invasive species PhD Projects, Programs & Scholarships

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.

Invasive Non Native Species (INNS) cost the UK over £2bn pa and are an increasing threat to aquatic biodiversity and ecosystems.

Native and invasive ladybirds in a changing UK climate (PERRYUBIO20ARIES)

University of East Anglia
School of Biological Sciences

Dr J Perry, Dr H Roy

Application Deadline: 7 January 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.

SCIENTIFIC BACKGROUND. Climate change and invasive species have been described as a “deadly duo”. We have the potential to explore the interacting effects of these drivers of biodiversity change using ladybirds as a model system.

PhD in Ecology and Environment: how ecosystems, and the species they contain, respond to environmental change and how to reduce and mitigate adverse impacts

University of Sheffield
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences

Dr D Childs

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.

Environmental change threatens biodiversity, altering ecosystem processes and provision of ecosystem services. These environmental change pressures are accelerating due to growing human populations and accompanying climate change, land use, pollution and invasive species.

Biology of the invasive Chinese mitten crab in the river Thames

Royal Holloway, University of London
School of Biological Sciences

Prof D Morritt

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 Chinese mitten crab, Eriocheir sinensis, is an invasive brachyuran crab species (one of the top 100 most invasive species) that is now well established in the River Thames and tributaries.

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.

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.

Validating environmental DNA as a powerful and cost-effective monitoring tool for declining, elusive and invasive mammals

University of Salford
College of Science and Technology

Dr A McDevitt

Application Deadline: 8 November 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.

Academic Supervisor. Dr Allan McDevitt (University of Salford). Academic Co-Supervisors. Dr Erinma Ochu (University of Salford), Prof.

Boundary conditions for non-local operators and their numerical implementation and applications

University of Otago
Department of Mathematics and Statistics

Assoc Prof B Baeumer

Application Deadline: 1 December 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.

Non-local differential operators are a common mathematical tool to spatially model the risk of spread of an invasive species, an epidemic, or any other system where the outliers dominate the dynamics of spread.

Evolutionary origins of adaptive traits in grasses*

University of Sheffield
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences

Dr P A Christin

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.

During evolution, grasses acquired a variety of functional traits that allowed them to colonize almost all environments around the globe, and rank amongst the most productive crops, weeds, and invasive species.

PhD in Applied Ecology - Developing data-driven modelling in Applied Ecology

University of Sheffield
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences

Prof R Freckleton

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 changing world and a challenge for ecologists is to forecast how such changes will impact on natural populations. We tackle problems such as forest management, weed invasions and predicting the impacts of land management on populations of plants, insects and birds.