PhD Studentship: Waste Management - Towards Sustainability University of Essex in United Kingdom

[£20,780 living costs stipend per year (2025-26), home tuition fee waiver, £10,000 research allowance, £2,500 for training courses.]

The University of Essex is offering a fully funded PhD studentship in Waste Management - Towards Sustainability, as part of the Sustainable Transitions – Leverhulme Doctoral Training Programme. This unique opportunity is designed for UK domiciled applicants from underrepresented groups, particularly those who have not yet obtained a master's degree and are from low-income backgrounds or specific ethnic categories. The studentship includes a fully funded master's degree followed by a fully funded interdisciplinary PhD research degree.

The research project will focus on an aspect of waste management, with themes such as sustainable waste management in sensitive ecosystems, the role of state and non-state actors in managing waste and promoting sustainability, the relationship between waste management and human rights to health or water, and mapping technological innovations in waste management. The project must link waste management with sustainable development, sustainability challenges, and the responsibilities of state and private actors.

This interdisciplinary project is jointly supervised by faculty members from the Law and Life Sciences departments, integrating environmental science, public health, and sociology into legal analysis. Research methods may include doctrinal and socio-legal analysis, comparative legal analysis, policy evaluation, law and policy mapping, stakeholder interviews, and systematic review, meta-analyses, and bioinformatics approaches commonly applied within the Life Sciences.

Scholars will benefit from the Sustainable Transitions training programme, which provides initial and ongoing training in interdisciplinary research methods and secondary disciplines. All doctoral scholars receive support from Proficio, entitling them to £2,500 for training courses, and Sustainable Transitions scholars are entitled to £10,000 for research costs and further training. Scholars are encouraged to audit relevant courses and will have the support of the Sustainable Transitions management team and their supervisory team. All scholars will become part of the University of Essex ‘Centre for Environment and Society’.

The studentship offers a living costs stipend of £20,780 per year (2025-26), a home tuition fee waiver, and a research allowance of £10,000. The closing date for applications is 11:59pm GMT on Monday 13th April 2026. Applicants should have a degree or background in law, with an interest in life sciences and environmental sciences. Prior training in hard sciences is not required, and an interest in South Asia or another region of the Global South is desirable. The project area is broadly defined, allowing applicants to develop their own specific research proposal in consultation with the supervisory team.

For more information and to apply, visit the University of Essex postgraduate research opportunities portal.