Our commitment to postgraduate researchers
The status of the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) as a centre of scientific excellence is complemented by a prominent role in training the next generation of environmental researchers. Our postgraduate researchers (PGRs) benefit from state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, field sites and data centres, which they can draw on to support their research. More than 100 UKCEH supervisors work together in multi-skilled teams to offer a unique breadth of experience and knowledge to advise and assist PGRs throughout their training.
Postgraduate community
More than 190 PGRs are undertaking their PhD research in association with UKCEH. Many PGRs are registered with the Universities of Edinburgh, Lancaster, Bangor and Reading.
UKCEH is an active partner in a number of different studentship funding agreements, including six UKRI Centres for Doctoral Training and eleven Doctoral Training Partnerships, the Graduate School for the Environment, Marie-Curie ITN, Leverhulme Trust and as a collaborator with a number of CASE award partners. PGRs at UKCEH access a wide range of training and ideas from these connections.
What you can expect as a PGR at UKCEH
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As a PGR at UKCEH you can access diverse laboratory facilities, field sites and data centres to support your research. UKCEH supervisors and staff offer a unique breadth of experience and knowledge to advise and assist you throughout your training in a multi-disciplinary environment.
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UKCEH offers a unique training environment for postgraduate researchers including opportunities to be based or spend time at one of four research centres, have access to world-class scientists, participate in an active postgraduate community, and be involved in a range of postgraduate activities and opportunities.
- PGRs at UKCEH are also eligible to attend a variety of specialised training courses developed for UKCEH staff and ecological and hydrological professionals, as well as take part in other learning and development opportunities available.
- In addition to your UKCEH supervisor, you will be supported by the Early Careers Advisor, local welfare officers, postgraduate liaison officers and your local postgraduate representatives. Together, they offer opportunities for you to reflect on your PhD, to receive support and gain mentoring for your career development.
Undergraduate internships, placements and work experience
UKCEH regularly receives requests to support or host student internships, placements, sandwich year or work experience opportunities, mostly at undergraduate level. Unfortunately at this time, we have limited capacity to support individual, speculative student requests in such learning opportunities for funding, programmatic and logistical reasons. If this changes in the future, then this page is where such opportunities will be advertised.
- None currently advertised
- We do expect to advertise a small number of Summer 2025 internship opportunities in January 2025; please check back.
We recommend applying to advertised opportunities where suitable if you are interested in gaining environmental science experience at UKCEH. You may also find it useful to review our UKCEH job platform to see if field roles, laboratory, temporary or other roles of interest are available.
UKCEH PhD partnerships and current opportunities
Please browse the list of doctoral training partnerships that UKCEH are involved with below; due to new awards our partnerships have updated significantly recently. These partnerships offer PhDs involving UKCEH supervisors annually and details of any PhD opportunities currently available are shown. Listed PhD opportunities are based at a UKCEH site unless otherwise specified as being based at a partner university. Full contact details of UKCEH supervisors involved are provided on project adverts or can be found on UKCEH staff webpages. Please check individual adverts for details of how to apply for PhD opportunities; details, deadlines and processes vary by doctoral training partnership.
