About the Project
Green and Blue Social Prescribing has gained considerable attention over the last few years for its potential to improving health and wellbeing through connecting people with nature-based activities such as walking groups, community gardening, outdoor arts programmes, or open-water swimming. Evidence suggests that contact with nature can improve mental and physical health, that nature-based social prescribing programmes reduce social isolation, enhance wellbeing, and contribute to addressing…
health inequalities, while also reducing pressure on health services (e.g., Haywood et al., 2024; Howarth et al., 2025).
Despite growing policy support and investment in the UK, significant challenges remain in embedding Green and Blue Social Prescribing within local communities. These include fragmented referral pathways, unequal access to opportunities, limited integration between health services and community organisations, and concerns regarding the long-term sustainability of funding and delivery models (Donoghue et al., 2026). Volunteer and community sector (VCS) organisations deliver much of the nature-based social prescribing offer yet often face capacity and resource constraints.
The PhD project aims to:
- Explore how Green and Blue Social Prescribing is implemented across community settings in the North East and North Cumbria.
- Develop an understanding of how implementation is shaped by relationships, collaboration, and adaptation across different local contexts, with a focus on how health services, local authorities, VCS organisations, social prescribing link workers, and community groups work together to develop and sustain effective programmes, and with that shifting our current healthcare culture.
- Investigate the mechanism that enables successful implementation in community settings, including, for example, workforce development, cultural change, community leadership, partnership working, and sustainable funding models.
- Identify how Green and Blue Social Prescribing can be made more accessible and equitable for communities experiencing health inequalities.
A detailed research plan will be developed in collaboration with the supervision team, likely drawing on a comparative qualitative case study design. The findings will generate practical recommendations for strengthening community-based delivery, supporting place-based approaches, and embedding Green and Blue Social Prescribing as a sustainable component of local health and wellbeing systems.
Supervision will be provided by Dr Leah Buhrmann, Professor Tracy Finch and Professor Tim Rapley at Northumbria University, and Dr Matthew Cooper at Newcastle University, bringing together expertise in implementation science, behavioural science and social prescribing.
You will be based in the School of Healthcare and Nursing Science at Northumbria University and join the Innovation and Implementation Research Group (IIR), a friendly, multidisciplinary community focused on implementation and knowledge mobilisation in health and social care. Through IIR and the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North East and North Cumbria, you will have opportunities to engage with researchers and health and care partners. Connections with other PhD students will provide opportunities for peer support, shared learning and collaboration.
Academic Enquiries
This project is supervised by Dr Leah Buhrmann, Dr Matthew Cooper, Professor Tracy Finch, and Professor Tim Rapley. For informal queries, please contact l.buhrmann@northumbria.ac.uk. For all other enquiries relating to eligibility or application process please use the email form below to contact Admissions.
Eligibility Requirements:
- Academic excellence i.e. 2:1 (or equivalent GPA from non-UK universities with preference for 1st class honours); or a Masters (preference for Merit or above); or APEL evidence of substantial practitioner achievement.
- Appropriate IELTS score, if required.
- Applicants cannot apply if they are already a PhD holder or if currently engaged in Doctoral study at Northumbria or elsewhere.
To be classed as a Home student, candidates must:
- Be a UK National (meeting residency requirements), or
- have settled status, or
- have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements), or
- have indefinite leave to remain or enter.
If a candidate does not meet the criteria above, they would be classed as an International student and would not be eligible.
Applicants will need to be in the UK and fully enrolled before stipend payments can commence.
For further details on how to apply see https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/research/postgraduate-research-degrees/how-to-apply/
In your application, please include a research proposal of approximately 1,000 words and the advert reference (e.g. ARC26/…).
Deadline for applications: Monday 19 October 2026, 23:59 UK time
Start date of course: January 2027
Northumbria University is committed to creating an inclusive culture where we take pride in, and value, the diversity of our postgraduate research students. We encourage and welcome applications from all members of the community. The University holds a bronze Athena Swan award in recognition of our commitment to advancing gender equality, we are a Disability Confident Leader, a member of the Race Equality Charter and are participating in the Stonewall Diversity Champion Programme. We also hold the HR Excellence in Research award for implementing the concordat supporting the career Development of Researchers and are members of the Euraxess initiative to deliver information and support to professional researchers.
Funding Notes
The Full Time studentship is available to Home students and includes a full stipend at UKRI rates (for 2026/27 full-time study this is £21,805 per year) and full tuition fees. The studentship is also available for home applicants who wish to study part-time over 5 years (0.6 FTE, stipend £13,083 per year and full tuition fees) in combination with work or personal responsibilities.
This studentship is jointly funded by Northumbria University and the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) North East and North Cumbria. In addition to the stipend and tuition fees, the studentship includes a dedicated budget through the NIHR ARC to support training, professional development and research costs.
References
Haywood, A., Dayson, C., Garside, R., et al. (2024). National Evaluation of the Preventing and Tackling Mental Ill Health through Green Social Prescribing Project: Final Report. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (London).
Howarth, M., Relph, N., Fletcher, K. (2025) The Role of Nature-Based Interventions in Supporting Long-Term Conditions through Green Social Prescribing: A Systematic Review. National Academy for Social Prescribing.
Donoghue, J., Butt, F., Ley, C., et al. (2026) Factors influencing access to green health prescribing in primary care for older adults – A qualitative systematic review, 27 February 2026, PREPRINT (Version 1) available at Research Square.