extinction 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.

Our world is currently experiencing a sixth period of mass species extinction. Current extinction rates are estimated somewhere between a thousand and ten thousand times higher than the ‘natural’ level of extinction.

Understanding extinction risk in the Anthropocene

University of Reading
School of Biological Sciences

Dr M Gonzalez-Suarez

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.

We live in a humanized world in which even the most remote areas have been affected by the actions of our species. Human impacts have caused a widespread loss of biodiversity, to the point that we have likely entered the sixth mass extinction event on Earth, the first primarily caused by humans.

Understanding resistance and tolerance to chytrid fungal disease in amphibians to improve conservation

Griffith University
Environmental Futures Research Institute

Dr L Grogan, Dr DN Newell, Prof H McCallum

Application Deadline: 23 September 2019

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.

This PhD project will involve working with captive animals (endangered Fleay’s barred frogs and tadpoles) to understand host responses to infection and mechanisms of resistance and tolerance to the devastating fungal disease, frog chytridiomycosis.

Evolutionary history and conservation of Australian plant biodiversity

Australian National University
Research School of Biology

Assoc Prof M Cardillo

Application Deadline: 30 September 2019

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.

The Macroevolution & Macroecology Group is seeking expressions of interest for a PhD research project in the area of phylogenetics, macroevolution, diversification and conservation.

Some like it hot: how mismatch between host and pathogen thermal ecology influences adaptation to global change

Monash University
School of Biological Sciences

Dr M Hall

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.

Global change is predicted to result in both rapidly changing environments and dramatic changes in disease outbreaks. Key to predicting winners and losers under the nexus of infection and global change is any mismatch between hosts and pathogens in their thermal tolerances and adaptive potential.

Climate change and the evolution of insect mating systems

University of Liverpool
Institute of Integrative Biology

Dr SJ Cornell, Dr T Price

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 pervasiveness among animal species of polyandry – i.e., females mating with multiple males – perplexes evolutionary biologists, because it is costly to females (e.g.

Accelerating molecular phylogenetic inference using high performance computing.

University of Reading
School of Biological Sciences

Dr A Meade

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.

Molecular phylogenetic inference, constructing evolutionary histories from molecular data, is an activity universal to all biological disciplines.

Impacts of land-use change on tropical biodiversity

University of Sheffield
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences

Dr D Edwards

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.

Tropical land-use change is a core driver of the global extinction and climate change crises. In the Edwards lab, we use field research, economic assessment and rigorous statistical analyses to determine the impacts of tropical land-use change on biodiversity, carbon stocks and other ecosystem services.

PhD in Food Web Networks and Environmental Change: Exploring how natural and anthropogenic stress influence the structure and dynamics of communities.

University of Sheffield
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences

Dr A Beckerman

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 interactions among species define a food web network. In these networks, species have dynamics (e.g. numbers and biomass), the community has structure (e.g.

PhD in the Diversification of Life - Generating Novel Datasets to Examine Species Form Variety

University of Sheffield
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences

Dr G Thomas

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.

Understanding how and why the diversity of life on earth varies through time and geographic space is one of the fundamental underpinnings of evolutionary and conservation biology.