NERC doctoral training partnerships (DTP: Doctoral Training Partnership, DLA: Doctoral Landscape Award, DLTP: Doctoral Landscape Training Partnership)
We partner with these programs and offer PhD opportunities with many of these doctoral training programs each year:
DTP/DLA/DLTP |
Further information |
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ACCE DLA (Adapting to the Challenges of a Changing Environment) |
ACCE's vision is to develop motivated, confident & multi-skilled PhD students, undertaking cutting-edge research & tackling environmental science questions of global significance. Studentships are offered between the Universities of Sheffield, Liverpool, York & UKCEH in a multi-disciplinary environment including biologists, mathematicians, analytical chemists & policy experts. See all ACCE projects here. 2025 opportunities with UKCEH (apply for all by 8 January 2025): |
CENTA DLA (Central England NERC Training Alliance) |
CENTA research spans six universities (Birmingham, Leicester, Loughborough, Warwick & The Open University) and research institutes (UKCEH & BGS). A critical mass of researchers in climate & environmental sustainability, organisms & ecosystems & the dynamic earth provide a range of training & facilities. Training is supported by end-users from industry to non-governmental organisations & government agencies. See all CENTA projects here. 2025 opportunities with UKCEH (apply for all by 8 January 2025):
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CROCUS DLA (NERC Climate system and biodiversity science for Challenges, Risks, and Opportunities - Collaborating in Understanding and Solutions) |
CROCUS is a newly awarded DLA led by the University of Reading and Swansea University, in partnership with the British Geological Survey, the Institute of Zoology, the National Oceanography Centre, the Natural History Museum, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Projects will be considered across the NERC remit. 2025 opportunities with UKCEH (apply for all by 20th January 2025):
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E5 DLA (Edinburgh Earth, Ecology & Environment) |
Edinburgh has one of the highest concentrations of NERC-remit research in the UK. The clustering of environmental research around Edinburgh means that E4 students are part of a vibrant community of researchers & professionals that extends to many opportunities in science, policy, charity & business activities. See all E5 projects here. 2025 opportunities with UKCEH (apply for all by 6 January 2025):
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Envision DTP (Developing next generation leaders in environmental science) |
Envision brings together a powerful group of UK researchers with industry & NGO partners to provide a new generation of environmental scientists with the skills, knowledge & experience they need to take on the challenges of a changing world. Led by Lancaster University, research falls into the 3 areas of environmental change, sustainable use of natural resources & environmental hazards & risk. The funding for this DTP has now ended and it is not expected to recruit further student cohorts. |
GW4+ DLTP (Great Western Four) |
GW4+ identifies areas of complementary expertise across the universities of Bristol, Bath, Cardiff and Exeter to develop research communities at scale, to address major global and industrial challenges. The collaborative research & innovation of GW4+ recognises and builds on the industrial and research strengths of the South West, working across the natural sciences and encouraging collaborative projects between the universities, research institutes and industrial and public sector partners. See all GW4+ projects here. 2025 opportunities with UKCEH (apply by 13 January 2025): |
Named after the ancient ocean that closed to bring together England and Scotland, Iapetus is a partnership that joins the leading research universities of Durham, Glasgow, Heriot Watt, Newcastle, St Andrews & Stirling, together with UKCEH, BAS & BGS, in a united approach to doctoral research & training the next generation of leaders in the science of the natural environment. See all Iapetus projects here. 2025 opportunities with UKCEH (apply for all by 6 January 2025):
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ILESLA DLA (Interdisciplinary Life and Environmental Science Landscape Award) |
The world faces unprecedented challenges, from climate change and food security to infectious diseases, biodiversity declines and sustainability. The Interdisciplinary Life and Environmental Science Landscape Award (ILESLA) will train a new generation of creative, collaborative and entrepreneurial researchers who are equipped to meet these complex, cross-disciplinary challenges. These future leaders will have the knowledge and skills to generate innovative solutions that integrate science across BBSRC and NERC remits, and to conduct curiosity-led research that generates far-reaching insight into biological and environmental systems, and their interactions. ILESLA is the successor to the BBSRC Interdisciplinary Bioscience and the NERC Environmental Research DTPs and builds on their success. This new programme will cover the full remit of both preceding programmes. UKCEH may partner in some of the PhD's offered in this DLA. |
The Oxford DTP in Environmental Research offers a world class, multidisciplinary training environment for the next generation of researchers working at the frontiers of Environmental Research. The Oxford DTP operates slightly differently, with two studentship routes. Some students are recruited direct to CASE or collaborative projects, while others are not admitted directly to project and apply to one of the three research streams (for students who wish to devise their own projects). The funding for this DTP has now ended and it is not expected to recruit further student cohorts. |
