Environmental Planning: Fully Funded PhD Studentship in the ESRC Welsh Graduate School of Social Sciences (WGSSS) Environmental Planning Pathway

Environmental planning examines the spatial dimensions and decision-making processes for the sustainable management of the relationships within and between natural and human systems. This interdisciplinary PhD training pathway bridges social and natural environmental sciences. It focusses on key environmental challenges, and their manifestation in Wales, the UK and globally, reflecting current policy challenges for Welsh and UK governments in the environmental sector. Major concerns include but are not limited to: impacts and management of climate change; local and regional environmental quality; conservation management; and post-Brexit environmental legislation.

The Department of Geography at Swansea is a vibrant and dynamic place for interdisciplinary doctoral studies. Our academics have a long history of successfully training PhD students for careers in the public, private, and third sectors, as well as in academia. Our staff have a wide range of expertise central to this pathway including quantifying and mitigating climate change, landscape carbon dynamics, flood management, pollution, environmental hazard management, wildfire mitigation, environmental archaeology, GIS and remote sensing applications, and cultural, urban, political, and economic geography. We are working in close collaboration with public and private sector organisations (e.g. DEFRA, Forest Research, Natural Resources Wales, MetOffice, UK National Parks, Fire and Rescue Services, Home Office, UK water companies and the Health Sector). 

As part of the WGSSS, the Environmental Planning pathway is founded on longstanding institutional links between Swansea University’s Department of Geography, Cardiff University’s School of Geography and Planning, Aberystwyth University’s Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Bangor University and the Countryside and Community Research Institute at the University of Gloucestershire. The departments collaborate extensively in PhD supervision, externally-funded research projects and postgraduate training.

Training is provided through a coordinated programme of standalone and residential modules in quantitative and qualitative social science methods, and science communication and a cohort-building postgraduate conference with participation from across the pathway. Options for specialist training include GIS and spatial data analysis, advanced quantitative research in SPSS, transport modelling, calculating environmental footprints, living lab methodologies, conservation research, randomized response techniques, cost-benefit analysis, spatial economic modelling, and satellite and drone remote sensing.

Funding Comment

The studentship funded by the ESRC covers tuition fees and an annual tax-free living stipend in line with UKRI minimum rates (currently £20,780 for 2025/26) and includes a Research Training Support Grant. 

If you have a disability, you may be entitled to a Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) on top of your studentship. Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA)

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