News
Two new doctoral research opportunities in wildlife conservation
WildCRU is pleased to offer two new doctoral opportunities for 2025, with potential funding available to support the applicants. The projects will strengthen WildCRU’s mission to transform wildlife conservation through world-class research, training and implementation.
The topics are flexible but should align with one of WildCRU’s nine themes: changing landscapes; essential knowledge; conflict and coexistence; incentivising conservation; health, welfare and ethics; wildlife use and misuse; controversial conservation; conservation recovery; and communicating conservation.
Both projects will form part of the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme which supports conservation of this rare and threatened canid. Long-term monitoring has provided a wealth of data for conservation-focussed research but also informs immediate impact activities, such as emergency vaccination campaigns to control rabies outbreaks. The new doctoral studies will seek to expand understanding of the Ethiopian wolf, notably its response to land use and climate change in mountainous regions. Species naturally adapt their behaviour and ecology in the face of change, but how predators are responding to anthropogenic land use changes in high mountains still requires investigation. The second project aims to improve understanding of disease transmission and management in carnivores, particularly between dogs and wolves. The results will contribute to building a case for One Health to improve disease control efforts for the benefit of people, domestic animals and wildlife.
Students can contact any eligible supervisor directly for more information. Partial funding may be available via the Valerie Mitchell Lady Magaret Hall – WildCRU Graduate Scholarships. The Scholarships of £25,000 per year are sufficient to fund institutional fees at the rate of home (UK) students, and a contribution towards a stipend, for three years. Eligibility is limited to graduate students at Lady Margaret Hall studying for a DPhil with WildCRU. More information is available here.
Applications close on 8th January 2025 for project commencement in autumn 2025.
