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 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.  The project is supported by industry partner, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture (CEFAS) and is part of a PhD Research Cluster, Understanding environmental impacts and consequences.

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.

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 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.

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Funding

The CDT is funded by the EPSRC, allowing us to provide scholarships that cover fees plus a stipend set at the UKRI nationally agreed rates. These have been set by UKRI as £20,780 per annum at 2025/26 rates and will increase in line with the EPSRC guidelines for the subsequent years (subject to progress).

Eligibility

Our funded Doctoral Scholarships are available to UK Students. The advertised CDT scholarships in this current recruitment round are available to Home (UK) Students only as the CDT has reached the annual cap, set by the funding council (UKRI EPSRC), on international student recruitment for the 2025 intake. 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).

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

How to apply

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 are open until Friday 9 May 2025 

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 the appropriate link to apply for this CDT project at the University of Hull: 

Full Time: https://evision.hull.ac.uk/urd/sits.urd/run/siw_ipp_lgn.login?process=siw_ipp_app&code1=RPBIOHXFD01003&code2=0001 

Part Time: https://evision.hull.ac.uk/urd/sits.urd/run/siw_ipp_lgn.login?process=siw_ipp_app&code1=RPBIOHXPD01003&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).  

Please download the Supplementary Application Form here. 

Ensure you complete all sections of the Supplementary Application Form in font and size Calibri 11pt, specify the research project you are applying for.  

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.   

Interviews will be held online with an interview panel comprising of project supervisory team members from the host university where the project is based.  Where the project involves external supervisors from university partners or industry sponsors then representatives from these partners may form part of the interview panel and your supplementary application form will be shared with them (with the guaranteed interview scheme section removed). Interviews will take place during early and mid-June. 

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.