PROaCC
About
The post-doctoral fellowship programme is part of the UNESCO-IHE Partnership Research Fund (UPaRF) that was established in April 2008, which aims to strengthen research output of the institute in collaboration with its partner institutes.
The main direct sources of funding for UPaRF are: (i) the research facility under the DGIS (Dutch Development Cooperation) - UNESCO-IHE Programmatic Cooperation (DUPC), and (ii) the UNESCO-IHE Internal Research Fund (IRF), which is based on the general subsidy from the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). UPaRF has different fund allocation mechanisms, which are generally based on a system of competitive calls for proposals. However, this specific programme is only for post-doc fellowships, which is expected to significantly increase the research output in the field of Climate Change Adaptation of UNESCO-IHE in collaboration with its partners. The overarching objective is to investigate the many challenges of adapting to climate change from the different water-related perspectives of the different core groups of the institute (cf. Annex 1).
The programme was advertised in collaboration with all partners of UNESCO-IHE earlier in 2009, and the targeted study area was the Incomati-Maputo River Basin in Southern Africa. However, we did not manage to find suitable candidates for that study area, which made an implementation of the programme too difficult in that river basin. After consultation with a number of knowledge institutes in the countries of the Mekong River Basin as well as key stakeholders and experts, it was decided to switch the study area to the Mekong.
It is expected that the seven individual post-doctoral research projects will be developed in close collaboration with key stakeholder groups from the Mekong River Basin. As it is highly desirable that the research output will facilitate the development/implementation of effective adaptation strategies in the respective countries. Thus, besides carrying out the research, it will be attempted to translate the scientific findings for the development/implementation of better policies in the field of climate change adaptation. In addition, the capacity building aspect of this post-doctoral programme is significant. All post-doctoral fellows should come from the region and will be hosted by local/regional knowledge institutes. This will strengthen regional cooperation further and the objective is that the post-doctoral fellows will continue to work on related topics in the region after the programme is finished.