drought PhD Projects, Programs & Scholarships

Awaiting Funding Decision/Possible External Funding

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This supervisor does not yet know if funding is available for this project, or they intend to apply for external funding once a suitable candidate is selected. Applications are welcome - please see project details for further information.

This is an ideal project for a resourceful and driven individual. The successful candidate will develop and hone first-rate analytical, computational and communication skills that will enable them to choose their subsequent career path, whether in academia or industry.

Will rising CO2 concentrations save plants from drought stress? Plant ecophysiological responses in a Free Air CO2 Enrichment experiment

University of Tasmania
School of Biological Sciences

Prof M Hovenden, Dr M De Kauwe

Application Deadline: 31 October 2019

Funding Type

PhD Type

Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project has funding attached, subject to eligibility criteria. Applications for the project are welcome from all suitably qualified candidates, but its funding may be restricted to a limited set of nationalities. You should check the project and department details for more information.

This project presents a rare opportunity to work in one of the world’s few Free Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) experiments, a cutting-edge global change manipulation experiment, located in southern Tasmania, Australia.

Does Stripping Topsoil of Carbon Cause Irreversible Physical Degradation?

Aberdeen University
School of Biological Sciences

Prof P Hallett, Prof J Smith

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

Severe soil degradation is prevalent across much of sub-Saharan Africa, driven primarily by the depletion of carbon from the soil.

North Tyne Crayfish Investigation.

Newcastle University
Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering

Dr C Walsh

Application Deadline: 31 December 2019

Funding Type

PhD Type

Competition Funded PhD Project (European/UK Students Only)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project is in competition for funding with other projects. Usually the project which receives the best applicant will be successful. Unsuccessful projects may still go ahead as self-funded opportunities.

This project is part of the ONE Planet DTP. Find out more here. https://research.ncl.ac.uk/one-planet/.

SALine INtrusion in coastal Aquifers (SALINA): Hydrodynamic Assessment and Prediction of Dynamic Response

Queen’s University Belfast
School of Natural and Built Environment

Dr G A Hamill

Application Deadline: 13 March 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This research project has funding attached. It is only available to UK citizens or those who have been resident in the UK for a period of 3 years or more. Some projects, which are funded by charities or by the universities themselves may have more stringent restrictions.

Currently 53% of people live on the 10% of the earth’s surface that is within 200km of the coast. Meeting the needs of coastal communities forms one of the major challenges facing society in the 21st Century and in particular an engineering solution is needed to the provide sustainable fresh water supplies.

Multicellular Cell Differentiation Model: The control of root hair patterning in Aspergillus thaliana

University of Liverpool
Institute of Integrative Biology

Dr N Savage, Dr A Bishopp

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

Plants absorb water and nutrients from the soil through hairs that grow along their roots. As such, being able to manipulate root hair numbers may be advantageous to the development of crops more resistant to drought and nutrient deficient soils.

Guiding Deep Networks for Expert Image Labelling Using Human Gaze

University of Nottingham
School of Computer Science

Dr M Pound

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project has funding attached, subject to eligibility criteria. Applications for the project are welcome from all suitably qualified candidates, but its funding may be restricted to a limited set of nationalities. You should check the project and department details for more information.

Deep learning has proven to be extremely effective in supervised tasks, surpassing the state-of-the-art in most areas, including segmentation, classification and object localisation.

Measuring vulnerability and resilience to climate change-induced shocks in developing economies

University of Reading
School of Agriculture, Policy and Development

Prof R Cornforth, Dr L Todman

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

Climate change is already demonstrated by changes in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events.

Computational modelling of intrinsically disordered proteins

University of Reading
School of Chemistry

Dr D Nutt

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

"Not all proteins fold into well-defined structures. These intrinsically-disordered proteins (IDPs) perform a wide variety of roles and functions within living organisms, for which their disorder is key, from binding to biomineral surfaces for controlling growth and morphology, to protecting plants against drought.

Photoreceptor regulation of plant development

University of Sheffield
Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology

Dr S Casson

Applications accepted all year round

Funding Type

PhD Type

PhD Research Projects are advertised opportunities to examine a pre-defined topic or answer a stated research question. Some projects may also provide scope for you to propose your own ideas and approaches.

This project does not have funding attached. You will need to have your own means of paying fees and living costs and / or seek separate funding from student finance, charities or trusts.

Plant growth and development is highly dependent on the light environment. Light provides energy to drive photosynthesis but light quality and quantity is also perceived by photoreceptors, which signal to regulate responses enabling plants to adapt to their environment.