RESEARCH
at the Department of International Environment and
Development Studies (Noragric), UMB
Dept of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric
NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES
Noragric
 Permanent scientific staff: 23/24
 Post.Doc. fellows: 5
 PhD candidates at present: approx. 40
From: Africa 14, Asia 3, Norway 17, Europe - other countries 3, America 3
 Research is organised in 4 Research Clusters
 Number of scientific publications/year: 78 (2012)
www.umb.no
Research at Noragric 2012
NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES
Noragric’s Research Profile at UMB
 Strong international orientation in both research and
education programmes
 Working with and aiming to further develop:
 interdisciplinary approaches to global and cross-cutting
challenges in environment and development
 A special responsibility for social sciences (except
economics located at Handelshøyskolen) at UMB
 Managing UMB’ competence agreement with NORAD
 Responsible for coordination of institutional collaboration
for a large number of agreements with institutions in
countries in the Global South and in Eastern Europe
www.umb.no
3
Dept of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric
NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES
Research Clusters at Noragric
 Environmental Governance (ENGOV)
 Conflict, Human Security & Development (CHSD)
 Climate Change, Agriculture and Development
(CC-AD)
 Rights and Power in Development (RAPID)
 The clusters are organised as thematic research groups, and
therefore have partly overlapping memberships. All PhD
candidates are members of at least one cluster.
www.umb.no
Dept of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric
NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES
Environmental Governance
(ENGOV)
Cluster Leader: Pål Vedeld
Staff involved: Staff: 18, PhD candidates: 15 (approx.)
Research areas:
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Global conventions & governance levels, and links to
regional, trans-boundary, and national and local levels
Governance structures, policy formulation and
implementation
Protection as a distinct policy measure and instrument
Power and elite captures of local resources
Decentralization and participation
Knowledge and power
Rights-based and participatory development
Institutions; attitudes, values and norms
Poverty, livelihoods, resource dependence and conflicts
www.umb.no
Dept of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric
NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES
Conflict, Human Security & Development
(CHSD)
Cluster Leader: Ingrid Nyborg
Staff involved: Scientific staff: 11, PhD candidates: 10 (approx.)
Research areas:
 Human security in conflict/post conflict, war/post war
situations
 Conflict/post conflict institution building
 Human security and human rights
 Health and conflict
 Livelihood security and revival in conflict and post-conflict
contexts; resettlement and reintegration
 Resource conflicts, negotiations and human security
 Seed systems and security in conflict/post-conflict and
post-disaster situations
www.umb.no
Dept of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric
NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES
Climate Change, Agriculture and Development
(CC-AD)
Cluster Leader: Jens Aune
Staff involved: Scientific staff: 8, PhD candidates: 8 (approx.)
Research areas:
 Adaptation and mitigation of climate change in rural areas
 Livelihood security of rural households
 Improved farming methods
 Management of agricultural biodiversity
 Agricultural policies and trade
 Environmental impacts of agricultural production
www.umb.no
Dept of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric
NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES
Rights and Power in Development (RAPID)
Cluster Leader: John Andrew McNeish
Staff involved: Scientific staff 18; PhD candidates: 9 (approx.)
Research areas:
 Formalisation of land and resource rights
 Equal rights vs. asymmetric power relationships in
developing countries
 Competing claims to resources under different
development models
 Normative principles in development processes
 Political and legal accountabilities in relation to human
rights and democratic participation
 Knowledge, power and accountability in development
processes
www.umb.no
Dept of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric
NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES
Networks
 Resources, Risk and Governance – Net (RRG-Net)
 Critical Mass – a forum to build research capacity to
address climate change, poverty and development
challenges
www.umb.no
Dept of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric
NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES
Resources, Risk and Governance – Net
(RRG-Net)
Network Leader: Gufu Oba
Research areas:
 Resources: The potential for adaptation; Different natural systems’ resilience
and variability and the goals of the users.
 Risk: Bridging the gaps between resource adaptations and social demands in
the face of external & internal drivers of risks. How different natural systems
exposed to comparable environmental variability respond to systems
management.
 Governance: Socio-political perspectives of management, drivers of policy,
formal and informal systems. Governance and risk reduction in management
of natural systems with reference to risks such as those caused by insecurity
of tenure.
www.umb.no
Dept of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric
NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES
Critical Mass – a forum to build research
capacity to address climate change, poverty
and development challenges
Network leader: Siri Eriksen
The 'Critical Mass – is a Norwegian forum of researchers and practitioners
engaged in building research and capacity to address climate change, poverty
and development challenges. The name reflects two key objectives:
• First, to forge dialogue and synergies between practitioners and researchers
spread across diverse institutions in order to create a critical mass of experts
confronting climate change, poverty and development challenges.
• Second, to address as a group the need to think critically about the problem
of climate change by identifying key emerging understanding, perspectives,
questions and knowledge gaps.
www.umb.no
Dept of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric
NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES
Results: PhD Defences
Since start of PhD programme (1996) 35 PhD candidates
graduated.
In 2012:
 David M. Tumusiime Protected areas and people in Uganda:
Costs, benefits, livelihoods and narratives around Bwindi
Impenetrable National Park
 Bridget B. Umar From maize mono-cropping to conservation
agriculture : A multi-perspective analysis of smallholder
conservation agriculture in southern, central and eastern Zambia
 Nani Raut Agricultural intensification processes and greenhouse
gas emissions from soils: a study from Nepal and India
 Progress Nyanga Conservation agriculture among smallholder
farmers in Zambia: Attitudes and socio-economic impacts
www.umb.no
Dept of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric
NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES
Results: PhD Defences 2013 – by July
 Hege Wallevik The complexity of generalisation: A
phenomenological approach to economic affairs among women in
Zanzibar Town
 Kishor Atreya Pesticide use in Nepal: Health effects and
economic costs for farmers in the Central mid-hills
 Frode Sundnes Claiming Land, Nature and History: Land
Restitution and Nature Conservation at the Dukuduku Forest,
South Africa.
 Kashif Saeed Khan Conflict, livelihoods and local perspectives of
peace building in post-9/11 north-western Pakistan.
 Sunetro Ghosal Intimate beasts: Exploring relationships between
humans and large carnivores in western India.
www.umb.no
Research at Noragric 2012
NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES
Results: Noragric Publications 2012
 Number of (peer reviewed) publications: 78
 Including one book, 56 journal articles, and 21 book
chapters
 Publication points total: 56,2
(in Norwegian Current Research Information System)
 Publication points per scientific staff: 1,34
• UMB’s target is 1 pp per scientific staff
www.umb.no
14
Dept of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric
NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF LIFE SCIENCES
Noragric’s Research and Knowledge Dissemination
in other publication and information channels
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52
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43
3436
40
2728
30
20
10
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3 4
11
7 7 7
0
0
5
1615
6
2009
20
3
1
0
www.umb.no
2008
8
13 15
6
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10
2010
2011