About

What makes ECOSOLUTIONS different?

A new way of working

Chemicals are essential to society and the chemical industry is a major contributor to the UK economy, yet chemicals pose a threat to biodiversity, ecosystem services and human health globally and in the UK. To address this challenge a new way of working is needed where chemical impacts on whole systems, now and into the future, are considered and which has a greater focus on management and mitigation.  

Existing training programmes around chemical pollution take a single ecosystem approach and focus on chemical impacts. ECOSOLUTIONS is different in that it will deliver a training programme to develop graduates trained in systems-level thinking with a solution-focused mindset to actively manage and mitigate chemical risks. They will be able to think across disciplinary boundaries and work across sectors.

Training

We will train PhD students via co-designed, co-funded and co-delivered projects with our project partners to produce graduates that have the skills and knowledge to:

• help the UK Government meet its target to deliver a non-toxic environment

• support the design of safe and sustainable chemical products essential for the development of a sustainable chemical manufacturing sector

• manage pollution to conserve biodiversity and protect key ecosystem services and human health.  

Your future

ECOSOLUTIONS graduates will be excellent researchers able to work across the natural, health and socioeconomic sciences, engineering disciplines and across government, industry and third sectors. They will be innovative thinkers who can design safe chemicals and develop nature- and engineered-based solutions for mitigating impacts. They will be equipped to effectively translate their work to a range of stakeholders via effective collaboration, networking and communication. 

Fig 4:  Perspectives and issues to be considered in the Systems-Solutions Workshops (AMR - antimicrobial resistance; PPP - plant protection products; AI - artificial intelligence; ML- machine learning; SVHC - substances of very high concern).

Research projects

All students within a given cohort will undertake challenging research projects that relate to the same systems challenge (delivering non-toxic: urban systems (cohort 1), rural landscapes and food systems (cohort 2), safe and sustainable chemical production systems (cohort 3)) and will follow a core training programme providing knowledge and understanding of chemical assessment and management and supporting development of transferable and systems thinking skills. 

ECOSOLUTIONS will deliver training that:

1. implements a systems approach to chemical impacts on both humans and the environment;

2. embeds cutting edge environmental science into future chemical-based scenarios and solutions;

3. facilitates effective and agile approaches to pollution regulation and policy that cut across disciplinary silos.

4. develops innovative approaches to underpin safe and sustainable chemical development