This year, the Trust is particularly interested in proposals which address themes of climate change in relation to the built environment, Indigenous land, management, or planning; or socially just cities and regions.
The postdoctoral candidate will provide a well-formed proposal in accordance with the guidelines demonstrating where their research is relevant/ applicable to urban policy and a strategy for communicating or developing findings through structured engagement with the practice community.
The candidate will identify an academic supervisor/collaborator within the University of Sydney who is willing to provide a degree of supervision and support for the program of wider engagement. This engagement might include a program of targeted presentations, seminars, consultation, media and or training materials as well as a Research and Policy Brief to be published by the Trust. In addition, each “graduating” candidate will deliver a public lecture on their findings.
Their proposal will offer a vision of the anticipated research impact, outlining the specific policy gaps or practice challenges that the research has potential to inform. Ideally the candidate will identify a willing mentor and/or end user organisation within the government, industry or non profit sectors who would be in a position to provide advice and or act as a reference group.
Consistent with the Trust’s mission to promote collaborative scholarship, innovation and research in town planning, urban development and land management, the intention is to enable the candidate’s recent research to inform urban and regional policy, planning innovation and development practice.
Candidates from any discipline are encouraged to apply. For instance, scholars with a background in economics, public policy, health, law, geography, engineering, environmental science, and so on are encouraged to consider the potential implications of their research for city or regional planning, urban governance, infrastructure and public finance, housing, environmental policy, Indigenous land and land management, or transportation. Accordingly, the candidate may find their academic sponsor and mentor in a wide variety of disciplines and agencies.
This is designed to be a short term project – a two to three month period where the candidate develops and implements a strategy for communicating and sharing their doctoral research with the policy and practice community. Opportunities for extending this work through new research collaborations with end-user groups should also be pursued during this period.
Dr Ang Li, University of Melbourne
The project creates a Social Vulnerability Index to describe the nature of the social vulnerability that communities face in preparing for and coping with the health impact of climate change in Australia. Based on a large scoping review of social vulnerability indicators linked to the health impact of climate change and extreme weather events like heatwaves, heavy rains, storms and bushfires, we collated a series of Australian datasets and constructed social vulnerability scores across 16 domains, including demographics, household composition, language, income/employment, education/social development, built environment, communication/transport, emergency service, health service, government service, health condition, care needs, social connection, housing security, dwelling condition, and livelihood. This project identifies which Australian communities are more at risk to the health impact of climate change in different domains and helps communities identify strategies that best support their health and wellbeing before, during and after climate and weather disaster events.
Proposal to develop Biophilic Living Cities guide