NERC Studentships
The research projects below are in competition for funding. The projects with the best applicants will be awarded the funding. The funding is only available to applicants that meet the eligibility criteria.
Non-UK Students: In most cases if you have the correct qualifications and access to your own funding, either from your home country or your own finances, your application to work with these supervisors will be considered.
Click on the links below to view PhD projects descriptions:
- Which microbes drive biogeochemical cycling of phosphorus in soil? (Supervised by Dr Gary Bending, Dr Hendrik Schafer and Prof. David Scanlan)
- Pollutant biodegradation within river biofilms (Supervised by Dr Gary Bending, Prof. Ian Guymer and Laurence Hand (Syngenta))
- Environmental Epigenetic memory in plants (Supervised by Dr Jose Gutierrez-Marcos and Dr Sascha Ott)
- What are the bases of phenotypic plasticity in asexual organisms? (Supervised by Dr Jose Gutierrez-Marcos and Prof. Alan Tunnacliffe)
- Unravelling the mechanism of microbial-mediated oceanic dimethylamine emissions (Supervised by Dr Yin Chen)
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Molecular strategies of the mutualistic fungus Piriformospora indica to suppress root innate immunity in a broad spectrum of plants (Supervised by Dr Patrick Schäfer)
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ER stress-induced programmed cell death as transducer of environmental stress tolerance in plants and as supporter of mutualistic symbioses (Supervised by Dr Patrick Schäfer)
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Investigating the interactions between microbial hormones and transcriptional repressors (Supervised by Dr Christophe Corre and Prof. Vilmos Fulop)
- How do bats niche partition the UK? (Supervised by Dr Robin Allaby)
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Quantifying the impacts of Biodiversity Offsetting (Supervised by Dr Rosemary Collier and Mr Andrew Mead)
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Viral infection of marine picoplankton: pseudolysogeny and magic spot nucleotides (Supervised by Prof. Dave Scanlan University of Warwick, and Dr Martha Clokie University of Leicester)
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Metaexoproteome of soil: characterisation of extracellular proteinsinvolved in the degradation of polymers (Supervised by Prof. Liz Wellington)
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Comparative and functional genomics of the bacterial degradation of the climate-cooling gas dimethylsulfide (DMS) (Supervised by Dr Hendrik Schaefer)
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Environmental genomics and functional diversity of microbial dimethylsulfide degradation (Supervised by Dr Hendrik Schaefer)
Eligibility
In brief, candidates are required to satisfy two principal eligibility conditions (Residence and Qualification)
Residence
- British nationals who have lived in the UK all their lives are eligible.
- Also eligible are non-British nationals who have settled status AND have been resident in the UK for 3 years immediately prior to the date of the start of the course.
- EU nationals who have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands for three years immediately prior to the date of start of the course;
- EU nationals not resident in the UK are eligible for a fees-only award. In the event of receiving such an award, you would have to make separate arrangements to defray the costs of accommodation and subsistence.
- EEA and Swiss nationals (EEA migrant workers) should refer to the full guidelines to check eligibility
Academic requirement
- Those who have a 1st or a 2.1 undergraduate degree in a relevant field are eligible.
- Those who have a 2.2 and an additional Masters degree in a relevant field may be eligible.
- Those who have a 2.2 and at least three years post-graduate experience in a relevant field may be eligible.
- Those with degrees abroad (as well as, perhaps, postgraduate experience) may be eligible if their qualifications are deemed equivalent to any of the above
Full eligibility can be viewed on the NERC website.
Funding
The Studentship covers full tuition fees at the Home/EU rate and pays an annual stipend in line with UK Research Councils (currently £13,590 per annum).
