The University of Genoa’s call for PhD students 2023 (cycle XXXIX) has just opened. The Risk, Climate Change e Sustainable Developmentcurriculum, offered in collaboration with CIMA Research Foundation, is dedicated to the study of some of the most pressing challenges facing our society, which are approached from a multidisciplinary perspective by going cross-cutting into different topics, including socio-economic dynamics and legal implications of civil protection and natural risk
A higher education course dedicated to research in risk management and mitigation, with a focus on the impacts of climate change and with the perspective of sustainable development: this is the core of the Risk, Climate Change e Sustainable Development curriculum of the Security, Risk and Vulnerability PhD course at the University of Genoa and for which the call for applications for 2023 has just been opened.
For CIMA Research Foundation, which has been working on these issues since its inception, the opportunity to offer its expertise, as well as its operational and scientific facilities, for the training of younger researchers has always been of paramount importance. It is for this reason that the XXXIX cycle of the doctoral program (for which all information is available here) provides a total of 7 grants for the Risk, Climate Change and Sustainable Development curriculum, funded or co-funded by CIMA Research Foundation.
“Natural hazards have always been one of the great challenges for our society-and increasingly will be, because climate change affects many of them (just think of floods and droughts), making them even more frequent for many areas of the world. All of this is an obstacle to sustainable development, as well evidenced by the close relationship between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. Training the next generation to be able to improve knowledge and, with it, management and mitigation strategies, is a primary task for today’s community of experts and experts,” says Luca Ferraris, president of CIMA Research Foundation and curriculum coordinator. “This is why we feel it is so important for us, as CIMA Foundation, to contribute to this training: in this perspective, the PhD program for which we are collaborating with the University of Genoa represents a tool, and an opportunity, that is truly valuable.”
“Being a Ph.D. student at CIMA, for me, means being able to learn from experts and experts in the field who are ready to support young researchers, and to be helped to give proper weight to one’s education,” adds Giulia Blandini, a current Ph.D. candidate in the in the Risk, Climate Change and Sustainable Development curriculum at CIMA Research Foundation and student representative in the college. “But it also means contributing practically to managing the effects of climate change by developing increasingly advanced theoretical and technological skills.”
“For me, the most characteristic, but also the most interesting, feature of this course is being able to confront the operationalization of models used in disaster risk management, thanks to the role of CIMA Research Foundation as a center of expertise of the Italian Civil Protection Department,” adds Nicolò Perello, a doctoral student in the Wildfire Risk Management and Forest Conservation Department. “This means being able to test the products of our research. In turn, this allows to have a direct feedback on what we develop, identifying any critical issues but above all gaining the satisfaction of seeing their work operating in the field.”
This year’s call for applications addresses some of the most pressing and topical issues most pressing and current issues, built through several lines of research: some have their focus on drought, as in the case of studying the impacts of drought on ecosystems and plant biodiversity in the Mediterranean basin, and stress due to water scarcity and groundwater dynamics in Mediterranean environments. Others focus on forest fire risk, and in particular on probabilistic scenarios that take into account the effects of climate change. Still, improved hydrological models for predicting floods and their impacts in Africa are addressed; methodologies for supporting public administrations in decisions regarding risk management and adaptation to climate change, with a perspective on legal and social responsibility; and the development of innovative frameworks for integrating awareness and Early Warning to Early Action strategies into disaster risk management.
Thus, the risk challenge is addressed from a multidisciplinary perspective, based on the expertise and experience gained by CIMA Research Foundation over many years of activity. Since, in addition, cooperation and synergy between different entities is a basic element in addressing the challenges of natural hazards, climate change and sustainable development, the curriculum also offers the possibility of networking with foreign universities for the award of the joint (or double/multiple doctoral) degree.
“On the one hand, in fact, knowledge of phenomena, territories, technologies (and the ability to develop them) are the tools to cope with risks; on the other hand, only the ability to relate with other realities, collaborate on strengths, learn from experiences, and even from mistakes, of each other is the basis for creating something new, and really mature and shared, in this field,” Dr Ferraris concludes. “It is for this reason that expertise and the ability to create synergies are the two elements that we wanted to put at the center of this research path: indeed, both will be fundamental to face the challenges of the future.”
You can apply for the PhD call for applications until July 10, 2023, at 12 noon. All the information for participation is available here.
Instead, here is the official page for the University of Genoa’s PhD course Security, Risk and Vulnerability, and at this link the topics of the seven grants available in the curriculum Risk, Climate Change and Sustainable Development