EcoWild (NERC CDT) (Taught)

The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2025). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas.

The EcoWild NERC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) programme has been designed to deliver the next generation of innovative researchers and conservationists needed to protect some of the Earth’s most vulnerable and valuable ecosystems.

Multiple stressors, such as climatic extremes and chemical pollution, are driving biodiversity declines. Wetlands and fringing ecosystems are exceptionally biodiverse, critical for combating the climate emergency and essential for enhancing community resilience to extreme weather events such as storms and floods.

These ecosystems are among the most threatened globally, impacted by multiple environmental stressors. However, our understanding of these impacts is limited, thereby hindering conservation and restoration efforts, and impeding their potential as nature-based and bioengineered solutions. Each EcoWild Doctoral research project will address these knowledge gaps.

EcoWild is a unique partnership, led by Heriot-Watt University, that brings together research expertise and innovation across various fields of research and involves some of the leading UK experts in these areas.

Course structure
As a doctoral student, your primary focus will be your research and the majority of your time will, therefore, be spent in independent self-directed research and will involve a mixture of experimental, computational and observational activities.

Projects based at Oxford will be in the Department of Biology, which offers a friendly graduate community and provides a welcoming network to new students. The graduate student community offers a supportive environment, both social and scientific, allowing new graduates to develop into well- rounded and confident scientists.

You will be part of a vibrant educational research community that includes an active set of doctoral student-led events, seminars and workshops.

Each year you will also receive world class taught training through a mix of in-person cohort-building events and online training. The training is enriched through the active involvement of the CDT's associated partners, who contribute to the design and delivery of the programme, organise challenge events, and offer secondments and internships. This provides students with valuable real world experience in addressing environmental problems and working in a professional environment.