About the Project
Would you eat more chickpeas? Understanding how consumers’ responses to future farming systems might shape their ability to reduce chemical pollution
Are you passionate about solving complex environmental challenges? Interested in creating non-toxic environments that benefit society and nature alike? This innovative and exciting PhD project, co-designed with non-academic partners, is part of the NERC-funded ECOSOLUTIONS Doctoral Focal Award, and offers the opportunity to address real world challenges with key opinion-formers to help support sustainable chemical development and create non-toxic urban & rural landscapes.
Project details:
Citizen’s behaviour contributes to pollution in water systems, including the use and disposal of pharmaceuticals, personal care, and cleaning products. The NERC ECOMIX project assessed ecological impacts across river catchments in Yorkshire and the findings formed the basis of an exhibition – Confluence for Change – that showed people the invisible chemicals in rivers using, for example, photos of the rivers integrated with chemical data and an interactive map. The proposed project involves the ECOMIX team working with experts in behavioural science to investigate how such materials can serve as a catalyst for behaviour change.
We start by testing if the materials increase people’s awareness of pollution and how their actions can contribute. The materials will be shown to a representative sample of UK residents as part of an online survey, comparing the effects on outcomes relative to a control group. We will then introduce self-monitoring – an evidence-based behaviour change technique (see Harkin, Webb, et al., 2016) and assess the extent to which people are willing to monitor their actions that might contribute to pollution.
The second part of the project will actively prompt people to monitor their actions using an online or paper form that will be co-designed with potential users. A factorial design will isolate the effects of the exhibition materials and self-monitoring and test their combined effect relative to control. Participants in the relevant conditions will be prompted to monitor their behaviour over one week with effects on beliefs and behaviour measured immediately following monitoring and one month later.
The ECOSOLUTIONS DFA
Led by the Universities of Sheffield and York and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, ECOSOLUTIONS is a cutting-edge, transdisciplinary initiative. This innovative programme combines science, policy, and societal engagement to transform chemicals policy and management, enabling a safe, sustainable chemicals sector and non-toxic environments. This project is one of 19 projects that are available for the third ECOSOLUTIONS and final cohort who will work together to begin to understand and solve the problems of sustainable chemical design and use, as well tackling the problems that pollution causes in urban environments, rural landscapes and food systems.
What You will Gain
As an ECOSOLUTIONS PhD student, you will work with world-leading experts across diverse fields such as ecology, data science, digital solutions, chemistry, geography, psychology, environmental engineering, policy, and law. You will learn to tackle the risks posed by chemicals while enabling their societal benefits, adopting a whole-systems and solutions-focused approach.
You will receive 3 years and 9 months of funding and take part in a dynamic training and development programme, including:
- Induction course: Connect with fellow students, supervisors, and the ECOSOLUTIONS team while exploring the programme’s mission.
- Primer course: Gain foundational knowledge on the environmental risks that chemicals pose, policy landscapes, and sustainable chemical innovation.
- Transferable skills workshops: Master data management, big data methods, research practices, communication, stakeholder engagement and more.
- Systems-solutions workshops: Collaborate across disciplines to explore sustainable chemical design and development, address pollution in urban & rural landscapes, and develop actionable solutions.
- Three-month secondment: The Rivers Trust
- International conferences: Share your findings and network with global experts.
The skills you will need
To do this project you will need the following essential skills:
- Social science methodologies
Eligibility:
To be considered for the ECOSOLUTIONS DFA, you will need at least an upper 2nd class honours degree or equivalent in a relevant discipline.
As a collaboration of international research-led universities, we welcome students from all walks of life and from across the world. Within our programme, we are dedicated to diversifying our community.
As part of our ongoing work to improve Equality, Diversity and Inclusion we strongly encourage applications from UK/Home candidates from identified underrepresented groups: Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, those from a disadvantaged socio-economic background, and disabled people.
Start Your Research Career with ECOSOLUTIONS:
This PhD is part of the ECOSOLUTIONS Doctoral Focal Award (DFA), a prestigious NERC-funded program dedicated to training the next generation of environmental practitioners. For more details and a full list of other PhD projects under this programme, visit: https://ecosolutions.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/
Application Web Page:
For more information on how to apply, please visit the ECOSOLUTIONS website: https://ecosolutions.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/
Professor Thomas Webb, University of Sheffield, t.webb@sheffield.ac.uk
Funding Notes
This is a full scholarship which will cover tuition fees and provide an annual stipend in line with UKRI recommended levels (£21,805 for the 2026/2027 academic year, TBC in 2027/2028) for the 45 months duration.
Due to CDT funding rules and Institutional policies, there is a cap on the number of scholarships that can be awarded to DFA students. Once this limit has been reached, ECOSOLUTIONS DFA scholarships will only be awarded to students who are eligible for Home fee status. York and UKCEH led projects can only fund applications from UK/Home eligible applicants and Sheffield can accept applications from both with very limited places for international students.