PGR Trilateral Chair Studentship in SPRU

PGR Studentship in Transformative Innovation, the 4th Industrial Revolution and Sustainable Development (2020)

What you get

The SPRU-based candidate will receive a full studentship to cover their tuition fees and basic living expenses.

Students will have to be registered as full-time in order to receive the full studentship.

Doctoral degree studies require a minimum of two years and a maximum of four years registration for full-time studies.

Type of award

Postgraduate Research Studentship

PhD project

About the research programme

We are inviting proposals for PhD research projects under our five-year programme. Funded by the South African National Research Foundation and the British Council, the 5-year Transformative innovation, the 4th Industrial Revolution and sustainable development programme is a research collaboration between the University of Johannesburg, the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) in Nairobi and the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex in the UK. The programme builds on complementary and overlapping expertise amongst the three partners to strengthen African scholarship for examining transformative innovation, and developing transformative innovation policy, in the context of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) and efforts to achieve sustainable development. Over the course of the programme, we expect to support a total of eight PhD projects with full studentships: five based at the University of Johannesburg, two based at Jaramogi Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOUST) in Kenya, and one based at SPRU in the UK. All PhD candidates will undertake joint workshops and short training courses in South Africa, Kenya and the UK, and all PhDs will involve some degree of joint supervision across the partner organisations. Below, we provide some background information on the research issues the programme seeks to address. Using this information, we invite prospective candidates to submit a research proposal as part of their PhD application. Preference will be given to proposals that involve comparative research between two or the three related countries (South Africa, Kenya and the UK). Details of what is expected in a proposal, and how to apply, are given at the end of this call text.

Background Information

The 4IR has taken centre-stage in academic and policy debates due to its potential for the transformation of economies and societies across the world. Considerations about the 4IR highlight the impact that rapid technological advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, the internet of things, biotechnology and others will have in our production, consumption and social systems. While acknowledging that the magnitude of change is likely to be unprecedented, the direction of such change remains uncertain. There is an increasing realisation that, if the direction of change is not carefully steered, the 4IR will exacerbate existing social challenges. A commonly identified risk is that 4IR technologies could leave millions of people across the world without jobs, intensifying income inequalities. In this respect, the challenges faced by African countries are considered greater than those faced by technologically advanced countries, as disruptive technologies would be implemented in contexts of low technical skills, ineffective education and training systems, predominance of labour-intensive industries, severe inequalities and endemic unemployment.

Klaus Schwab, who invented and pushed the concept through the World Economic Forum, listed 23 shifts comprising the 4IR. Although these shifts identify areas of disruption, they offer no assessment of the impact on sustainable development, which must incorporate the thorough integration of both social and environment sustainability if we are to achieve the transformation ambitions expressed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Our five-year research programme aims to develop and test a new theoretical framework to understand transformation, in the context of the 4IR and from an African perspective, by unpacking the social and technological relationships that explain the rate, direction and patterns of (radical) innovation adoption, diffusion and use. These relationships involve not only technological innovation but also changes in social practices and needs, the skills and capabilities of all actors involved, infrastructures, governance, regulation, industry structures and cultural meanings. We can characterise the multi-dimensionality of such relationships in terms of socio-technical systems, with implications for the scope of transformations they require in our efforts to achieve the SDGs. There is a large number of socio-technical systems that fulfil, to a greater or lesser extent, important societal functions in application areas such as energy, food, healthcare, mobility and communication.

The literatures on socio-technical transitions and innovation systems constitute the pillars of our approach in this programme. Both theoretical streams provide important insights for policy, paying attention to the institutional environment in which new technologies develop and diffuse. However, these literatures hardly interact with each other and their application in Africa remains limited. Understanding their transformations in African countries is one objective of the research programme but, by using the transformation lens we develop, we will also look at the governance and policy issues of how to exploit the transformative potential of 4IR technologies to address the SDGs.

Our main research question is thus twofold: (a) how are changes in innovation and socio-technical systems influenced by the rapid technological developments under the 4IR? and (b) how can the transformative potential of these changes be exploited to encourage sustainable development?

PhD Research Topics

We are seeking PhD proposals for social science research that can inform the agenda outlined above. Ideally, proposals will be interdisciplinary, relevant to socio-technical and innovation system approaches, and each will outline a creative and imaginative doctoral research project designed around a specific research question. Whilst the specific research question is to be determined by the applicant, we welcome proposals that focus on African contexts in any one or combination of the following four areas: energy, mobile money, agricultural biotechnologies and industrial production systems. The successful applicant will be expected to start in September 2020.

Prospective candidates might find it helpful to contact a specific academic in SPRU who could supervise their PhD. Please see the list of faculty for further information http://www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/people/lists/group/faculty. And it might be helpful to consult the Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium website for more on transformative innovation. See for example the Working Paper on the three frames for innovation policy http://www.tipconsortium.net/publication/three-frames-for-innovation-policy-rd-systems-of-innovation-and-transformative-change/

Eligibility

a)       Applicants should have a Masters in Economics, Political Sciences, or related disciplines, with experience in sustainable development and innovation, and demonstrably deep knowledge of an African context. Preference will be given to applicants with interdisciplinary Masters in relevant fields: e.g. Innovation Studies, Development Studies, etc.

b)      The research proposal must demonstrate interdisciplinary methodological skills.

c)       Applicants from any country are eligible.

Number of scholarships available

One.

Deadline

How to apply

Applications should be sent by email to Dr Rob Byrne (R.P.Byrne@sussex.ac.uk) by 23:59 British Daylight Saving Time (GMT+1), 17 April, 2020. Please mark the subject as “Trilateral Chair PhD application”.

Please provide the following, compiled into one PDF document

1)      A one-page covering letter explaining the applicant’s motivation for pursuing this PhD. Please indicate which SPRU faculty member might supervise the PhD and whether they have been contacted about this.

2)      Candidate’s CV

3)      A recommendation letter from a supervisor and/or a senior scholar.

4)      A short proposal (maximum 10 pages) describing the candidate’s proposed PhD research. Proposals will be selected on the basis of the alignment of the proposed research with the theme of this Call. See below for guidance on the proposal structure.

We welcome applications from suitably qualified people, regardless of ethnicity, age, disability, gender or sexual orientation.

PhD proposal structure

The proposal should be no longer than 10 pages, and must include the following:

1)      Introduction

2)      Summary of Preliminary Literature Review

3)      Theoretical/Conceptual Framework

4)      Main research question and/or research objectives

5)      Planned research methodology

6)      Proposed structure of the study

7)      References

Contact us

Please direct enquiries about the studentship to Dr Rob Byrne R.P.Byrne@sussex.ac.uk

General queries can be sent to business-researchstudents@sussex.ac.uk.

Timetable

Deadline for submission of applications: 23:59 British Daylight Saving Time (GMT+1), 17 April 2020

Interviews (which can be virtual): end of April/beginning of May 2020

Selection by the end of May 2020