Studentships - information

This is the link to the current round of studentships due to start in 2012. Link to 2012 advert  .

Scottish Natural Heritage funds three Studentships each year. Previously Scottish Natural Heritage funded all three, but for the first time last year one was funded by SEPA.

A range of areas for Research are decided by the studentship board (Des Thompson, Phil Boon and Susan Davies from Scottish Natural Heritage and Peter Singleton from SEPA) such as climate change, invasive species or marine environment.

An advert for studentships on the chosen research areas is placed in the New Scientist (both in the magazine and online), generally November, for around two weeks. The closing date for applications is about 6 weeks after this (around mid December). Applications are then considered by the studentship board as well as members of the Scottish Natural Heritage board, with the successful applications chosen by the end of January.

Scottish Natural Heritage then works with University staff to select a student to start the project in autumn, ie for the new University year.

Studentships generally last for three years. (this link opens a complete list of all the studentships  )

Ongoing Studentships

Start year 2006/2007

Assessing cumulative effects of wind farms on bird populations. SNH tutor: Rhys Bullman

Resilience of acid organic soils to anthropogenic nitrogen deposition SNH tutor: Patricia Bruneau

Identification of species extinction risk through climate induced habitat change. SNH tutor: Stewart Angus

Start year 2007/2008

The hazel gloves fungus in Atlantic hazel woodlands: Understanding the biology and distribution of the fungus in relation to woodland management. SNH tutor: Dave Genney

A GIS-based decision support tool for landscape character assessment SNH tutor: James Fenton

Reconciling ecology and socio-economics to conserve the great yellow bumblebee SNH tutor: Athayde Tonhasca

Start year 2008/2009

Managing upland heaths for carbon sequestration. SNH tutor: Andrew Coupar

The socio-economics of species reintroductions. SNH tutor: Martin Gaywood

Signal crayfish in Scotland. SNH tutor: Colin Bean

Start year 2009/2010

Invasive American mink on the west coast of Scotland: importance of the marine environment, factors effecting their spread and dispersal, and management implications. SNH tutor: Iain Macleod

Quantifying the climate change response of micro-organism (Desmid) diversity in Scotland's blanket mires. SNH tutor: Andrew Coupar

Underwater acoustic interactions between emerging tidal-energy technologies and vulnerable vertebrates. SNH tutor: George Lees