ESRC-Funded PhD Studentships in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences at Northumbria University (NINE25/EE/GEO/KCKJ)

The NINE Doctoral Training Partnership is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and supports 50-55 studentships per year across seven universities in Northern Ireland and north-east England.

The 2025-26 studentship competition is now open and candidates can make applications to the Human Geography and Environment, Climate and Sustainability pathways with a supervisor from the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences (GES) at Northumbria. GES was ranked second for research power in Geography and Environmental Studies in the 2021 Research Evaluation Framework. It is home to the Centre for Global Development and Social and Cultural Geographies Research Group and provides a vibrant and supportive research environment for postgraduate and early career researchers.

See here for information on department staff and research

We are particularly interested in supporting research proposals related to:

• Fugitive geographies (e.g. marronage in the Black Atlantic);
• Urban space and consumer culture;
• Retail decline and community-led development;
• Gender and/or race and enviromental inequality/natural resource extraction;
• Global volunteering;
• Civil society, civic space and transnational solidarity for global development
• Geographies of diaspora, migration and development;
• Rural depopulation, entrepreneurship and social enterprise;
• Participatory historical geographies;
• Decolonial creative and feminist embodied methodologies;
• Urban spatial politics and comparative urbanism;
• Political geographies of gender and sexualities;
• Affective and emotional geographies of bordering, migration and resistance;
• Geographies of decolonial relationality;
• Multi-spatial, multi-temporal and multi-species theory and practice.

NINE studentships incorporate different award types, including opportunities to undertake funded Masters programmes. Full guidelines are on the NINE DTP website.

Eligibility Requirements:

• Academic excellence i.e. 2:1 (or equivalent GPA from non-UK universities with preference for 1st class honours); or a Masters (preference for Merit or above); or APEL evidence of substantial practitioner achievement.
• Appropriate IELTS score, if required.
• Applicants cannot apply if they are already a PhD holder or if currently engaged in doctoral study at Northumbria or elsewhere.

To be classed as a Home student, candidates must:

• Be a UK national (meeting residency requirements), or
• have settled status, or
• have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements), or
• have indefinite leave to remain or enter.

If a candidate does not meet the criteria above, they would be classed as an international student. More information for international candidates can be found here.

APPLY NOW

Your application should include a 1000-word research proposal and the reference NINE25/CASSIDY for the Human Geography pathway and NINE25/JENKINS for the Environment, Climate and Sustainability pathway..

The closing date for applications is Monday 20th January 2025.

For more information, please get in touch with our pathway leads - Professor Kathryn Cassidy for Human Geography or Professor Katy Jenkins for Environment, Climate and Sustainability.

Northumbria University is committed to creating an inclusive culture where we take pride in, and value, the diversity of our postgraduate research students. We encourage and welcome applications from all members of the community. The University holds a bronze Athena Swan award in recognition of our commitment to advancing gender equality, we are a Disability Confident Leader, a member of the Race Equality Charter and are participating in the Stonewall Diversity Champion Programme. We also hold the HR Excellence in Research award for implementing the concordat supporting the career Development of Researchers and are members of the Euraxess initiative to deliver information and support to professional researchers.