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Apply for a PhD
We welcome doctoral applications all year round! The Sustainability Research Institute has a thriving research community with a solid theoretical and applied research tradition. Studying for a PhD with UEL's Sustainability Research Institute will push you to new levels of innovation - and our world-class academic staff will support you. Our research integrates multidisciplinary expertise across a wide array of topics related to sustainability. Focused on three sub-themes, the Sustainability Research Institute has expert teams researching Blue/Green Infrastructure, Sustainable Societies and Sustainable Materials and Resources. As an umbrella institute across UEL, and with global networks, we also collaborate across UELs research portfolio and beyond.
All postgraduate research students are supervised by at least two research-active staff. Your supervisors will support your program of research through regular meetings and reviews.
Finding a supervisor
If you’re proposing your own PhD project, you will need to identify and contact potential SRI supervisors whose research interests align with your own. You will also need to discuss your research idea before you apply. To do this, you will need to explore which academic staff are open to supervising students. When applying, you will need to provide details of your proposed supervisor and a proposal of your intended research.
Research proposals
Research proposals give us a better understanding of the area you want to study for a PhD. You don't have to follow a predetermined structure when writing your proposal. Still, it is a good idea to include a title that describes the aims and scope of your research and information on how your ideas fit in with the research interests of the SRI. You should also be prepared to explain how this contributes to and develops (or challenges) any existing theories in the field. To find out more about how to write your research proposal, see our research proposal guidance.
Find out more about our current and previous PhD students.
For enquiries about the course, please contact: Dr Stuart Connop - s.p.connop@uel.ac.uk