PhD Study : Urban universities as catalysts for public-private regeneration strategies to benefit more liveable and healthy inner-city communities

Summary

This PhD examines the role and influence of large-scale academic and civic-led urban regeneration projects on wider socio-economic and environmental qualities associated with liveable, healthy, and sustainable inner-city communities. It focuses on Belfast’s Inner-North area as an internationally relevant case study. Concurrent public and private development projects are set to transform the entirety of the neighbourhoods surrounding and led-by Ulster University’s £250 million campus expansion, due to open by 2023. The relevance of and urgency to evaluate Ulster’s expansion can be seen through competing visions for how such investment should impact on immediate and future development proposals that are driven by local, institutional, and government level planning proposals and funding.

Currently, no holistic development approach to decision-making exists. Multiple private-led projects are under construction on vacant or underused sites around the University campus, including multiple student housing projects m eant to be secondary to higher employment uses (Belfast City Council, BCC). Two mixed-use commercial-residential developments in planning and building stages cover over 50 acres of surrounding neighbourhoods. Such unprecedented levels of what is termed comprehensive regeneration puts conservation areas and heritage buildings under pressure for redevelopment.

Together with +-£200 million of government-led roads/public-realm infrastructure projects, and a £350 million UK-funded Belfast Region City Deal for technology, transport, tourism, and creative sectors over the next 15 years, there is over £1 billion of current/future investment in Inner-North and wider City neighbourhoods. These investments are claimed as mechanisms for a culturally and economically vibrant city centre with improved environmental and living qualities for both existing communities and tens of thousands of new residents by 2035.

This three-year PhD thus seeks trace and evaluate the collective impact of dynamic and differing proposals on local social, economic, and physical factors over time. Applicants should be comfortable applying cross-disciplinary built environment, public health and social sciences methodologies to collect and connect primary data on base-line and changing KPIs associated with liveable, healthy and resilient communities. The focus area surrounding Ulster University’s Belfast campus will be the means to contribute original and widely relevant conclusions about whether the presence and knowledge-base of urban universities can, if properly directed, help influence beneficial impacts on immediate city environments and communities.

To effectively engage a wide relevant stakeholder pool, the research will build upon existing academic-government-community relations processes (e.g., the Community Campus Regeneration Forum) that have evolved between Ulster, BCC, Department for Communities, and statutory/third-sector organisations, with residents and businesses.

Project outcomes will evaluate and visualise primary evidence together with Big Data from Government and other sources through geo-spatial and psycho-social analytical tools (e.g., surveys and socio-spatial narrative methods including workshops and interviews) underpinned by policy and field-based data, and best-practice studies.

Finally digital mapping tools will be applied to create a virtual GIS-linked 3D model to deliver the research findings as active, live guides for local decision-making; to extrapolate local lessons for regional, national, and international relevance; and as the basis to track investment and liveability impacts beyond the life of the PhD research.

Essential criteria

Applicants should hold, or expect to obtain, a First or Upper Second Class Honours Degree in a subject relevant to the proposed area of study.

We may also consider applications from those who hold equivalent qualifications, for example, a Lower Second Class Honours Degree plus a Master’s Degree with Distinction.

In exceptional circumstances, the University may consider a portfolio of evidence from applicants who have appropriate professional experience which is equivalent to the learning outcomes of an Honours degree in lieu of academic qualifications.

• Clearly defined research proposal detailing background, research questions, aims and methodology

Funding and eligibility

The University offers the following levels of support:

Vice Chancellors Research Studentship (VCRS)

The following scholarship options are available to applicants worldwide:

• Full Award: (full-time tuition fees + £19,000 (tbc))
• Part Award: (full-time tuition fees + £9,500)
• Fees Only Award: (full-time tuition fees)

These scholarships will cover full-time PhD tuition fees for three years (subject to satisfactory academic performance) and will provide a £900 per annum research training support grant (RTSG) to help support the PhD researcher.

Applicants who already hold a doctoral degree or who have been registered on a programme of research leading to the award of a doctoral degree on a full-time basis for more than one year (or part-time equivalent) are NOT eligible to apply for an award.

Please note: you will automatically be entered into the competition for the Full Award, unless you state otherwise in your application.

Department for the Economy (DFE)

The scholarship will cover tuition fees at the Home rate and a maintenance allowance of £19,000 (tbc) per annum for three years (subject to satisfactory academic performance).

This scholarship also comes with £900 per annum for three years as a research training support grant (RTSG) allocation to help support the PhD researcher.

• Candidates with pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, who also satisfy a three year residency requirement in the UK prior to the start of the course for which a Studentship is held MAY receive a Studentship covering fees and maintenance.
• Republic of Ireland (ROI) nationals who satisfy three years’ residency in the UK prior to the start of the course MAY receive a Studentship covering fees and maintenance (ROI nationals don’t need to have pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme to qualify).
• Other non-ROI EU applicants are ‘International’ are not eligible for this source of funding.
• Applicants who already hold a doctoral degree or who have been registered on a programme of research leading to the award of a doctoral degree on a full-time basis for more than one year (or part-time equivalent) are NOT eligible to apply for an award.

Due consideration should be given to financing your studies. Further information on cost of living