About the Project
ACCE+ DLA is committed to recruiting extraordinary future scientists regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, faith or religious belief, pregnancy or maternity, parental or caring responsibilities or career pathway to date. We understand that a student’s potential can be shown in many ways and we strive to recruit students from all backgrounds, and support them on their scientific journey.
We have designed our application systems to identify candidates who are likely to be successful in research regardless of what opportunities may have been available to them prior to their application.
Various support and guidance on applying for an ACCE+ DLA studentship, including how to apply; what we’re looking for (including our assessment rubric); details of financial support, training, and placement opportunities available; and details of our recruitment process, can be found at https://accedtp.ac.uk/, in the ‘prospective applicants’ tab.
Project overview
Importance. Mountains are nature’s water towers. Approximately 2 billion people worldwide depend upon the water they capture from the atmosphere and store on their surfaces. Bofedales, high-altitude wetlands in the Andes, are a key component of the water tower system. They provide water resources to rural communities and are essential to livelihoods, agricultural practices such as alpaca farming, and are biodiversity hot spots. Bofedales need water. The water balance of bofedales is changing due to human-made climate change – glacier-fed bofedales have diminishing upstream stores of ice, and climate change is altering the characteristics of precipitation and evaporation. This project seeks to understand how bofedales have been changing and how they will continue to change in our warming world, and this impact people and ecosystems across the high altitude regions of Peru and Bolivia.
Objectives. The project will combine satellite and field observations with high-resolution climate and glacier modelling to understand historic controls on bofedale health, across Bolivia and Peru. Information gained from this bofedale health assessment, will then be used to project a range of potential bofedale healthy variability under different future scenarios. The projections will be used to explore potential actionable adaptation and conservation strategies across the affected regions.
Further Details. This project suits a student who is interested in water resource change, mountain ecosystems and numerical modelling. Training in numerical methods, data analysis and remote sensing will be provided. The successful candidate will benefit from the research group at Sheffield, with links to researchers in Peru and Boliva.
How to Apply
Notes and details of how to apply are available here: https://accedtp.ac.uk/how-to-apply/
All applicants to ACCE+ must complete an online application form (see the relevant webpages for full details per ACCE+ partner). This form consists of questions that replace a traditional CV, questions about the project/s you are applying to, and the questions that make up the ACCE+ guided personal statement proforma. The personal statement proforma questions are designed to standardise this part of the application to minimise the difference between those who are given support and those who are not. In addition, depending on which ACCE+ University you apply to, you may be asked to submit additional documents via email (all details are in the online form and the ACCE+ page for each University).
Link to application details: https://forms.gle/ugCpeE3mTumFQVd58
Candidates should not submit a separate CV and cover letter or personal statement via email. CVs and cover letters or personal statements received by email will not be considered as part of your application.
Informal enquiries about the application process may be made to accedtp@liverpool.ac.uk.
Part-Time Study Options
All ACCE PhDs are available as part time or full time, with part time being a minimum of 50% of full time, unless stated otherwise in the advert.
Project CASE Status
This project is not a CASE project. While individual applicant quality is our overriding criterion for selection, the ACCE DTP has a commitment for 40% of all studentships to be CASE funded – as such, CASE projects may be favoured in shortlisting applicants when candidates are otherwise deemed to be equal or a consensus on student quality cannot be reached. This will only be undertaken as a last resort for separating candidates following interview.
Funding Notes
NERC ACCE+ DLA programme starts from October 2026.
UKRI provide the following funding for 3.5 years:
• Stipend (2025/26 UKRI rate £20,780)
• Tuition Fees at UK fee rate (2025/26 UKRI rate £5,006)
• Research support and training grant (RTSG)
Note – UKRI funding only covers UK (Home) fees. The DLA partners have various schemes which allow international students to join the DLA but means they are only required to pay home fees. Home fees are already covered in the UKRI funding, meaning that successful international candidates do not need to find any additional funding for fees.
Please note that UK visa and relocation costs cannot be covered by ACCE+ DLA.
