E3 - Edinburgh Earth and Environment - Doctoral Training Partnership

NERC is funding a new cohort of PhD students across the Edinburgh Earth and Environment Doctoral Training Partnership. This grant does not fund a specific experiment or field campaign. Instead, it supports the next generation of environmental scientists—people who will study climate systems, biodiversity, geohazards, water resources, and ecosystem change. The problem it addresses is a skills gap: the UK needs trained researchers who can tackle complex environmental challenges, from flood risk to carbon storage to biodiversity loss. If the training succeeds, the impact will be felt across multiple sectors. These PhD graduates will go on to work in academia, government agencies (such as the Met Office or the Environment Agency), and industries like renewable energy, agriculture, and environmental consulting. Their research could improve flood forecasting, inform net-zero policies, or help manage land and water resources more sustainably. This is primarily a capacity-building project rather than a curiosity-driven investigation. But the fundamental science these students will conduct—on ocean currents, soil carbon, atmospheric chemistry, or glacier dynamics—will form the evidence base for decisions that affect infrastructure, food security, and disaster preparedness for decades.