About the Project
The Environmental Sustainability and Resilience (ENSURE) Joint Centre is a collaborative programme of scholarship managed by the University of Exeter and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Launched in 2018, ENSURE serves as a platform for international academic exchange, promoting policy related works, and nurturing the next generation of young researchers to address sustainable development challenges. By working together, we can both harness the power of our collective academic expertise and use our combined visibility to effect meaningful change.
To achieve these aims, the ENSURE Joint Centre offers:
· Research grants (designed to establish and foster interdisciplinary academic collaboration, in areas related to the climate emergency).
· PhD studentships (available to support the next generation of researchers working within areas relating to the climate emergency)
Through the auspices of ENSURE, the University of Exeter is delighted to offer one full Split-Site PhD scholarship, commencing in January 2026, to an outstanding candidate to work alongside the “Climate Change, future water resources and the evolution of glaciers in High Mountain Asia” project, under the primary supervision of Profs Stephan Harrison and Karen Anderson at Exeter, and with secondary supervision by Prof Lin Liu at CUHK.
High Mountain Asia (HMA), known as Asia’s Water Tower, is undergoing rapid economic development with growing populations in quickly developing countries. However, future development is hampered by increasingly vulnerable water resources and climate change.
HMA contains the largest volume of glacial ice outside of the Poles. The impact of climate change on this enormous region is profound because of the pronounced vulnerability of mountain glaciers to melting. Increasing surface air temperature and changes in precipitation is reflected in widespread glacier recession and this will likely continue with an increase in associated natural hazards. Across HMA there has been vegetation expansion in alpine vegetation communities as glaciers melt; and our previous studies show a potentially wide range of hydrological outcomes which may feed back to the cryospheric system. So far ecological, hydrological, and cryospheric work has been conducted separately. To address this gap, our project integrates these overlapping areas to provide a holistic understanding of their interactions.
For these reasons our project will assess how a combination of climate change, ice melting and vegetation change will impact contrasting regions of HMA. One way of assessing these issues is to understand the range of glacier-climate interactions in contrasting research sites. Possible sites could include areas we have worked in previously: the Khumbu catchment in Nepal, the Kangri catchment in Ladakh, and the Heihe catchment in the Qilian Shan. Using insights from these catchments, we will extend our analysis to cover all major water basins across HMA. We will simulate future changes in temperature, precipitation, and snowmelt using climate projection models. These projections, combined with hydrological modeling, will allow us to assess the future availability of water resources in sensitive watersheds.
The successful candidate is likely to have a background in at least one of the following: physical geography; environmental science; hydrology; climate science; applied physics; applied mathematics. They will use remote sensing techniques and physical modelling to assess climate and glacier evolution in these high research sites. An interest in fieldwork at high altitude and in challenging environments will be a distinct advantage.
This ENSURE Split-Site PhD Scholarship will cover Home or International tuition fees, stipend of at least £20,780pa for up to 4 years and other limited research and travel costs. The successful candidate will be expected to commence study at Exeter in January 2026 before an expected placement at CUHK from September 2026 for a period not exceeding 12 months, before returning to Exeter to complete the PhD programme. While at CUHK, the successful candidate will work under the guidance of Prof Lin Liu at CUHK, while retaining primary (remote) supervision from Exeter supervisors. To note, upon successful completion of the full programme, the candidate will be eligible to graduate with a University of Exeter PhD degree only, as the home institution in this programme, rather than each of an Exeter and CUHK degree.
Funding Notes
Tuition fees and an annual tax-free stipend of at least £20,780 (pro rata) per year
References
Applicants for this studentship must have obtained, or be about to obtain, a First or Upper Second Class UK Honours degree, or the equivalent qualifications gained outside the UK, in an appropriate area of physical geography; environmental science; hydrology; climate science; applied physics; applied mathematics.
If English is not your first language you will need to meet the English language requirements and provide proof of proficiency. Click here for more information https://www.exeter.ac.uk/study/englishlanguagerequirements/.
