Do you have a genuine interest in landscape fires and resilience? And in developing a new integrated fire management model based on social, economic, cultural and ecological values? Are you up for an interdisciplinary challenge, looking and learning beyond your own field and assumptions? With an international team that is inclusive, collaborative, creative and open minded? Then we are looking for you!
15 PhD positions in PyroLife Innovative Training Network on integrated fire management
The 2018 wildfire season was a glimpse of what to expect in the future: deadly mega-fires in Mediterranean regions and high fire activity in temperate and boreal areas outside the typical Spring fire season. We cannot solve this challenge with the old mono-disciplinary approach of fire suppression: there is a critical need to change fire management from fire resistance to landscape resilience: Living with Fire. This requires a new type of diverse experts, who not only understand fire, but who are also able to communicate risks and engage with communities, deal with uncertainty, and link scientific disciplines as well as science and practice.
The new Innovative Training Network PyroLife will train the new generation of interdisciplinary experts in integrated fire management, acknowledging that 1) knowledge transfer from southern Europe (and worldwide) to temperate Europe can support the new generation of experts; and 2) fire risk planning, communication and management can learn from cross-risk lessons including temperate European expertise in water management. In doing so, this project combines how the North solves community problems with the fire knowledge of the European South.
We are hiring 15 PhD candidates across Southern and Northwest Europe and across a range of scientific disciplines, from social sciences and policy to environmental sciences and engineering. We are looking for a diverse group of creative and open minded Early Stage Researchers who are able to link innovative science to society, and communicate with media, stakeholders, and policy makers.
These 15 positions are open at 6 universities, 2 research institutes, a foundation and a company across Southern and Northwest Europe. For an overview of all positions, please visit
https://pyrolife.lessonsonfire.eu/PhD Topic description
Post-fire rainstorms can mobilize the products of combustion such as ash that contaminate rivers with heavy metals and high carbon contents. This can pose a critical risk to industry and public health. However the threat posed and the control of wildfire fire size, severity and location on this threat are not known. This PhD research will focus on the effects of spring and summer fires on ash production and carbon flows from temperate European fire events. It will determine the impact of this ash on water quality within the highly publicised 2018 Saddleworth wildfire, UK, and identify the spatio-temporal controls on post fire water quality across temperate and Mediterranean regions.
The candidate will be based at Wageningen University, Netherlands, with secondments within the University of Birmingham, UK, and with industry partners Águas de Portugal Serviços to analyse Portuguese water contamination. At Wageningen University, the candidate will work at the
Soil Geography and Landscape Group