dr Pham Thi Bich Ngoc (pham.ngoc@hcmussh.edu.vn, Ho Chi Minh University of Social Sciences and Humanities), or Dr Neda Trifkovic (neda.trifkovic@econ.ku.dk, University of Copenhagen, principal investigator of the CAFSUS project).