Living Well with Water Doctoral Focal Award

We are delighted to announce the Living Well with Water Doctoral Focal Awards call for projects from academic colleagues. This exciting new consortium, led by the University of Hull with the University of Liverpool, in partnership with the National Trust, the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) and Tate Liverpool, will offer 39 PhD scholarships, funded by both the AHRC and NERC, as well as by the Universities of Hull and Liverpool, over the next seven years. The first cohort of studentships will commence in September 2026.

Typically supporting 3.5 years of fees, maintenance, and research training support, Living Well with Water now invites interdisciplinary projects exploring the relationship between water, culture and community in coastal and estuarine regions of the UK. We also welcome projects which ask how UK communities today can learn from the past, and/or from non-UK cultures and contexts.

Projects will be staff-devised, and all projects should involve supervisors from more than one academic discipline. We particularly welcome projects combining the sciences with SHAPE disciplines (Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts for People and the Economy). Projects supervised jointly by Hull and Liverpool supervisors are encouraged but not essential.

APPLICATIONS FROM PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS ARE NOT YET INVITED.

For more information regarding our consortium and scholarships, please see:

The deadline for applications is 12 noon on Tuesday 28 October 2025.

If you would like to discuss a proposal for a project, please either email LivingWWW@hull.ac.uk or:

At the University of Liverpool: Professor Neil Macdonald neil.macdonald@liverpool.ac.uk or Dr Alan Greaves greaves@liverpool.ac.uk