PhD in Evaluating the influence of NEOM regreening approaches on terrestrial productivity (Funded PhD Studentship)

Project details:

Supervisors 

Dr Andy Cunliffe, Oppenheimer Associate Professor of Geospatial Ecology, University of Exeter

Professor Ted Feldpausch, Professor of Terrestrial Ecology and Global Change, University of Exeter 

The University of Exeter invites applications for a PhD studentship in geospatial ecology starting from April 2026 onwards. The student will join the Terrestrial Ecosystem Science and Services (TESS) lab (https://tess-lab.org/) in the Department of Geography, Streatham Campus, Exeter.

Funded by the Saudi NEOM project, eligible students would receive Home tuition fees, a £15,000 research training support grant, and an annual tax-free stipend of at least £20,780 for 3.5 years. 

This funded PhD studentship will deliver new understanding of the variability in plant productivity over space and time in response to dryland management in the context of environmental variation. 

The Saudi NEOM project is one of the largest ecological restoration projects worldwide, with interventions being deployed to regreen drylands across vast landscapes. However, environmental variability over space and time hinders evaluations of how effective interventions are. Building on our Relative Productivity Index (RPI) using observed versus potential productivity modelled with machine learning (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113208), this applied geospatial ecology project will study how vegetation productivity varies, how it responds to management, and evaluate NEOM’s regreening efforts. 

Objectives include:

Objective 1: Enhance the Relative Productivity Index (RPI) framework by improving predictive performance, computational efficiency, and spatial resolution through algorithm optimisation, tuning, and refined covariates. Assess trade-offs between spatial resolution and other performance factors. Apply the improved RPI to quantify baseline vegetation impacts (e.g., overgrazing) across Saudi Arabia.

Objective 2: Evaluate the impacts of NEOM’s passive regreening actions, such as excluding large herbivores and off-road driving, using the RPI to control for climate-driven variability and incorporating data from allied ground monitoring. This should reveal landscape-scale recovery timeframes and highlight areas where further interventions or monitoring may be desirable.

Objective 3: Evaluate NEOM’s active regreening efforts, such as planting and irrigation, using a multi-method approach. Combine fine-scale RPI (to account for climate-driven variability) with finer resolution optical data (e.g., Sentinel-2) to compare vegetation change in intervention sites versus the wider landscape.

Developing the RPI framework is an active priority within the TESS Lab, offering collaboration opportunities with related projects. The University is a leader in research into environmental change and its impacts on people. 

The student will make two extended visits to Saudi Arabia for place-based learning, model validation, and knowledge exchange with the NEOM team. As the project partner provides funding and support, specific terms apply and will be explained at interview and detailed in the offer letter. 

The studentship will be awarded on the basis of merit. Students who pay international tuition fees are eligible to apply. However, they should be aware that the award only covers part of the international tuition fee or approximately £25,000 pa. International applicants need to be aware that they will have to cover the cost of their student visa, healthcare surcharge and other costs of moving to the UK to do a PhD. 

The conditions for eligibility of home fees status are complex and you will need to seek advice if you have moved to or from the UK (or Republic of Ireland) within the past 3 years or have applied for settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme.   

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