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SCENARIO DTP (Science of the Environment: Natural and Anthropogenic processes, Impacts and Opportunities) |
The scientific scope of SCENARIO is broad, spanning the physical, chemical and biological processes within the overarching theme of "environmental risk and sustainability" over a wide range of temporal & spatial scales. SCENARIO incorporates supervisory expertise spanning the science of atmosphere, oceans, ice, hydrology, soil, ecosystems & space weather. SCENARIO seeks to attract high-quality graduates from science, mathematics & engineering degrees. The funding for this DTP has now ended and it is not expected to recruit further student cohorts. |
SSCP DTP (Science & Solutions for a Changing Planet) |
The SSCP DTP harnesses world leading expertise from Imperial College London & Core Partner Institutions to offer a unique multidisciplinary PhD training programme. SSCP’s key scientific challenge is to understand & quantify complex biological, physical & human systems, & the interactions between them, in sufficient detail to predict & manage future change. This knowledge is used to develop innovative technical, business & policy responses to environmental & societal challenges. The funding for this DTP has now ended and it is not expected to recruit further student cohorts. |
More NERC doctoral training partnerships (CDT: Centre for Doctoral Training, DFA: Doctoral Focal Award)
We partner with these programs and offer PhD opportunities with many of these doctoral training programs each year:
CDT/DFA |
Further information |
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AI INTERVENE DFA |
AI INTERVENE is a new Doctoral Focal Award funded by NERC. The DFA program’s goal is to prepare a new generation of researchers skilled in both artificial intelligence (AI) and biodiversity to help address the global biodiversity crisis. AI-INTERVENE aims to train PhD students to be adaptable, skilled in real-world applications, entrepreneurial, and driven by sustainability and inclusivity. 2025 opportunities with UKCEH may be forthcoming shortly |
ECORISC CDT (Ecotoxicological Risk Assessment Towards Sustainable Chemical Use) |
The ECORISC Centre for Doctoral Training is a partnership between five universities and UKCEH, funded for six years with projects designed to better understand the risks of chemicals in the natural environment and how to best assess and manage these risks. It will produce a generation of innovator scientists that can identify, understand and effectively manage the risks of chemicals through the use of state-of-the-art science and out-of-the-box thinking. The funding for this DTP has now ended and it is not expected to recruit further student cohorts. |
ECOSOLUTIONS DFA |
ECOSOLUTIONS is a new Doctoral Focal Award focusing on solutions to the issues of chemical pollution. It will combine cutting-edge environmental science with approaches from other disciplines (natural, health and social sciences, engineering) to deliver systems-based approaches which minimise wider socio-environmental impacts of the manufacture and fate of chemicals. 2025 opportunities with UKCEH may be forthcoming shortly |
ECOWILD CDT (Centre for Ecologically Relevant Multiple Stressor effects on Wetland Wildscapes) |
The ECOWILD Centre for Doctoral Training programme has been designed to deliver the next generation of innovative researchers and conservationists needed to protect some of the Earth’s most vulnerable and valuable ecosystems. ECOWILD is a unique partnership that brings together research expertise and innovation across various fields including environmental toxicology, ecology, multiple stressor theory and modelling, wetland conservation and restoration, socioeconomics, community engagement, management and governance; and involves some of the leading UK experts in these fields. See all ECOWILD projects here. 2025 opportunities with UKCEH (apply for all by 9 January 2025):
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FLOOD-CDT (NERC Resilient Flood Futures) |
The vision of FLOOD-CDT is to train the next generation of research practitioners, who will have both: (1) the multidisciplinary skills and knowledge required to address key sector needs and research questions across all drivers of flooding, and; (2) the ability to bridge gaps that currently exist between the evidence base and flood risk management approaches, policy, regulation and community engagement. See all FLOOD projects here. 2025 opportunities with UKCEH (apply by 8 January 2025):
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RED ALERT CDT (NERC Centre for Doctoral Training in Real-Time Digital Water-Based Systems) |
RED-ALERT CDT's will train a new generation of leaders to transform how we manage aquatic environmental health via Real-Time Digital Water-Based Systems. Red-ALERT convenes private, government, regulatory/public sector organisations with world-leading researchers in genetics, ecotoxicology, sensor technology, Internet of Things, autonomous real-time data collection, mathematical modelling & data analytics. See all RED ALERT projects here. 2025 opportunities with UKCEH (apply by 7 January 2025):
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Graduate School for the Environment Partnership
The Graduate School for the Environment is a collaboration between UKCEH, the Lancaster Environment Centre and Rothamsted Research. PhD projects are available in Biological Science, Environmental Science & Geography. Opportunities are available to develop your own self-funded proposal, to apply for a funded position or to apply through a Doctoral Training Partnership.