Postgraduate Research Scholarship Scheme 2008

The Embark Initiative`s Postgraduate Research Scholarship Scheme is designed for either Masters or Doctorate level researchers in the sciences, engineering or technology.

The Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering & Technology invites applications for funding from intending postgraduate researchers under the Embark Initiative Postgraduate Research Scholarship Scheme (2008).

The 2008 programme will fund approximately 80 new entrant Masters or Doctorate level researchers in the sciences, engineering and technology.

The Environmental Policy Research Group within the School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Policy, UCD Dublin (http://www.ucd.ie/gpep/gpepinfo/) is a leading centre of research into the integration of environment and development. One strand of our work focuses on understanding how to mobilize markets to conserve environmental endowments and control green house gas emissions. We are seeking a PhD candidate in Environmental Economics to join our team.

JOB DESCRIPTION:
The successful candidate will contribute to the research project “The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) and the Greening of Technology”, funded by the Irish Environmental Protection Agency. This project undertakes the analysis of the effects of the EU Emission Trading scheme on the technology available to firms across the European Uni0n, with special emphasis on Irish firms. Through the use of an array of econometric techniques and a variety of different types of data, it proposes to investigate all phases of the process of technological change: invention, innovation, and diffusion. Identifying the key elasticities and the fundamental drivers of the process of technical change, this project aims at providing a fundamental contribution to inform the current debate on the review of the EU ETS and the post-Kyoto policy alternatives. This study will also contribute to an ex post analysis of the pilot phase of EU ETS, in which study UCD Dublin is in partnership with MIT and Caisse des Depôts, Paris.

Project Title
Differential Equations with Hyperelliptic Integral Curves

Description
Methods from twistor theory, differential geometry, algebraic geometry and from the theory of integrable systems have opened up a global view of nonlinear ordinary differential equations in complex variables. The aim of this project is to identify the differential equations in low order and small numbers of variables whose solutions have particularly elegant algebraic geometry, especially those whose solutions are hyperelliptic curves, with a view toward integrable systems and physics.

Salary, fees, PRSI and pension will total over Euro 24000 per year, and Euro 2000 to support travel. Funding from SFI grant MATF634.