plant physiology 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.

Projects are available in the following areas. Stress responses in crops and sustainable biomass production and processing. The project aims at elucidating several aspects of the control of plant defences and to identify environmentally friendly forms of plant protectants, leading to enhanced crop yields.

Integration of environmental signals in plants

University of Warwick
School of Life Sciences

Prof G Bassel, Dr M Gifford

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.

Plants use a diversity of signals from the environment to make decisions during their life cycle. This project will focus on understanding how multiple signals from the environment are integrated to control seed dormancy.

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.

Nutritious crops: genomic approaches to improving the nutritional and commercial value of oilseed rape

University of York
Department of Biology

Prof Ian Bancroft, Dr A Harper

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.

Oilseed rape is the third largest source of vegetable oil in the world. It is also a fascinating species in which to undertake genomic studies due to its polyploid ancestry.

Structural and functional significance of Mucoromycotina ‘fine root endophyte’ fungal associates of vascular land plants

University of Sheffield
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences

Prof K Field, Prof T J Daniell

Application Deadline: 1 July 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.

The colonisation of the landmasses by plants >500 Mya was a major turning point in Earth’s history, drastically altering the development of the biosphere and providing the basis for all terrestrial life ever since.

How does heterosis affect yield, quality and disease resistance in hybrid wheat?

University of Birmingham
School of Biosciences

Dr P Borrill, Dr M Catoni, Dr C Uauy, Dr N Bird

Application Deadline: 7 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.

Heterosis, or hybrid vigour, is the increased performance of a hybrid relative to the parents. The use of hybrid cultivars in maize and rice have increased the performance of these crops substantially, but the same approach has not yet been widely exploited in wheat breeding.

Learning from plant cell walls as a path for innovations in food and material sciences

University of Leeds
Faculty of Biological Sciences

Dr Y Benitez-Alfonso, Dr C Bosch

Applications accepted all year round

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.

The research will dissect the structural factors controlling cell walls and cell communication for two main purposes. to improve the health value of food crops and to design strategies for the valorisation of wasted plant materials.

PhD in cellular and structural biology - Elucidating infection at the plant-microbe interphase to define targets for crop breeding

University of Sheffield
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences

Dr C Voigt

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.

Achieving food security is one of the most important global challenges. Crop production and yield has been increasingly threatened by plant pathogens in a rapidly changing environment.

PhD: Improving Photosynthesis

University of Sheffield
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences

Prof A Fleming

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.

Improving photosynthetic efficiency has been identified as one of the few remaining traits for exploitation if we are to achieve the significant increases in crop yield required to feed the projected 9 billion world population by 2050.

Examining the interactions between plant-feeding insects and symbiotic fungi

Royal Holloway, University of London
School of Biological Sciences

Prof A Gange

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 are not discrete entities, but instead are mergers of fungal cells with plant tissues”. This statement implies that every living plant has fungi living within the roots and shoots.

PhD in Plants and Microbes: crop production and protection, the interaction between plants and other plants, pests and pathogens, and soils, and the interactions of ecosystems with global change

University of Sheffield
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences

Dr C Voigt

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 underpin life on Earth. In Sheffield, world leading plant research is undertaken across all scales from the molecular level through to the leaf and root, whole plant and ecosystem.

PhD in plant soil interactions

University of Sheffield
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences

Prof T J Daniell

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.

Modern agriculture relies on high inputs of reactive nitrogen fertiliser produced by the Haber-Bosch process.

How does clubroot obtain nutrients from its living plant host?

University of Sheffield
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences

Dr S A Rolfe

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.

Clubroot is an important pathogen of Brassica crops. The disease is found throughout the world and causes severe economic losses.

University of Sheffield
Department of Animal and Plant Sciences

PhD in Chemical Ecology

Dr S Campbell

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.

In response to the near-universal threat of being consumed by insect herbivores, plants have evolved a sophisticated arsenal of chemical defences.

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.