Polar science makes up approximately 10-15% of all NERC science, but all NERC science areas apply in the polar regions. Relevant research areas for this programme include: Atmospheric science, Climate change, Ecology, Geosciences, Environmental chemistry, Hydrology, Oceanography, Cryosphere, Terrestrial, marine and freshwater environments.

While all environmental science disciplines can be applied to the polar regions, ensuring that this is justified in a scientifically sound way is key. We would recommend talking to a friendly polar scientist and getting them involved in your project if you need to.

This programme is also interested in the sustainable use of our natural resources. Today the Venn overlap between polar science and low-carbon technologies and methods is quite small. We hope that it will be much larger by the end of this programme.

We are not making it compulsory for the science objectives to be focused on achieving net zero. It is only essential that the research questions fit within the usual NERC remit and that the science is of relevance to the polar regions.

However, the net zero objective for the project does have to be described alongside the science objectives, and it should relate to the science objectives. More information on the Net Zero Case Study can be found here.

Please contact nzps@northumbria.ac.uk if you would like more information about this or if you would like to discuss your project idea further.

Yes, we encourage proposals from all areas of cryosphere research, though we may prioritise projects with a clear polar focus in the event of oversubscription.

Yes, please do co-develop projects with industry or relevant external organisations, where appropriate. Working with an industry partner from the start to develop your project is strongly encouraged. Please get in touch with the NZPS Management Team on nzps@northumbria.ac.uk if you would like support with this.  

If you already have strong links with relevant industrial/external partners or even if you have only made initial enquiries with specific organisations about your project at this stage, please include details of potential involvement in your project proposal submission.

If you haven’t had chance to discuss a potential partnership with industry or other external organisations, please do not worry. The NZPS leadership team has developed a large network of industrial/external partners who are interested to get involved in this programme, and we’ll start a process after projects have been selected of matching supervisory teams with industry representatives/external partners.

The net zero case studies will be produced by PhD students, and so they should they should be designed to find a home in the doctoral thesis. We expect that they will be useful content for the discussion chapter of any PhD thesis, rather than acting as a stand-alone science objective or chapter.

We also want to make sure that the net zero case studies are useful stand-alone documents, similar to an impact case study, so that other people (academics, scientists, government, industry, and other stakeholders) can make use of them.

Making use of satellite data, for example, is a relatively low carbon approach to environmental science, and satellite Earth Observation of the polar regions has grown over the past 30 years. Unfortunately for those of us who already that make use of remote sensing techniques in our research, we have an additional challenge because the aim for this programme is to reduce the carbon footprint of polar science based upon the present approaches. If the present approach is to already make use of satellite Earth observations, you’re going to have to think a little bit harder about your net zero objective.

Consider if there ways in which you can reduce the carbon footprint of this work even further. Are some traditional, carbon-intensive methods still used for certain aspects of research in your area of interest and can you use remote techniques instead?

Single-gender supervisory teams are not permitted, but we do not expect that all teams have an equal gender balance.

We ask that PhD project supervisory teams strive to be diverse, for example including academics with a mix of gender, ethnicity and career stage, in the same way that breadth of subject expertise is considered.

External members of supervisory teams (outside of the core HEI partners and BAS) can be included when you are considering the diversity of your team.

Please note: If you are struggling to fulfil these requirements, please do not let it put you off submitting a project proposal! We will not automatically reject proposals on this basis. We will provide support and a match-making service to supervisory teams (where required), and the NZPS Recruitment Committee may request some proposal amendments and iterations post-submission. While we recommend that supervisory teams are kept small (usually up to four people), we recognise that expecting diversity within teams may lead to higher numbers of supervisors in some cases.

Yes, we will accept proposals with a British Antarctic Survey as lead supervisor. However, we only currently have two studentships available to sit at BAS with BAS lead supervisors: one that will need to be registered at Leeds and one to be registered at Northumbria. Both projects will be expected to be co-developed with the host university to ensure the collaboration is meaningful and effective. It is unlikely that more than one studentship will be placed at BAS in the 2027 cohort, so we recommend that BAS staff members collaborate with supervisory teams with a university lead.