PhD Opportunities in Climate Science in United Kingdom

This 36-month PhD project at the University of St Andrews investigates how atmospheric circulation responds to global warming and how those responses affect regional climate and weather extremes. The research will use a hierarchy of numerical climate simulations to study circulation across multiple scales, from global jet streams to regional thunderstorm systems. By analyzing multi-member ensembles and prescribed sea-surface-temperature experiments, the project will distinguish rapid adjustments...

This four-year 1+3 MRes/PhD studentship will investigate rainfall-induced slope failure risk across Great Britain's railway infrastructure, in collaboration with Network Rail and the University of Cambridge's Department of Engineering. The research will examine why clusters of embankment and cutting failures occur around the rail network. Using Network Rail's extensive databases on asset condition and performance, the project will analyze the roles of local geology, hydrogeological conditions, n...

The University of Cambridge is offering a four-year 1+3 MRes/PhD studentship through the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment: Unlocking Net Zero (FIBE3 CDT), in collaboration with Network Rail. The project examines how railway infrastructure systems can be managed as climate change and changing patterns of extreme weather alter the risks faced by transport assets. The research will investigate how environmental and operational thresholds for key rail...

A fully funded PhD opportunity is available at the University of Exeter in the UK, focused on plant pathology and climate change. The thesis, “Tackling the threat of wheat disease in a changing climate, using epidemiological modelling and soil microbiome research on take-all,” will investigate wheat disease dynamics under changing environmental conditions. The project combines epidemiological modelling with soil microbiome research to understand take-all disease and its implications for wheat pr...

Erica Thompson, Associate Professor at University College London's Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP), is inviting applications for PhD projects for 2027 entry. The first opportunity is a UNRISK CDT project titled Humanitarian risk pools responding to a changing climate . The project explores humanitarian risk, climate change, risk pools, and responses to changing environmental conditions. The second opportunity is a UCL EPSRC doctoral studentship titled Mo...

The University of Edinburgh is offering a PhD opportunity supervised by Professor Lindsay Beevers and Encarni Medina Lopez on future hydrological extremes in a changing climate . The project will quantify how floods and droughts may change under future climate change using the Reference Observatory of Basins for International hydrological climate change detection (ROBIN), a global network of near-natural catchments, together with global multi-model climate projections such as ISIMIP. It will inv...

PhD opportunity in soil biodiversity , soil ecology , and mountain ecology at the University of Stirling . This studentship, funded through the Iapetus DTP , investigates how spreading shrubs in mountain grasslands affect soil life under climate warming and nitrogen pollution . The project combines fieldwork, microscopy, and eDNA to study hidden soil fauna and ecological responses across mountain systems. Research activities include a multi-factor field experiment in the Scottish Highlands and t...

PhD opportunity at the University of Bristol under the SWBio DTP Hub Doctoral Training Partnership. The project is titled “Will tomorrow's climate grow tomorrow's food? Modelling crop resilience across the U.K.” and focuses on agriculture, environmental biosciences, climate change, food security, environmental stress, and crop modelling. The project will advance the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) , the land surface model used by the UK Met Office and the wider Earth system modelling...

PhD opportunity on AI and UK water security at the University of Birmingham , advertised by Professor Simon Gosling with collaborators Shasha Han (School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham), Andrew Hartley (Met Office), and Helen Baron (UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology). The project sits at the interface of Computer Science and Environmental Science , with strong links to Geography , Earth Science , hydrology, drought risk, and climate-related water secur...