The EU-funded Marie-Curie Training Network MEDiverSEAty Investigating human dimensions of Mediterranean Marine Biodiversity recruits ten PhD candidates. The Network involves academic institutions and associated partners from six EU Mediterranean countries (Italy, Malta, France, Spain, Montenegro and Greece). Candidates will be employed by the respective national universities and research centers, and will be awarded a title from the employing institution. Work will start in the Fall 2024. Applications are welcome from prospective students that will have completed their MA prior to the date of employment.

The MEDiverSEAty Training Program is based on 10 pillars, that describe the general collaborative and individual workflow, as well as expectations and advantages for PhD candidates.

Mobility of PhDs between partners. Each PhD candidate will need to undertake at least 1 secondment with the non-academic partner of the consortium for a minimum period of 6 months.
Workshops and seminars organized by academic and non-academic partners. There will be a calendar of at least 2 interdisciplinary workshops each year (at least 1 workshop per country) focused on specific topics relevant for the whole project's objectives, to which all 10 PhDs will be invited.
MEDiverSEAty Symposium. The Consortium will open a call (M30) on a topic of relevance to the project (e.g, Fishing, Heritage, etc.) and, working as a Board, the 10 PhDs will have to prepare a program of seminars, roundtables, excursions, exhibitions, etc. inviting lecturers and experts.
Project Meetings. The 10 PhDs will be invited to meetings during the whole project cycle.
Online training. Each year there will be a calendar of webinars for all the candidates. Webinars will host keynote speakers and will address key topics related to marine conservation and marine literacy.
MEDiverSEAty learing platform will be opened for the use of PhD students.
Personal Coaching on academic matters will be offered.
Ocean-Archive.org Content production and online platform management training. Candidates will cooperate to the development of a participatory platform for ocean collaborative research, conversation, imagination, and action.
Mentoring in a gender perspective.
MEDiverSEAty community-building days.

Moreover, Candidates will have the opportunity to carry out fieldwork and secondment periods at one or more of the following MEDiverSEAty associated partners
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (Italy)
BLOOM Association (France)
Marilles Foundation (Spain)
Heritage Parks Federation (Malta)
Mouseio Fisikis istorias apolithomenou dasous Lesvou (Greece)
Public Enterprise for Coastal Zone Management (Montenegro)
École des hautes études en sciences sociales (France)
World Rise (Italy)

When will the Program start?

PhD programs will start between October and November 2024 and will last 36 months.

What is the the MEDiverSEAty project
MEDiverSEAty is a Doctoral Network investigating human dimensions of Mediterranean Marine Biodiversity. The efforts made to conserve Mediterranean biodiversity are still facing the need to ensure an adequate implementation of the existing measures, a path that could be pursued by integrating the human dimension into the integrated study of biodiversity and the related strategies for conservation. Experts in the field of marine sciences do not neglect the relevance (both scientific and social) of these dimensions. Currently, emphasis is on marine citizen sciences, maritime spatial planning, marine heritage, economic values of marine biodiversity. MEDiverSEAty aims at moving international debate a step forward: transfer this multidimensional vision into actions, policies and strategies.

The lack (or oversimplification), both in political and scientific debate, of “diversity” (among cultures, roles, societies, attitudes, identities) is a key driver acting on the relationship among European citizens and marine biodiversity. MEDiverSEAty aims at filling these gaps, through the implementation of a Doctoral Network Training and Research Program involving six European countries (Italy, Malta, France, Spain, Montenegro and Greece) working on two key-pillars of contemporary marine sciences, policies and education: Ocean Literacy and Marine Biodiversity Conservation.

The candidate will be based at Institut Nicod and conduct the applied research in the context of the Islands and Small States Institute (MT) and BLOOM (FR)
Professor Roberto Casati (EHESS Chair of Ocean Philosophy) will supervise the candidate's research project, as part of the Environnement : Concepts et Normes team.
Good knowledge and practice of empirical methods (qualitative and quantitative analysis) is requested for the study.

The Institut Jean-Nicod is a CNRS joint research unit set up in 2002, under the joint supervision of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). It is a cognitive science laboratory with around 100 members, half of whom are PhD students, the other half being CNRS researchers (around 20), lecturers and post-docs, and contract and administrative engineers.
While the core discipline is analytical philosophy, the unit also hosts cutting-edge research in linguistics and the social sciences, the unifying theme being the human mind and the nature of representations (linguistic, mental and social). At the ENS, the Institut Jean Nicod is attached to both the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Cognitive Studies (DEC).
The IJN, directed by Roberto Casati, is housed at 29 rue d'Ulm, in the Cognitive Studies Department of the Ecole normale supérieure.

The history of the over-exploitation of fish stocks has shown that the sector cannot be left to forms of market self-regulation, which up to now have generated immense negative externalities: a massive transition in practices will only take place within a law framework. However, research in cognitive and social sciences shows that changes in behavior induced by legal constraints or economic incentives are all the more acceptable and accepted if the demands made on actors are "framed" in a context of co-construction and respect for individual and collective representations of the targeted activity. The project has one main goal: to explore the modulation of the desired behavioural change through an intervention on the representations of the marine environment specific to the actors (fishermen belonging to different categories, and control populations).
Several studies in cognitive sciences have shown that when faced with the need to change our behaviour, we are affected by cultural, psychological and cognitive brakes. In order to approach these changes in the best conditions, it is therefore necessary to understand the way in which the ocean and its biodiversity are perceived today by the general public as well as by the actors of the fishing sector themselves, whether they work in the artisanal or industrial sector. In particular, we want to question the impact of the increasing mechanization of fisheries on the evolution of the relationship of fishers to the marine environment and in particular its ecology. We will study in parallel the perception of the fishing professions and in particular their techniques by the general public.
We plan to show that 'perceived distance from nature' plays an important role in the motives of individuals involved in exploitation of nature. This result will provide policy makers and environmental activists with an important tool in terms of behavioural change. We would succeed in showing that the economic and political structure do not directly dictate exploitative behavior but do so through cognitive mechanisms of the individual actors involved in these actions.

Good knowledge and practice of empirical methods (qualitative and quantitative analysis) is requested for the study.