£5 million investment in doctoral students at the University of St Andrews

Doctoral students at the University of St Andrews are set to be supported through a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Award from new award schemes announced Wednesday, November 13 by UK Innovation and Research (UKRI).

Led by Dr Chris Sutherland, a reader in the School of Mathematics and Statistics and an affiliate of the Center for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling (CREEM), the funding will support doctoral students through a collaborative proposal titled NETGAIN: Developing the science and practice of nature markets for a net positive future.

NETGAIN is a co-created inter-disciplinary initiative focussed on the science and practice of net gain. This represents a collective investment of close to £5 million from NERC and the Universities of St Andrews, Aberdeen, Durham, and Glasgow towards a minimum of 36 PhD studentships over three cohorts, and will support and sustain a growing multi-sector network of more than 60 external partners representing research, policy, economics, and consulting.

The project aims to recruit and train a new generation of multidisciplinary practitioners who will be equipped to contribute effective, evidence-based solutions to address the world’s most urgent environmental challenges and is funded through one of four NERC doctoral focal awards.

Speaking of the award, Chris said: “Our vision is of a collaborative doctoral training programme integrating diverse disciplinary and sectoral perspectives to directly address critical training needs and knowledge gaps associated with net gain and the design and implementation of nature markets.

“Central to this is an emphasis on multidisciplinary co-creation. NETGAIN will support new environmental solutions, disseminate those directly into practice via industry partnerships, and hence contribute to securing productive, healthy, and resilient environments and societies.”

NERC’s doctoral focal awards address priority or emerging training needs within the environmental sciences. The funding comes as part of an investment of more than £500 million that will support discovery-driven research at universities across the UK, building on the rich history of doctoral investments that support discovery-driven research at universities across the UK.

UKRI Chief Executive, Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser, said: “UKRI’s investments in Doctoral Training are pivotal for the UK’s research and innovation endeavour. The awards provide funding for Universities across the UK to nurture a cadre of creative, talented people to develop their skills and knowledge, to build partnerships and networks, and to peruse the discoveries that will transform tomorrow, with diverse benefits for society and economic growth.”

The awards follow the launch of the UKRI Doctoral Investment Framework in 2023, part of UKRI’s transition to collective talent funding which aims to simplify and harmonise talent focused investments. The framework structures doctoral support around two types of awards – doctoral landscape awards and doctoral focal awards.