Environmental Research

Environmental Research Programme (Doctoral Training Partnership)

Course Code | TBC

This is a four-year DPhil programme which offers interdisciplinary training across three broad environmental science streams, each of which includes the influence of, and consequences for, human-environment interactions:

• Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Processes
• Physical Climate System
• Dynamic Earth, Surface Processes and Natural Hazards

In the first term students are trained as a single cohort and given a grounding in essential research skills while they design their research project. In the second and third terms they then receive more specialised training in one of the three streams, and join one of six departments where they will carry out their project and complete their DPhil. During all four years of the programme, students will continue to receive a tailored training programme to broaden their research and professional skills.

Students will also engage with external partners from the commercial and third sector in a variety of ways, including co-supervision arrangements, internships, and problem-solving live issues. 

Students will be trained in locations around the science area and through field trips in the first year. 

From the second term onwards, students will be based in the department appropriate to their research project. They will undertake their projects in one of the following departments:

• Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics
• Archaeology
• School of Geography and the Environment
• Plant Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Zoology

Students will be able to take advantage of the research facilities offered by these departments, as well as the expertise of Oxford’s many interdisciplinary centres.

Information on academic staff profiles

The Environmental Research DTP programme aims to produce internationally competitive graduates, able to work across disciplinary boundaries, possessing key skills to succeed in a range of careers in the environmental sciences whether in the private, public or third sector. 

• DPhil in Archaeology
• DPhil in Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics
• DPhil in Earth Sciences
• DPhil in Geography and the Environment 
• DPhil in Plant Sciences
• DPhil in Zoology