ecosystem PhD Projects, Programs & Scholarships

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.

Chemicals are a critical part of modern life and a cornerstone of any modern industrial strategy. However, chemicals released into the environment can have adverse effects on biodiversity and the benefits it provide to people (i.e.

Investigation of the topographic control for geohzards prone zone ecosystem functional properties by multiple remote sensing sensors

University of Warwick
School of Life Sciences

Research Group: CENTA - Central England NERC Training Alliance

Dr X Geng

Application Deadline: 29 May 2020

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.

Overview. With 71% of the earth’s surface covered by water, hydro-hazards, including floods, droughts, onshore and offshore landslides and storm surges, can pose direct threats to lives and impact livelihoods by damaging and destroying critical lifeline infrastructure (e.g.

Drivers of marine ecosystem change during an ancient abrupt global warming event

University of Birmingham
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Dr K Edgar, Dr R Butler

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.

The Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) ~56 million years ago, is the largest of a series of abrupt global warming events known from the Cenozoic.

Early Stage Researcher (PhD Student) position in ecology and ecotoxicology.

University of Sheffield
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences

Prof L L Maltby, Prof P Warren

Application Deadline: 31 May 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

Competition 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 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. Applications for the project are welcome from all suitably qualified candidates, but potential funding may be restricted to a limited set of nationalities. You should check the project and department details for more information.

Understanding the potentially negative impacts of chemicals on ecosystems is essential to managing them sustainably. In particular, we need to understand the effects of chemicals on the direct and indirect contributions that ecosystems make to human well-being (i.e.

Impacts of Climate Change on Ecosystems

University of Sheffield
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences

Prof G Phoenix

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 one of the greatest threats to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.

Cave exploration: shedding light on organic sulfur cycling in a terrestrial underground chemosynthetic system

University of Warwick
School of Life Sciences

Research Group: CENTA - Central England NERC Training Alliance

Dr H Schaefer, Dr Y Chen, Dr D Kumaresan

Application Deadline: 29 May 2020

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.

Project Highlights. Investigate the organic sulfur cycle of a closed cave ecosystem based on chemosynthesis. Apply stable isotope and metagenomics approaches to characterise uncultivated bacteria.

Ecosystem resilience to pathogens: understanding the interplay between pathogen host shifts and coevolutionary dynamics (Funded by the QUEX Institute)

University of Queensland
The Graduate School

Dr J Engelstaedter

Application Deadline: 15 June 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

Competition 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 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. Applications for the project are welcome from all suitably qualified candidates, but potential funding may be restricted to a limited set of nationalities. You should check the project and department details for more information.

Pathogens are an inevitable part of every ecosystem. In humans as well as in livestock and natural systems, the majority of pathogens have only arrived in their host species relatively recently, by switching from a different host species.

Global diversity and ecosystem functions of plant-microbe symbioses

University of Warwick
School of Life Sciences

Prof G Bending, Assoc Prof C Quince, Dr R Griffiths, Prof M Ryan

Application Deadline: 7 June 2020

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.

Arbuscular mycorrhizas (AM) are the most widespread symbiosis between higher plants and fungi, and have major impacts on terrestrial ecosystem processes, including biogeochemical cycling and the diversity and productivity of plant communities.

Optimising HPC applications for the Arm ecosystem

University of Edinburgh
School of Informatics

Dr M Weiland, Dr O Perks

Application Deadline: 30 June 2020

Funding Type

PhD Type

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 has funding attached for UK and EU students, though the amount may depend on your nationality. Non-EU students may still be able to apply for the project provided they can find separate funding. You should check the project and department details for more information.

In the past couple of years, Arm processors have been shown to be a viable alternative to Intel or AMD CPUs for HPC systems. 2018 and 2019 saw the installation of a number of Arm-based supercomputer in the US and Europe.

Mine site restoration and ecosystem development

University of Reading
School of Agriculture, Policy and Development

Prof M Tibbett

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.

This project will include various aspect of minesite rehabilitation including early development of terrestrial ecosystems and the nutritional constraints to ecosystem development (plants and soil biota) using a space-for-time substiution appraoch.

A lab on a chip: using nano-plasmonics tongues for building miniaturized ecosystem sensors (SUPER DTP)

University of St Andrews
School of Biology

Research Group: Scottish Oceans Institute

Dr L Boehme

Application Deadline: 1 June 2020

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.

Sustainability and human wellbeing depend on resources from marine and freshwater systems, and to monitor how they are changing, a range of observations are needed.

Impacts of multiple stressors on ecosystem functions of high mountainous streams

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Department of Health and Environmental Sciences

Dr N Wu, Dr D Atkinson

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.

This project aims to understand the interaction among stressors and their consequences on biodiversity and ecosystem functions at high mountainous regions (i.e.

A decentralized, data driven health monitoring and diagnostics platform based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and wearable/portable Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) sensors

Anglia Ruskin University ARU
Department of Computing and Information Science

Research Group: Computing, Informatics and Applications Research Group

Dr M Maktabdar, Dr L Babu Saheer

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.

Research Group. Computing, Informatics and Applications Research Group. https://auth-authoring-prod.anglia.ac.uk/science-and-engineering/research/institutes-and-groups/computing-informatics-and-applications.

Trust-based Ecosystem to Empowering Users to Combat Fake News

Edinburgh Napier University
School of Computing

Dr Z Jaroucheh, Prof A Al-Dubai, Dr A Duff

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.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION. The growing spread of misinformation and dis-information has grave political, social, ethical, and privacy implications for society.

Building energy efficiency triage ecosystem SEBE0031

Edinburgh Napier University
School of Engineering and the Built Environment (SEBE)

Dr J Bros Williamson

Application Deadline: 30 June 2020

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.

Retrofitting of the existing building stock has a significant role to play in a national decarbonisation strategy. Despite improvement in building regulations, the UK’s housing stock has some of the oldest and least efficient buildings in Europe.