Are you holding Master’s degree and looking for fully funded PhD Programs in Newcastle upon Tyne, England? Newcastle University invites online application for multiple fully funded PhD positions in various research areas. Interested and eligible applicants may submit their online application for PhD programs via the University’s Online Application Portal.
1. Funded PhD Position in Integrating Hydrodynamic and Surrogate Models for Real-Time Coastal Water Quality Prediction
Summary of PhD Position:
Poor bathing water quality poses a significant environmental and public health risk in coastal regions of England. The Environment Agency currently issues Pollution Risk Forecasts based on statistical models, however, these models often fail to capture key pollution sources such as combined sewer overflows, leading to frequent inaccuracies and unreliable forecasts. Combined sewer overflows are expected to increase in frequency and intensity as climate change drives more extreme rainfall events, further exacerbating the risk of pollution in coastal waters.
Application Deadline: 8th January 2026
2. 13 Funded PhD Position in Geography, Natural and Environmental Sciences, Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Civil Engineering, Computing, & Geoscience
Summary of PhD Position:
IAPETUS is a partnership that joins the leading research universities of Durham, Glasgow, Heriot Watt, Newcastle, St Andrews and Stirling, together with the British Antarctic Survey, British Geological Survey and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, in a united approach to doctoral research and training the next generation of leaders in the science of the natural environment.
Application Deadline: 5th January 2026
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3. Funded PhD Position in How does the superficial geology of Gateshead and Newcastle influence groundwater flood risk
Summary of PhD Position:
The North East has a proud coal mining heritage, with hundreds of abandoned and flooded mine seams. Current groundwater levels are the highest ever recorded, and are rising due to the cessation of mine water pumping and climate-driven changes in rainfall. This poses significant flood risk to homes, businesses and infrastructure. For example, during the winter of 2015/2016, mine water flooding at Kibblesworth in Gateshead flooded homes and businesses including Metrocentre Retail Park. Water pollution and groundwater/mine water flooding incidents have been reported across low-lying parts of this borough.
Application Deadline: 8th January 2026
4. Funded PhD Position in Harnessing Floodwaters: Adaptive Strategies for Sustainable Water Resources and Flood Risk Management under Future Uncertainty
Summary of PhD Position:
Climate extremes are exacerbating water scarcity and flooding challenges. This PhD tackles an untapped opportunity—turning floodwater from hazard into resource to boost water security in the UK. Are you ready to shape the future of flood resilience and water management? Do you want to deliver real-world impact through collaboration with government and industry?
Application Deadline: 8th January 2026
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5. Funded PhD Position in Flood risk implications of anthropogenically disturbed river-beds
Summary of PhD Position:
Sand is the world’s second most exploited natural resource after water, and riverbed sand mining has increased dramatically in recent decades. This activity reshapes river channels, altering their topography, destabilising banks, and changing how water and sediment move through large rivers. While these impacts are becoming clearer, what remains poorly understood is how long such disturbances last and, critically, how they affect local and regional flood risk.
Application Deadline: 8th January 2026
6. Funded PhD Position in Exploring the role of UK drainage catchments in managing water levels
Summary of PhD Position:
England’s vital low-lying areas, including the Fens and Romney Marshes, depend on complex networks of drains, rivers, and pumps to regulate water levels. These drainage catchments are crucial for protecting homes, sustaining fragile wetlands, and enabling productive farmland. However, effective water management is challenging due to an incomplete understanding of these systems. We lack clarity on water movement, their sensitivity to extreme weather, and the cumulative impact of different water users.
Application Deadline: 8th January 2026
7. Funded PhD Position in Drought Impacts on the UK Levee Network: Asset Health and Resilience
Summary of PhD Position:
This PhD project offers the opportunity to spearhead cutting-edge research into how drought affects the health and performance of UK levees. You will explore how environmental stressors compromise levee integrity and develop new ways to assess and monitor these impacts. Working at the interface of climate science, geotechnical engineering, remote sensing and critical asset management you will integrate national datasets (e.g. UK Climate Projections, Environment Agency asset records, satellite imagery) with field investigations to identify vulnerable regions and understand surface deterioration processes.
Application Deadline: 8th January 2026
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8. Funded PhD Position in CFD-DEM Optimisation of Porous Breakwater Design and Placement for Enhanced Flood Mitigation
Summary of PhD Position:
Coastal flooding poses a significant and growing threat to communities worldwide, intensified by climate change and sea-level rise. Traditional coastal defence structures can be ecologically disruptive and expensive. Porous breakwaters (PBs) offer a promising alternative, reducing wave energy through dissipation and controlled overtopping, potentially mitigating flood risk while minimising environmental impact (Nimma & Srineash 2025, Nguyean et al. 2022).
Application Deadline: 8th January 2026
9. Funded PhD Position in CFD-DEM Modelling for Producing High-Purity Quartz Sand
Summary of PhD Position:
High-purity quartz is a critical raw material for advanced industries such as semiconductors and optical fibres. The purification of quartz typically involves high-temperature chlorination to convert metallic impurities into volatile chlorides. The process efficiency, however, depends on a complex interplay of particle-scale interactions and particle/solid body interactions. Current industrial practice relies heavily on empirical optimisation, leading to inefficiencies in energy use and impurity removal.
Application Deadline: 18th February 2026
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10. Funded PhD Position in Bionic vision
Summary of PhD Position:
This PhD is an opportunity to take part in research into advanced neuroprosthetic solutions to bringing sight back to the blind (i.e. bionic vision). The Newcastle Visual Prosthesis project is developing a special brain implant which works in tandem with gene therapy to stimulate the visual cortex and thus bypass the broken elements of the visual system in various blinding disorders.
Application Deadline: 18th February 2026
11. Funded PhD Position in Assessing the eco-hydrological and geomorphic effects of floodplain restoration
Summary of PhD Position:
Naturally functioning floodplains provide a range of ecosystem services. Through hydrological connections to rivers, they store water helping to attenuate floods and maintain baseflows during droughts. They also facilitate biogeochemical processing of nutrients, aiding water quality remediation, and carbon sequestration. Despite their relatively small area, floodplains support a disproportionately high biodiversity due to dynamic geomorphic and hydrological processes that create a variety of habitats.
Application Deadline: 8th January 2026
12. Funded PhD Position in A sub-hourly quality controlled blended UK precipitation dataset to understand uncertainty in flood predictions
Summary of PhD Position:
This project will tackle that challenge by developing a new blended UK precipitation dataset at high temporal (15-minute) and spatial resolution. The student will integrate data from multiple sources—including tipping bucket rain gauges, weather radar, and satellites—using robust coding and data science techniques. A comprehensive quality control framework will be built to identify and correct errors, apply bias adjustments, and assess data quality.
Application Deadline: 8th January 2026
13. Funded PhD Position in prediction of sediment physical properties through integration of geotechnical and seismic datasets
Summary of PhD Position:
This project will develop a framework to predict sediment properties directly from geophysical data. Legacy SI data offer a valuable resource for building training datasets linking measured properties to geophysical parameters. Using these datasets, the project will improve the reliability of geotechnical parameters inferred from seismic data.
Application Deadline: 18th January 2026
14. Funded PhD Position in MEM-3D: Membrane Engineering with 3D Printing for Advanced CO₂ Separations
Summary of PhD Position:
Additive manufacturing (3D printing) is a digital technology and a key enabler for realising next-generation equipment designs that are less energy-intensive and more sustainable. This project will explore a new avenue: fabrication of porous ceramic supports using desktop scale 3D printing for molten salt membranes.