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Call out for project proposals

Are you a start-up, SME or third sector organisation looking for PhD student support?

The ECCI NERC Consultancy Innovation Programme connects businesses, start-ups/SMEs and third sector organisations with a NERC-funded PhD student, to undertake meaningful research projects connected to climate change.

With a focus on geosciences, the students' areas of expertise include: mapping and modelling, extreme weather events, ecology and epidemiology, climate risk and adaptation, hydrogen storage, land use and agriculture, global food systems and behaviour change.

All internships are fully funded, with no cost to the host, and run from November 2023 - May 2024. Placements may be conducted in parts remotely. The placement duration is 10 days over a maximum 10 weeks.

Past host organisations include Wave Energy Scotland, Royal Botanical Gardens Kew, ClimateXChange, AstroAgency, Scottish Carbon Capture & Storage and Seawater Solutions. All the host organisations agreed that the placements added value to their business and almost all would host another placement in the future.

The programme is part of the Edinburgh Earth and Environment Doctoral Training Partnership. Based at the University of Edinburgh, NERC E4 DTP brings together 28 partners and more than 200 supervisors. Collectively, their research expertise spans the full spectrum of earth and environmental sciences.

Successful 2023/23 programme

A total of 13 internships were successfully delivered in 2022/23, matching PhD candidates with a range of industry partners in NERC priotiy areas.

Feedback was very positive, with all PhD participants confirming that the internship will be useful for their future career and 90% reporting that they learned new skills (including report writing, writing case studies, data management, time management, software analysis, organising an event, programming, networking and presenting).

“Taking part in the NERC E4 DTP Consultancy Innovation Programme allowed me to experience an environment where science with a real world impact is created." -PhD candidate
“The NERC Innovation Programme provided a way for us as a company to progress some early-stage R&D in an efficient and effective manner. The process was light touch and appropriate for this level of work. Our PhD student was excellent. I would not hesitate to use this programme again.” -Host organisation

Submit project proposals

Are you a start-up, SME or third sector organisation? Looking for some PhD student support at no cost?

  • All internships are fully funded, with no cost to the business, and run from November 2023 - May 2024.
  • Placements may be conducted in parts remotely.
  • The placement duration is 10 days over maximum 10 weeks.

Complete the simple online application by Tuesday 7 November.