Job Description
Grade UE07: £40,497 to £48,149 per annum pro rata
CSG / Edinburgh Earth Initiative, Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability
Part Time: 9 hours per week
Fixed-term: 9 months from September 2025
The School of Geosciences and School of Social and Political Science are looking for a PhD student to contribute to a project to deliver key foundational work to establish the Crisis in the Third Pole (CITP) analytical framework. This 9-month project will focus on understanding how climate change and energy transition developments are transforming the ecological and social dynamics of the Himalayas.
Click here to view the full project brief for the Earth Fellow: Environmental crisis and energy in the Himalayas, including key tasks and deliverables (opens browser in new tab).
This post will be appointed at Grade UE07, step 1 which is £40,497 per annum, pro rata (£22.19 per hour).
Earth Fellowships are only open to current postgraduate and PhD students at the University of Edinburgh based in the UK. Please do not apply if you are not a current University of Edinburgh student.
Your Skills And Attributes For Success
- Current University of Edinburgh PhD student in the ‘25/’26 academic year.
- Experience with interdisciplinary literature reviews.
- An interest in and background relevant to environment and energy in the Himalayas.
- Excellent communication skills including the ability to communicate complex information clearly, both in writing and in oral presentations.
- Ability to work proactively with colleagues with a variety of expertise; understanding and valuing different points of view.
- Ability to make sense of information stemming from a range of different disciplines.
As an Earth Fellow, you will be joining a diverse, fun and dynamic team of researchers, students and staff all working together to address the global climate emergency. As part of the Earth Fellows programme, you will have access to co-working space, exciting networking and personal development opportunities and opportunities to contribute towards partnerships and solutions for climate change on a global scale.
Earth Fellows work on individual and team-based projects which contribute to the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Earth Initiative’s work on climate change research-led impact, innovation, engagement, and teaching.
Click to view a copy of the
full job description (opens new browser tab)
Application Information
Please ensure you include the following documents in your application:
As a valued member of our team you can expect:
- A competitive salary.
- An exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work.
- To be part of a diverse and vibrant international community.
- Comprehensive Staff Benefits, such as a generous holiday entitlement, competitive pension schemes, staff discounts, and family-friendly initiatives. Check out the full list on our staff benefits page (opens in a new tab) and use our reward calculator to discover the total value of your pay and benefits.
Championing equality, diversity and inclusion
The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality.
Prior to any employment commencing with the University you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK. Further information is available on our right to work webpages (opens new browser tab).
On this occasion the University will not consider applicants requiring sponsorship for this role. International workers will therefore only be able to take up this role if they can demonstrate an alternative right to work in the UK.
Key dates to note
The closing date for applications is
11th August 2025.
Unless stated otherwise the closing time for applications is 11:59pm GMT. If you are applying outside the UK the closing time on our adverts automatically adjusts to your browsers local time zone.
About Us
As a world-leading research-intensive University, we are here to address tomorrow’s greatest challenges. Between now and 2030 we will do that with a values-led approach to teaching, research and innovation, and through the strength of our relationships, both locally and globally.
About The Team
Launched in 2022, the Edinburgh Earth Initiative was established by the University’s Executive with a cross institutional remit to drive a step change in the University’s engagements with climate and sustainability challenges.
In 2024, a strategic review of Edinburgh Earth Initiative was completed and the results of that review, including a strategy for 2025-2030, were approved by the University Executive. The strategy states that the mission of EEI is to catalyse bold, globally significant transdisciplinary research, innovation and partnerships at the University in support of the Research & Innovation Strategy 2030 and Climate Strategy.
Edinburgh Earth Initiative Website ( https://earth.ed.ac.uk/ ) (opens in new browser tab)
