Digo Bikas Institute (DBI) calls for the application for Digo Bikas Research Fellowship 2022. Digo Bikas Research Fellowship program is for early career researchers aiming to work on climate change, renewable energy, urban development and grassroot community led development. DBI aims to engage young researchers on cutting edge action and policy research. Fellowships are awarded to innovative early career researchers. The DBI research Fellowship grants 3 fellowships for the period of 4 months from the date of appointment.
Eligibility Criteria:
- Applicants must be a Nepali citizen.
- Applicants are expected to have completed a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental field, Forestry, Agriculture,Political Science, Engineering and Development Studies or relevant subjects. Candidates with a Masters Degree are preferred.
- Prior experience in research.
- Prior experience on writing research brief
Timeline: 15th September 2022 – 14th January 2023
The research for this cohort will be on following topic :
1.Political Economy of Oil Drilling in Nepal
The Government of Nepal is carrying out the pre-feasibility activities on exploration of fossil fuels in different parts of the country and in the first phase exploration to take place in Dailekh and Palpa. While globally nations are committing to move past the fossil economy as soon as possible, through international negotiations; Nepal has been internationally vocal to call for an end of fossil economy globally. How relevant can it be for Nepal to call for an end to the fossil economy internationally and at the same time explore to begin an entirely new fossil based industry in Nepal from scratch. How viable is the project financially? What are other interests of the political players to push for this project? The research aims to conduct the political economy analysis on Nepal’s government initiative on oil drilling across Nepal.
2.Energy Federalism in Nepal: Achieving Just Transition in Renewable Energy by 2050 through Municipalities
The renewable energy projects that are highly subsidised by public tax are under question for its sustainability. In many cases the lack of responsible agencies that are capacitated enough to ensure its maintenance and financial viability, results in the discontinuation of the use of the renewable system at its full potential. Community owned energy systems are regarded as one of the recognised approaches that ensures just transition to renewable energy.
In Nepal, the implementation and replication of such projects at grassroots alone may take years as it involves empowering the community and financial capacity of the community to ensure its sustainability. CSO lead transition has the limitation of its replicability while when renewable energy projects are led by the private sector, it fails to recognise the other aspects of just transition. When led by municipalities, it can ensure sustainability through community ownership, productive end use, intersectionality approach to ensure just transition. Research intends to understand how the Municipality lead approach has worked internationally. Will it ensure fast replicability of successful examples nationwide that can help meet the urgency of renewable transition that NDC and SE4All demands?
3. Sustainability Assessment of Asian Development Bank (ADB) supported Secondary Town Integrated Urban Environmental Improvement Project (STIUEIP) Project in Biratnagar
Secondary Towns Integrated Urban Environmental Improvement Project (STIUEIP) is a project, executed under the loan assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The project proceeds with the main objective of improvement of quality of life in key regional centres of Nepal and help to achieve high socially inclusive economic growth in those centres, assisted by efficient, effective, and steadfast delivery of improved and affordable municipal services by responsible project municipalities. This project is focused Urban Environment Improvement, integrated with the sewerage, drainage, urban lanes and solid waste sectors areas in Biratnagar, Birgunj and Butwal municipalities.
The main focuses of the project in Biratnagar are:
1.Improvement of Drainage and Sewerage management plans and construction of wastewater treatment plants.
2.Urban roads and lanes improvement through restoration and gradual upgrades further completion of drainage and sewerage works.
3.Community development program
The study will conduct analysis to understand the sustainability assessment of the project outcome i.e timeline, budget, improved, and affordable municipal services delivered effectively, efficiently and reliably by accountable Project municipalities.
What does DBI Research Fellowship Cover
- DBI will cover fellow’s salary for 4 months, Monthly salary will be 30,000 NPR (Thirty Thousand).
- DBI will provide working space at Digo Bikas Institute’s office.
- A supervisor/ mentor for the guidance and supervision during the fellowship.
- Writeshop to enhance writing skills.
- Digo Bikas Research Symposium to share the findings of the fellowship.
- Needed travel and logistic support if required for the research.
Fellowship requires full time commitment for 4 months. Applicants should submit a Research Proposal, and the guideline for the research proposal is listed below:
Proposal Guideline:
The proposal should be no more than 5 pages excluding reference and should be in Times New Roman font with single spacing and font size of 12. It should include the following information:
Introduction
Background
Literature Review
Problem Statement
Research Questions
Hypothesis
General and Specific Objectives
Research Methodology
Expected Results
Timeline
References
The deadline for applications is 5 P.M. 10th September, 2022 Please send your CV, Research Proposal and a cover letter expressing your interest for Digo Bikas Research Fellowship 2022 at hr@digobikas.org Short listed candidates will be called for presentation and final candidates will be selected on a competitive basis. Please mention the topic of interest among the priority area of the research.