Fully Funded PhD in Nature Positive Communication and Social Licence at the University of Auckland
The University of Auckland Business School is recruiting for a fully funded PhD opportunity within the new Nature Positive Hub, a flagship initiative focused on how organisations, markets, governments, and communities can move beyond reducing environmental harm to actively restoring biodiversity and regenerating ecosystems.
This specific project,
Communicating Nature Positive
, examines how language, storytelling, framing, and digital communication shape public trust, organisational uptake, legitimacy, and social licence for nature-positive commitments. The research also considers perceptions of greenwashing and how evidence-based communication strategies can support credible, durable nature-positive transitions.
The wider Nature Positive PhD Cohort is interdisciplinary and connects business and economics with related fields such as law, environmental science, governance, finance, policy, and organisational practice. The cohort model is distinctive: successful candidates join a shared PhD community with regular mentoring, collaborative learning, and access to national and international research networks.
This scholarship is fully funded and based at the University of Auckland Business School. Funding includes a tax-free stipend of NZD 35,468 per year, annual CPI adjustment, full tuition fees for up to 42 months FTE, and the compulsory single-student health insurance charge if applicable.
Eligibility requires admission to a University of Auckland doctoral programme within the Faculty of Business and Economics, full-time enrolment, and willingness to work on one of the advertised Nature Positive projects. Applicants already enrolled in the PhD programme are not eligible. For this project, candidates are expected to submit an expression of interest with a short background statement, transcript, and a 500-word outline of their approach.
The preferred enrolment start date is 1 March 2027, with the latest possible enrolment date 1 July 2027. Scholarship selection runs in rounds, with the first cut-off on 30 September 2026 and notifications expected by 1 November 2026 for round 1.
