Miniaturising gross proximate composition analysis techniques to develop accurate ecological models of marine species interactions at the scale of offshore windfarms

Project Description:

This PhD scholarship is offered by the EPSRC CDT in Offshore Wind Energy Sustainability and Resilience; a partnership between the Universities of Durham, Hull, Loughborough and Sheffield. The project is sponsored by industry partner, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture (CEFAS). The successful applicant will undertake six-month of training with the rest of the CDT cohort at the University of Hull before continuing their PhD research in Hull.

Offshore Windfarms are, and will continue to be, the most significant physical anthropogenic change to the North Sea and will significantly change the seascape and surrounding ecosystems. Currently there is little understanding of these impacts, which is particularly acute for benthic organisms as they have limited habitat mobility and thus likely to be significantly affected by changing sea beds. Benthic organisms are typically small and thus are challenging to study meaning little is known about how their proximate composition changes, this limits our ability to predict how wind farms could affect food chains.

Ecological models are a key route to understanding what the impacts of climate change could be on our marine systems. Cutting-edge fisheries models, like PANDORA, are starting to incorporate both ecological and environmental data in order to understand how whole ecosystems are likely to respond to disturbances. Ecosystem models are very data hungry requiring, ideally, information on who eats who, how much and what nutritional quality is being consumed. However, very few ecological models incorporate nutrient fluxes and the temporal variation in nutritive value of prey items. To understand these complex nutritional relationships between prey and predator at a fine scale detailed proximate composition (PC) analysis is needed.

This project will investigate how PC analysis can be miniaturised to enable more sustainable, efficient sampling at the level of small individual organisms. Successful development of these techniques will enable understanding of changes at this scale and build a much more detailed picture of ecological relationships than analysis of grouped specimens.

Training and development

You will benefit from a taught programme, giving you a broad understanding of the breadth and depth of current and emerging offshore wind sector needs. This begins with an intensive six-month programme at the University of Hull for the new student intake, drawing on the expertise and facilities of all four academic partners. It is supplemented by Continuing Professional Development (CPD), which is embedded throughout your 4-year research scholarship.

The successful candidate will receive comprehensive research training including technical, personal and professional skills. During this project you will develop their laboratory skills utilising spectrometry and separation sciences instruments during methodology development and implementation phases. Working towards miniaturisation of laboratory techniques develops creativity, and perseverance. This project opens a wide range of career pathways for the candidate depending on their preferred aspects from analytical chemistry to data analysis to environmental officer roles in industrial or academic settings.

Further to this the project will be carried out in partnership with CEFAS and it is envisaged that this will provide significant opportunities for networking and access to a range of facilities and samples.

Entry requirements

If you have received a First-class Honours degree, or a 2:1 Honours degree and a Masters, or a Distinction at Masters level with any undergraduate degree (or the international equivalents) in a relevant discipline/subject area e.g. marine biology, chemistry, environmental sciences, biochemistry, we would like to hear from you.

A suitable candidate from this project would have an interest in marine environmental sciences, laboratory analysis and data handling. They would be motivated by problem solving and enjoy method development and exploring the scientific inference between chemistry and environmental analysis.

If your first language is not English, or you require a Student Visa to study, you will be required to provide evidence of your English language proficiency level that meets the requirements of the Aura CDT’s academic partners. This course requires academic IELTS 7.0 overall, with no less than 6.0 in each skill. Please contact [Email Address Removed] for further guidance or questions.

If you have any queries about the project, please contact Dr Samantha Richardson, samantha.richardson@hull.ac.uk or Dr Magnus Johnson, M.johnson@hull.ac.uk

You may also address queries about the CDT to auracdt@hull.ac.uk.

Watch our short video to hear from Aura CDT students, academics and industry partners:

Funding Notes

The Offshore Wind CDT is funded by EPSRC, allowing us to provide scholarships for Home students that cover fees plus a stipend set at the UKRI nationally agreed rates, circa £19,795 per annum at 2025/26 rates (subject to progress). In addition, a number of scholarships will be made available for International students.

Eligibility

Research Council funding for postgraduate research has residence requirements. Our CDT scholarships are available to Home (UK) Students. To be considered a Home student, and therefore eligible for a full award, a student must have no restrictions on how long they can stay in the UK and have been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least 3 years prior to the start of the scholarship (with some further constraint regarding residence for education). For full eligibility information, please refer to the EPSRC website.

We also allocate a number of scholarships for International Students per cohort.

How to apply

Please note, you may only apply for ONE project offered through the EPSRC CDT in Offshore Wind Energy Sustainability and Resilience.

Please ensure that you familiarise yourself with the Aura CDT website before you apply to give you a good understanding of what a CDT is, our CDT’s research focus and the training and continuing professional development programme that runs alongside the CDT. The Frequently asked questions page and Candidate resources page are essential reading prior to applying.

Applications to this project are made via the University of Hull admissions system. If you have not applied to the University of Hull before, you will need to set up an account to enable you to track the progress of your application and upload supporting documents.

Follow this link to apply for this CDT project at the University of Hull: https://evision.hull.ac.uk/urd/sits.urd/run/siw_ipp_lgn.login?process=siw_ipp_app&code1=RPBIOHXFD01002&code2=0001 

With your application, you need to upload copies of the following supporting evidence:

• Complete transcripts (and final degree certificate(s) where possible). If your qualification documents are not in English, you will need to supply copies of your original language documents as well as their official translation into English.
• Your Curriculum Vitae (CV).
• A completed Supplementary Application Form (upload when asked to add a Research proposal).

Uploading the form 

When you have completed the form, please save it as a pdf format and labelled as follows:

Last name_first name PhD application form

Upload the form as part of your application documents through the University of Hull student application portal, when asked to add a Research Proposal. The Form replaces the Research Proposal and so you do not need to add a Research Proposal. Please do not send your form directly to the Offshore Wind CDT.

Guaranteed interview scheme 

The CDT is committed to generating a diverse and inclusive training programme and is looking to attract applicants from all backgrounds. We offer a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for home fee status candidates who identify as Black or Black mixed or Asian or Asian mixed if they meet the programme entry requirements. This positive action is to support recruitment of these under-represented ethnic groups to our programme and is an opt in process. Find out more.

Interviews 

Interviews will be held during mid-January 2025.