The Institute of Forestry of the Tribhuvan University, in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen, Denmark hereby invites interested and qualified citizens of Nepal (holding MSc degree or equivalent within of forestry, natural resources management and related fields – but see the eligibility criteria in the Application guidelines) to submit applications for 2 PhD scholarships related to the Danida financed project ‘Science and Power in Participatory Forestry’ (SCIFOR). Students will be enrolled at both the Tribhuvan University and University of Copenhagen, with a possibility of attaining a double degree.

The scholarships are of three years duration, and will commence on July 1, 2014. The PhD scholars will be supervised by a joint team of senior academics from the Institute of Forestry and University of Copenhagen, and will be provided PhD level training in both university environments. The PhD study and research will be closely integrated and coordinated with all the other activities in the SCIFOR project.

The overall goal of SCIFOR is participatory forestry planning and management practices that support equitable, environmentally sound, and economically rational forest management. The project involves investigations of management planning practices and outcomes in Nepal’s community forests.

The 2 scholarships come with different requirements:

• The PhD scholarship #1 entitled ‘Forest management planning, participation, and power in community forestry’ involves a case study aimed at understanding the role of management planning, i.e. preparation of the legally required operational plan in (i) shaping participation and inclusion in decision-making and benefit-sharing and (ii)informing actual forest management practices at the community level.
• The PhD scholarship #2 entitled ‘Forest management planning and conservation in community forestry’ focuses on understanding the role of forest management planning in shaping conservation outcomes of community forestry, and thus involves forest inventories and remote-sensing analyses to document past and present forest condition, as well as participatory mapping and interviews to understand the knowledge used in forest management at community level.

The aim is to synthesize the research results from Nepal with the results of similar studies that will be carried out in Tanzania under the auspices of SCIFOR.

Detailed descriptions of the aim, content, requirements, financial conditions and application procedures for each of the two PhD scholarships and the application procedure is posted on the IoF homepage (http://www.iof.edu.np/) as well as on the University of Copenhagen homepage (www.ifro.ku.dk/scifor).

Deadline for application January 10, 2026 at 10.00 AM Nepal Time (NPT). Short-listed candidates will be invited to prepare a full research proposal and to present this at an interview session in late March 2014