Scotland’s Rural College 
PhD Studentship - Understanding impacts of environment-related payments on farm level production and economy through integrated spatial modelling 

In the last few decades, farmers have made changes to their farming strategies to accommodate incentives for environmental protection measures. The onset of the UK withdrawal from the European Union and the publication of the UK ‘‘Agricultural Bill’ offers a major change in incentives towards support for environmental outcomes through the introduction of schemes for environmental land management. 

These changes bring uncertainty towards farm planning and will impact current production levels. Moreover, environmental related policies will incur large spatial variabilities. Exploring the spatial distribution of these economic and environmental impacts adds to our understanding of prescribed and hypothetical payment structures to improve ex-ante evaluation of policy changes. This PhD aims to develop an integrated model to improve 
understanding of regional changes in farming systems under environment protection support payments that may incur in the UK post-Brexit. 

This represents a collaboration between SRUC and the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) and will be based partly in SRUC, King’s Buildings, Edinburgh and partly in College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies, NUIG. Some of the student’s time will also be spent in University of Nottingham. The student will be registered at NUIG. 

Applicants should have a background in quantitative approaches towards modelling. A first degree in a quantitative discipline, preferably with a strong component on mathematical modelling or econometrics is required. An MSc in a subject related to economics or agricultural economics is desirable.The candidate will have demonstrable skills in the analysis and handling of large data sets. The studentship will start on September 9th, 2019. The student will be based partly at King’s Buildings, SRUC in Edinburgh and partly in College of Arts, Social Science and Celtic Studies, NUI in Galway. 

The stipend will be set at UKRI recommended levels for a 3.5 year-period and the studentship is funded to pay domestic tuition fee levels for UK/EU students. The student will receive an annual student stipend (of £14,777 at 2018/19 rate). This studentship will fund to pay the tuition fees at home fees rate only. International students must provide evidence of sufficient funds to cover the higher international student tuition fee level (approximately £16,740 per year would be required). 

To apply for this studentship, please complete the application and equal opportunities monitoring forms available by clicking on the relevant links below. 

Completed forms and any questions should be sent to SRUC’s Postgraduate Administrator pg.research@sruc.ac.uk quoting reference SRUC/2019-10/Shrestha. 

CVs will not be accepted without a completed application form. If English is not an applicant’s first language, an approved English language certificate may be required – see further particulars for more details. 

To have an informal discussion about this studentship, contact Dr. Shailesh Shrestha Shailesh.shrestha@sruc.ac.uk 

The closing date for applications is 5pm on 3rd March 2019.