Projects on offer for 2022-23 will be published here in October.  

In the meantime, for those who want an indication of the areas of research being supervised for postgraduates, please find last year's list of projects below.  

Applicants are welcome to approach supervisors with their own ideas - the list is not exclusive, and does not include all supervisors. Please visit our Research Pages for more information, and feel free to contact supervisors directly. 

Many of our students apply for projects within the NERC DTP remit.  Further information about applying for a NERC project can be found on their website. 

Projects on offer for 2021-22 (listed by supervisor)

(Last updated: 25 September 2020)

• NERC DTP BC205: Tracking microplastic flows through freshwater ecosystems (David Aldridge)

• NERC DTP BC206: Native and invasive freshwater snails as model systems for host-parasite dynamics (Lead Supervisor: David Aldridge, Zoology)

• NERC DTP BC207: Palaeontological and developmental approaches for resolving vertebrate phylogenetics and character evolution (Robert Asher)

• Defining the blueprint of the ancestral vertebrate brain (Elia Benito-Gutierrez)

• NERC DTP BC214: The wider ecosystem benefits of managing for soil health on UK farms (Lynn Dicks)

• NERC DTP BC215: Understanding the impacts of insect decline on ecological function and human well-being (Lynn Dicks)

• Biomechanics of insect cleaning devices (Walter Federle)

• NERC DTP BC218: Trading off chemical and physical defences: How do specialist caterpillars cope with stiff and sharp plant trichomes? (Walter Federle)

• NERC DTP BC219: Biomechanics and ecology of sticky capture fluids in carnivorous plants (Nepenthes) (Walter Federle)

• NERC DTP BC226: Snaking through squamate history: Discovering the patterns and mechanisms in the evolution of the snake-like body form (Jason Head)

• NERC DTP BC227: MIOHERP: Reconstructing Deep-Time diversity and its environmental drivers in a diverse vertebrate clade (Jason Head)

• NERC DTP BC228: Grinnell vs. Elton in deep and shallow time: Ecological drivers of lizards and snakes during the last 23 million years (Jason Head)

• NERC DTP BC202: *Priority CASE Project* Domestication of the black soldier fly (Chris Jiggins)

• NERC DTP BC232: The sexy smells of tropical butterflies: Genetics of pheromones and female choice (Chris Jiggins)

• NERC DTP BC233: Dissecting the evolution of bright wing patterns in tropical butterflies (Chris Jiggins)

• NERC DTP BC234: Small yet mitey: the evolution of a species complex (Rebecca Kilner)

• NERC DTP BC235: Evolution after deforestation? Divergence and local adaptation in surviving fragments of the Wild Wood (Rebecca Kilner)

• Epigenetic and transcriptional mechanisms mediating neuronal plasticity (Matthias Landgraf)

• Mechanisms for developing stable networks (Matthias Landgraf)

• Motor network connectivity – wiring motifs and function (Matthias Landgraf)

• Regulation of dendritic and synaptic growth by metabolic reactive oxygen species (Matthias Landgraf)

• Critical period and network tuning (Matthias Landgraf)

• NERC DTP BC239: The ancient past of Africa: reconstructing paleobiomes over the last 800k years (Andrea Manica) 

• NERC DTP BC240: Quantitative Ecology of Antarctic Benthic Communities (Emily Mitchell)

• NERC DTP BC241: Spatio-temporal dynamics of the oldest deep-sea communities from the Ediacaran (~565 million years ago) (Emily Mitchell)

• NERC DTP BC242: Community ecology approaches for understanding early animal evolution (Emily Mitchell)

• NERC DTP BC243: Co-evolution of colour vision and coloration in colourful songbirds (Nick Mundy)

• Evolution of red carotenoid coloration in birds (Nick Mundy)

• NERC DTP BC248: Evolution and development of pigment pattern variation in cichlid fishes (Emília Santos)

• Predicting the Evolution of Influenza Viruses (Derek Smith)

• NERC DTP BC204: *Priority CASE Project* Butterflies, behaviour and buffering: investigating the interaction between fine-scale habitat use, temperature and behaviour in UK butterflies (Edgar Turner)

• Exploring the function of bimolecular condensates in translational regulation  (Tim Weil)

• Establishing the mechanism of the calcium wave at egg activation (Tim Weil)

• Testing the function of calcium in programmed cell death (Tim Weil)