Projects

2025 Studentships:

Applications for the first cohort of YES•DTN studentships are now closed. All projects listed below are for October 2025 entry. For more more information, please see our How to Apply page, candidate resources associated FAQs.

Equal Opportunities:

Within our programme, we are dedicated to diversifying our community. As part of our ongoing work to improve Equality, Diversity and Inclusion within the NERC Panorama DTP, we hope to be able to ringfence 10% of our interviews and at least 2 of our full DLA studentships for the following identified underrepresented groups in our PhD programmes: UK Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, those from a disadvantaged socio-economic background, and disabled people. More detail on eligibility and how to apply for the studentships will be available soon – please watch this space!

Important information:

Application deadline: 17:00 GMT on Wednesday 8 January 2025
Shortlisting: we aim to contact candidates who have been shortlisted for interview during the week commencing Monday 17 February 2025
Open day: all applicants invited to interview will have the opportunity to visit their host institution on an open day before the interviews (date TBA shortly)
Interviews: to be held over the weeks commencing Monday 3 March 2025 and Monday 10 March 2025

Projects marked CASE have the possibility becoming an industry-partnered project which includes an external industry partner with additional research training and support grant (RTSG) funding and a placement. Please see the NERC CASE page for more information.

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The inner workings of the earthquake cycle: New insight from integrating Quaternary fault activity, microstructures, and geophysics

Theme(s):
Primary Supervisor: Laura Gregory <l.c.gregory@leeds.ac.uk>
Institution: University of Leeds (School of Earth and Environment)

Anthropogenic stressors and freshwater ecosystems; the impact of plastic pollution, climate change and invasive alien species on invertebrate behaviour and community structure.

Theme(s): Applied ecology, ecosystem services and conservation, Ecology, Evolution & Biodiversity, Ecosystem processes, dynamics and functioning, Population, community and behavioural ecology
Primary Supervisor: Alison Dunn <A.Dunn@leeds.ac.uk>

From Core to Crust: Understanding Earth’s Rhythms with Normal Mode and Surface Wave Seismology

Theme(s): Tectonics, Volcanology and Solid Earth Geophysics
Primary Supervisor: Sjoerd de Ridder <s.deridder@leeds.ac.uk>
Institution: University of Leeds (School of Earth and Environment)

How did solid Earth processes influence the accumulation of oxygen in our planet’s atmosphere?

Theme(s): Chemistry of the Earth, Evolution, palaentology and biotic change, Geomagnetism, Marine Biogeochemistry, Palaeoenvironments and Palaentology, Tectonics, Volcanology and Solid Earth Geophysics
Primary Supervisor: Benjamin Mills <b.mills@leeds.ac.uk>
Institution: University of Leeds (School of Earth and Environment)

Probing Crustal Deformation and Active Tectonics of the Continents from Satellite Observations

Theme(s): Tectonics, Volcanology and Solid Earth Geophysics
Primary Supervisor: John Elliott <j.elliott@leeds.ac.uk>
Institution: University of Leeds (School of Earth and Environment)

Natural and human effects on clouds and climate over the ocean

Theme(s): Air Quality, Atmospheric Physics, Climate, Meteorology
Primary Supervisor: Ken Carslaw <k.s.carslaw@leeds.ac.uk>
Institution: University of Leeds (School of Earth and Environment)

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Southern Ocean carbon pump vulnerability to changing iron supply

Influence of Solar Variability and Volcanic Aerosol on the Climate System

Measuring Macro-Scale Convective Storm Effects with Micro Precision

Developing predictive models of earthquake induced landslides using advanced neural networks