The ECOSOLUTIONS student journey

ECOSOLUTIONS PhD students will follow a unique and exciting training and development programme delivered jointly by the three host organisations (University of Sheffield, University of York and UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology), and partners from the policy/regulation, business/industry and third sectors.

Fig 3. The ECOSOLUTIONS training offer, including training specified by NERC and defined by our partners: digital and data skills, commercialisation and entrepreneurial skills, responsible research and innovation, ethics, reproducibility, research integrity, open research methodology, communication and management skills, public engagement skills and systems level thinking and impact.

ECOSOLUTIONS Induction

Students are aware of the programme aims and objectives and system-level vision. They understand the project partner interest and meet fellow cohort members

Online Primer Training

Students are aware of the impacts that chemical pollution has on the environment, the policy landscape and how environmental issues are considered in chemical discovery and development

Transferable Skills Workshops

Students have the core NERC transferable skills and awareness of how innovations in AI and machine can be integrated into their research. Students will also gain skills in change management, socio-economic analysis, influencing styles and effective proposal writing to maximise their employability

Systems-Solution Workshops

Students understand system-wide pollution pressures, future challenges, potential mitigations measures together with an understanding of the wider socio-economic considerations and any barriers to implementation

CASE/Project Placement

Upon completion of a 3-month secondment, the student will have greater stakeholder awareness in adopting pollution mitigation measures and the innovation needs for sustainable chemicals development and science-based policy or conservation

International Conferences and Wrap-Up Event

In addition to annual ECOSOLUTIONS meetings students will network with other researchers and practitioners in the environmental pollution area by attending international meetings

Activities alongside your PhD

In addition to the training that you will receive in your day-to-day PhD work, activities will include:

A residential induction course where you will get to meet and interact with other students in your cohort and the ECOSOLUTIONS management team and learn about the aims of the programme
An online primer course introducing you to the impacts of chemicals in the environment, the policy landscape and how environmental issues are considered in chemical discovery and development
Transferable skills workshops where you will develop an understanding of good research practice, data management, big data methods, effective communication and how to achieve impact
Systems-solutions workshops where you work with other members of the cohort and, supervisory teams to identify commonalities and links across the different PhD projects, explore how urban chemical pollution could change in the future, identify solutions to urban pollution and translate the research work of the team into real world impacts
A three-month secondment where you will work with one of the ECOSOLUTIONS partner organisations to deliver a small project. This will give you greater awareness of the work of the organisation and of how it operates and functions, the work it does around chemicals in the environment and of how your research fits the bigger picture.
Attendance at international conferences where you will present the results of your work to the wider community and get an opportunity to put into practice the many different skill sets you have developed from the other training activities.

Participation in our unique and innovative training programme will provide a strong foundation for a future career in academia, government and regulation, business and industry or the third sector. It will give you the knowledge and skill sets so that you can make a real positive difference to the health of our environment.

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