Sussex Bay

Sussex Bay are offering opportunities to develop a placement around the multiple actions identified in their Blueprint for Seascape Recovery – towards the recovery, restoration and sustainable management of marine and coastal ecosystems across 100 miles of Sussex coastline.

Host Name:

Sussex Bay

Main Point of Contact / Placement Supervisor:

Dr Lewis White – lewis.white@sussexbay.org.uk

Location & Basis:

Hybrid – some opportunities will be suitable for fully remote working, some in-person time will be needed for others

Full or Part-time (flexible)

How to Apply:

If you are interested in discussing the opportunities available and developing a placement with Sussex Bay, please contact Penny (p.c.white@southampton.ac.uk) first for an introduction.

Deadline to Apply:

None

Number of placements available:

There are opportunities available to work on multiple workstreams, but Sussex Bay only have capacity to supervise one student at a time.

Host overview and objectives:

A local government programme (Adur and Worthing Councils) without public funds, Sussex Bay is developing the Blueprint for Seascape Recovery, a pioneering and ambitious framework to guide the recovery, restoration and sustainable management of marine and coastal ecosystems across 100 miles of Sussex coastline. Bringing together ecological, social and economic evidence with the knowledge of communities, practitioners and decision-makers, the Blueprint is helping to shape a shared vision for a thriving Sussex Bay and identify the actions needed to achieve it.

Placement students will have the opportunity to contribute directly to this regionally significant initiative through activities such as evidence synthesis, data analysis, spatial mapping, stakeholder engagement, natural capital assessment, policy analysis and the development of practical recommendations for seascape recovery. Projects will be tailored to align Sussex Bay priorities with student interests and expertise.

Sussex Bay has led the co-creation of the regional blueprint which has identified 127 actions which need to be carried out, monitored, assessed and reviewed to enhance nature. A placement student would enable us to make faster progress against these and/or position us better for long term success by helping establish internal processes to review and monitor success or engage with communities. The project could be adapted to the student for mutual benefit.

Required skills and experience:

Projects could be adapted to students with diverse skills but could focus around:

• Evidence synthesis and literature review
• Environmental monitoring, evaluation and learning
• Ecological data analysis and GIS
• Marine, coastal or conservation science
• Natural capital and ecosystem services
• Social research and stakeholder engagement
• Environmental policy and governance
• Science communication

Skills and areas of knowledge to be developed through the placement:

Sussex Bay is a cross-cutting, dynamic and highly visible programme working at the intersection between research, policy, engagement and environmental recovery. The student would gain real world experience in a quickly evolving programme, working with diverse stakeholders and enabling recovery. The research and strategy is led by Dr Lewis White who has experience in academia, leading a flagship research programme in central government (Defra) and working across the research to policy interface.

To find out more about Sussex Bay you can visit their website www.sussexbay.org.uk and read their Blueprint for Seascape Recovery, Delivery Plan and Strategy (to follow).