It’s almost the start of another new academic year, and we are very much looking forward to welcoming our third cohort of doctoral candidates to join the Global Challenges Doctoral Centre. After a global search for talent we have awarded full scholarships to ten students who are joining us from their home countries of Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Mauritius, Sweden and the UK.
The challenge-led research being undertaken by our new students covers a very wide range of topics, from human-elephant interaction to the prevention of diarrhoeal pathogens, from post-conflict reconstruction to urban food growing. We look forward to sharing more details of all their projects in the months ahead.
For now we are at the ‘getting to know you stage’ and are already off to a flying start. We held an informal online get-together over the summer, attended by all of our new intake despite the challenges faced by being in different time zones. This is a great indication of their dedication and enthusiasm to get to know their fellow students whose doctoral work is also striving to tackle the UN sustainable development goals and make the world a better place.
The accompanying picture shows all ten students, plus the GCDC staff team – myself, deputy director Frank Grundig and – in the top left hand corner, labelled ‘Graduate School’ – GCDC’s administrator Grace Grussenmeyer.
Unfortunately, by the time we hold the official welcome and induction events at the end of this month, we will no longer have the fantastic support of Grace. Her work visa cannot be renewed so we are saying a sad goodbye to the person who has been the absolute beating heart of the GCDC. On behalf of all the students, PostDocs and staff who have received such fantastic support and enjoyed interacting with Grace, we wish her well with her next steps back in New Jersey and very much hope she will be back in Canterbury one day.
In so many ways, this is clearly not a normal start to an academic year but it strengthens our resolve to do the best job that we can in the GCDC. The current global crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, highlights the fact that excellent, challenge-led research is needed now more than ever.
Whether you are reading this update as a member or affiliate of the GCDC, as an academic supervisor or colleague, or as an interested member of the public, we thank you for your ongoing interest in our efforts to ensure that excellent and impactful research will make a difference to the economic and social problems facing our world.
Dr Beth Breeze
Director, Global Challenges Doctoral Centre