Norway-Pacific Ocean-Climate Scholarship Programme (N-POC)
The Norway-Pacific Ocean-Climate Scholarship Programme (N-POC) is an ambitious partnership in research and PhD training between the University of Bergen in Norway and the regional University of the South Pacific (USP).
About the research project
The Norway-Pacific Ocean-Climate Scholarship Programme (N-POC) is an ambitious partnership in research and PhD training between the University of Bergen and the University of the South Pacific (USP). Funded by Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the programme awards fully funded PhD scholarships to scholars from the Pacific Islands region who are researching ocean and climate issues at the USP, within disciplines ranging from the natural sciences to the social sciences and humanities.
N-POC has three main objectives:
- To build a strong interdisciplinary Pacific cohort of PhD researchers to address urgent challenges forocean and climate
- To build new multidisciplinary Pacific research on the ocean-climate nexus for regional and global policy impact
- To build enduring partnerships between researchers and universities in Norway and the Pacific Islands.
Funded for 2021–2025 by Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the programme comprises 24 fully funded PhD scholarships at the USP within ocean and climate research, ranging from the natural sciences to the social sciences and humanities. PhD candidates will be recruited from all 12 member countries of the USP, and from the other Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) of Papua New Guinea, Federated States of Micronesia and Palau. In the N-POC programme, all 24 PhD candidates are to be based at a graduate school at the USP’s Laucala campus in Suva, Fiji, but will be supervised jointly by researchers from both universities.
In 2021, N-POC became one of the first endorsed UN Ocean Decade Actions.
Background
As billions of people worldwide depend on the ocean for their livelihood and food sources and on the transboundary nature of ecological, social and cultural connections made by the ocean, increased efforts and interventions are needed to conserve and sustainably use ocean resources at all levels. The Pacific Islands region is the world’s only ocean continent, and Pacific-grounded research, science and innovation, including the local and regional knowledge developed through thousands of years by Pacific Islanders, are required to build a sustainable future for the ocean.
N-POC is a direct response to a call by leaders in the Pacific region for Pacific-based, locally driven interdisciplinary research that is grounded in regional needs. Rooted in locally and regionally defined priorities, and especially geared towards contributing to the regional accomplishment of Sustainable Development Goals 4 (quality education), 13 (climate action), 14 (life below water) and 17 (partnership for the goals), N-POC aims to lay the foundation for long-term, sustainable development and collaboration, and strengthening of ocean and climate research capacity in the Pacific.
Research clusters
N-POC scholarship applicants will be invited to consider a broad range of interrelated issues and topics. The following multidisciplinary research clusters for the PhD programme provide the initial foundation for N-POC’s scope of inquiry. Although the six clusters represent but a fraction of possible research topics readily at hand for the ocean-climate nexus in the Pacific, they build on strong research records at both the USP and the UiB, and represent significant, urgent knowledge gaps.
Partnership
The baseline rationale for the N-POC programme is that innovative Pacific-based research and Pacific-centred approaches are needed to support the Pacific stewardship of the ocean in a changing climate, and that global university partnerships provide channels for best practice in building Pacific research at the ocean-climate nexus.
People
Project manager
Edvard Hviding Professor
The UiB Advisory Committee for N-POC
Edvard Hviding Professor, Bergen Pacific Studies (Committee Chair and N-POC Coordinator)
Tore Furevik Professor, Director, Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre
Amund Maage Professor, Director of Marine Research
Kjersti Fløttum Professor, Faculty of Humanities
Peter M. Haugan Professor, Institute of Marine Research, UiB
Dr. Camilla Borrevik Bergen Pacific Studies and SDG Advisor
Miriam Ladstein Bergen Pacific Studies (Committee Secretary and N-POC Administrator)
Dr. Natalya Gallo Department of biological Sciences, UN Ocean Decade ECOP
Contact
For further information or questions about N-POC, please send an e-mail to:
- Emails
- n-poc@uib.no