Edinburgh Earth Initiative is inviting research proposals for fully funded student fellowship projects to support interdisciplinary work in the university’s climate and environment challenge areas.

The mission of the Edinburgh Earth Initiative (EEI) is to catalyse bold, globally significant transdisciplinary research, innovation and partnerships at the University in support of the Research & Innovation Strategy 2030 and Beyond Net Zero Strategy.

A key part of EEI, the Earth Fellows programme gives on-campus postgraduate students a unique opportunity to work on paid projects with partners inside and outside the University, engage with professional development events and build a network for collective action on climate and environmental challenges.

For the ‘25/’26 academic year we are looking for research project proposals for Earth Fellowships in the six climate and environment challenge areas set out in the University’s current Research and Innovation strategy (details below). Funding is available for University of Edinburgh academic staff to access Earth Fellows (postgraduate-level work) or Advanced Earth Fellows (PhD-level work) to work on their projects for 9 hours a week for 9 months.

Deadline: Wednesday 14 May 2025, 5pm

What we are looking for

Projects should fulfill all of the following criteria:

Project proposals should fit within at least one of the six climate and environment challenge areas set out in the Research and Innovation strategy:

  • Data for sustainability
  • Future food systems
  • Circular economy
  • Clean energy systems
  • Sustainable cities
  • One Health (climate, environment and sustainability aspects)

Projects should be designed for a postgraduate or PhD student to work on for 9 hours a week over approximately 9 months.

Projects should be designed to build capacity or lay foundations for further funding or research, for example by establishing partnerships or evidence bases.

We require that project ideas are new, meaning that the research team has not previously received external funding for the idea.

The project research team must be radically interdisciplinary, meaning it must include a researcher from at least 2 out of the 3 Colleges. Intellectual input to the research design and supervision should be equally split between the researchers / disciplines.

Who can apply

Applicants need to be academic staff within the University and have responsibility for research. Postdocs can be part of research teams but cannot lead or represent a college. Successful applicants will become EEI ‘project partners’.

Project partners must commit to:

  • supporting Fellows throughout the project lifecycle including taking forward recommendations and next steps where applicable;
  • engaging with the EEI team and community, including participating in events and other partnership activities. Typically, these include a cohort welcome event, a mid-way check-in meeting and an end of cohort showcase/ celebration.

Researchers who have hosted an Earth Fellow in the current academic year are welcome to apply again, but we expect your proposal to be for a new project.

What you can apply for

Funding will be used by EEI to pay the salary of a postgraduate or PhD student to work 9 hours a week for approximately 9 months on your project. Example project activities include:

  • literature reviews
  • stakeholder mapping and engagement
  • conducting interviews
  • creating databases
  • creating reports
  • creating and running models

Note the funding will only be used to pay the Earth Fellow’s salary and does not cover any additional research costs.

Students’ project time cannot be used on activities that are already well established, rather projects should be designed to build capacity or lay foundations for new work.

Students will be recruited via an open competitive process. The roles will be advertised to all postgraduate students and you do not need to have a student in mind to work on your project, in fact we encourage you to be open to working with a student you don’t yet know.

Explore this years’ cohort

You can explore what this years’ cohort of Earth Fellows are working on here. Note only the research-based Earth Fellowships are relevant to this call for proposals (not the curriculum transformation projects, for example).

Application process

The EEI team are very happy to discuss prospective applications and project eligibility, email earth@ed.ac.uk to book in a short chat.

Please fill in an application form by 5pm on Wednesday 14 May 2025.

Selection process

Projects will be selected by a panel convened by EEI. The panel will include academic representatives from each College, EEI and the Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability.

Projects will be judged on their alignment with the 5 criteria above.

Projects will be selected by early June and opened for applications by postgraduate and PhD students by early July. EEI will work with successful applicants to develop their application into a project brief that will be used for recruitment.

EEI will manage recruiting Earth Fellows and successful projects partners will be invited to sit on the interview panel to recruit a student for their project.

We anticipate that Earth Fellows will start as a cohort in October 2025. Fellows will be line managed by EEI and will be required to promote the outcomes of their projects, for example at EEI showcase events and in the annual Earth Fellows Edit.

Apply now

Please fill in an application form by 5pm on Wednesday 14 May 2025.

To help you draft your application, you can access a blank copy of the application form questions here.