OU PhD students to benefit from £100M award

The OU is part of a consortium that will benefit from £100M funding for studentships and will gain three to five students per year.

The OU is one of six universities and four research centres that came joint top (out of 17) in an open and competitive 2018 Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) call, winning 18 fully funded studentships per year.

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is investing over £100 million over the next five years as part of its continued support of environmental science PhD training in the second round of the DTP programme. The DTPs underpin the UK’s world-leading environmental science profile and bring together universities, research organisations and partners from a wide range of backgrounds, including higher education institutes, charities, NGOs, government bodies and industry leaders.

Each DTP was assessed on the basis of excellence through a transparent, peer-reviewed application process. The writing of the training and multidisciplinary environment sections (50% of the bid) was led by the OU and built on its track record of providing training and support for students from a variety of backgrounds.

Most of these studentships will be match-funded by the academic, research centre or industrial partners, thus maximising the number of studentships that the consortium can offer.

The PhD studentships will be available over the course of five annual admissions, starting in the 2019/20 academic year. Each DTP will recruit several students every year, which will create a cohort of students who will network, train, and tackle environmental challenges together.

Dr Clare Warren, Senior Lecturer, School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences in the OU’s Faculty of Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Technology, said: “I am delighted to hear about the success of our PhD training bid, and it’s wonderful to see the OU being recognized for excellence in postgraduate as well as undergraduate teaching. The OU has an excellent track record in supporting burgeoning researchers from a diverse array of backgrounds and this experience underpinned the success of the training and multidisciplinary sections of the bid.”

Consortium members are: The University of Birmingham, University of Leicester, The Open University, University of Warwick, Loughborough University, and Cranfield University as well as the British Geological Survey, National Centre of Earth Observation, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science.