The Trinidad and Tobago campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) has teamed up with the CARIBSAVE partnership to provide Caribbean graduate students with scholarships and bursaries in climate change.
The project is being done with Canada’s University of Waterloo and is part of the Partnership for Canada-Caribbean Community Climate Change Adaptation (ParCA).
The researchers will conduct and compare studies in Tobago, Jamaica and two Atlantic Canadian provinces.
Under the program, funding is available for Caribbean nationals to study at UWI or the University of Waterloo at masters and PhD levels.
The scholars will use community-based vulnerability assessment in collaboration with coastal residents and local partners to order to develop strategies for adaptation to climate change.
Degree topics include climatology; environmental sciences; coastal management; water resources; sustainable tourism; and gender studies.
According to the announcement, applicants must be Caribbean nationals, must have successfully completed an undergraduate or graduate degree in any of the given areas and must show acceptance and registration in a masters or PhD Programme at UWI or UW.
Applications must include a curriculum vitae; a cover letter indicating qualifications; professional experience; preferred study location (UWI or Waterloo); the area of interest for graduate studies and full contact details for three referees.
Applications should be sent via email to The Office of Research, The University of the West Indies at pvcresearch@admin.uwi.tt and should be copied to The CARIBSAVE Partnership at hr@caribsave.org by 31 August 2011.
Based in Barbados, the CARIBSAVE Partnership is a not-for-profit regional organization formed in 2008 between the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) and the University of Oxford in the UK to bridge the gaps between research, policy and practice.
The project funding was successfully obtained by Murray Simpson, co-director of the CARIBSAVE partnership, and the chief scientific officer for CARIBSAVE, Daniel Scott.
Simpson also holds research appointments at the University of Oxford in the UK; the Estonian University of Life Sciences, located in Tartu, Estonia; and the University of Geneva.
He serves on the UK Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, the Experts in Climate Change and Tourism (ECLAT) network and Climate Change Risk Management group.
Daniel Scott, based at the University of Waterloo, is also an ECLAT member as well as Canada Research Chair in Global Change and Tourism. He has co-chaired the International Society of Biometeorology’s Commission on Climate Tourism and Recreation since 2002.
The PARCA project received funding through the International Research Initiative on Adaptation to Climate Change (IRIACC), a joint initiative of Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and Canadian government departments.