The Cabo Verde Archipelago, is a group of islands in the North Atlantic, situated approximately at the same latitude of Senegal, in Africa. Over the last years, the government has been successfully implementing a development strategy, aiming at a sustained economic growth. The archipelago is composed of ten islands and eight minor islets with a tropical climate in Africa. The territory is naturally fragmented and isolated from permanent continental influences and possesses a relatively rich biodiversity, normally characterized by diverse populations despite the low abundance. Apart from its rich marine biodiversity, Cabo Verde also possesses high numbers of endemic species in the context of the Macaronesian region. This is thought to be due to the combination of its tropical environment, preventing these islands from large sea-surface temperature variations and its biogeographical isolation from the western African shores, mainly due to the presence of the North West African Upwelling. Marine biodiversity information for the country is scarce and there is no integrated evaluation of the marine habitats and resources, which provide knowledge-based guidelines within the national development trends for their sustainable use, protection and restoration of the ocean. Thus, an integrated view of the archipelago’s capacities and natural limitations should be promoted, capable of maximizing favourable natural conditions and mitigating unfavourable ones, leading to a more appropriate planning of the economic, social and cultural development. In this way, one can prevent the most negative impact and avoid the multiple costs of stranded assets.

Notice of the call
Download english version here

Working Plan

The PhD candidate will be asked to assess the marine ecosystems in Santo Antão island and propose management plans, outreach activities and capacity building. The candidate will also contribute to the repository for data storage, organization and sharing. The research activities will focus on the characterition of regional biodiversity patterns across varying environmental settings (e.g., different geomorphic features) in the upper 200 m. This process will involve extensive field data collection in SA, including photographic surveys during designed SCUBA diving, drone-based photogrammetry and ROV video transects. Other methods to characterise macro-infaunal communities will be also used when needed. You will be asked to analyse and to determine community-based biodiversity indices and investigate the relation to the predominant environmental drivers at the different locations, by means of multivariate statistics and distance-based linear model analysis (DISTLM) using R.

You will be part of the Coastal and Deep-Ocean Ecology & Conservation (CDEC) group in the University of Aveiro. You will work within an established inter-disciplinary international consortium under the “Conservation of marine ecosystems around Santo Antão, Cabo Verde:  implications for policy and society” (COAST) project, which involves 10 different European institutions, with complementary approaches and skills of different natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. You will be involved in ongoing high-resolution coastal bathymetry surveys and participate on the habitat mapping across target areas using predictive species distribution models. The successful candidate will gain advanced skills in field data collection, imagery data (videos and stills) analysis and lab taxonomy work. You will also spend a significant amount of time in Santo Antão island in Cabo Verde, collecting/analysing data, and developing your knowledge and skills in ecology.

We are seeking a PhD candidate with a background in marine science or marine biology, with strong communication and inter-personal skills, and with a strong affinity for the marine environment. Experience in taxonomy of marine organisms of Cabo Verde, good knowledge in spatial data analyses, GIS and R is highly desirable and a strong diving experience.

Name(s) of supervisor(s)
Supervisor: Teresa Paula Fernandes Amaro (University of Aveiro)
Co-supervisor: Marina R. Cunha (University of Aveiro)

Name(s) of hosting institution(s)

University of Aveiro & CESAM, Portugal in collaboration with UTA in São Vicente.

The AIR Centre PhD Scholarship Programme aims at training the leaders of the future

Enhancing scientific research and technology development capabilities of AIR Centre Network in order to better respond to national priorities and global challenges in the Atlantic region;

  • Strengthening existing collaboration ties and exploring or developing new collaboration ties between the AIR Centre and the Portuguese scientific community in areas of common interest;
  • Promoting bilateral/multilateral cooperation between Portuguese scientific institutions and other institutions from diverse Atlantic countries through inclusive knowledge and data sharing to promote job creation, young entrepreneurship and inclusive sustainable development;
  • Expanding the reach of the AIR Centre scientific agenda through a wider engagement with the academia to demonstrate the societal relevance and public value of research.

Doctoral research work will be carried out entirely or partially in a Portuguese institution.

Duration

Scholarships are annual, renewable to a maximum of 4 years.

Submission

Applications and all supporting documents must be submitted online using the Application Form available on each scholarship page. Applications submitted by other means will not be accepted.

Application Process

Please note that you will need the items listed below. To ease the submission process, we suggest you gather them before you start your application:

  • Copy of your Identification Document (ID card, passport);
  • Recognition of the foreign academic degrees and the conversion of the respective final grade to the Portuguese grading scale, if applicable;
  • Your Curriculum Vitae and saved as PDF;
  • A Motivation Letter;
  • Your PhD work plan, if applicable (please check scholarship link for details before working on this);
  • 2 Recommendation letters.
  • Ciência ID

Except for official documents, application and all related documents must be submitted in English.

Notification of results

Evaluation results will be communicated to the email address provided by the candidates in the application form.

Before applying, IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMEND that you carefully read the Public Notice of the Call for detailed information on the application, evaluation and selection process. Public Notice can be found on each scholarship page.
To access the Application Form (found within each scholarship page), you need to Register (create an account). When doing so, please make sure to write your email address correctly since all relevant information regarding your application will be sent to that email. Once you register, a password will be sent to your email and you can then Log In. Access the Scholarship Programme tab and scroll down to see all the available scholarships.

You can only submit one application for each scholarship. You can edit and save the application form at any time. The form will be available on the platform for editing until the application deadline, or until you submit the application. Once you submit your application, you will not be able to un-submit or make any changes.

Please note that the application to this scholarship program does not grant you a place in a PhD programme. Make sure you apply to the PhD programme identified in each scholarship.
Questions related to the application process or Application Form should be addressed to the AIR Centre through the email scholarships@aircentre.org using the following subject line: AIR Centre PhD Scholarship Programme – [your name]. The AIR Centre will reply to all information requests up to 3 working days before the applications submission deadline. Before contacting the AIR Centre carefully read all the documents related to the Call and the information available on the AIR Centre’s website.

To find out more, click here.

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