Current calls

Summary

The question of whether carbon capture is a feasible remedy for climate change is complex and controversial. This project will combine approaches from geoscience and the social sciences to analyse carbon capture together with rural landscape, communities and the climate crisis as a multifaceted and interlinked system. 

Description

Global warming is projected to cause extreme disruption to society and human health by 2050 if left unchecked. Much recent  attention has fallen on carbon capture and storage as means to reduce anthropogenic CO₂ emissions and avoid such an outcome. One promising approach is carbon capture and mineralisation (CCM), whereby CO₂ is reacted with rocks, locking it up in solid minerals which will remain stable for millions of years.  

Development of CCM in the UK would necessarily involve activity in rural communities such as Northern Ireland or Scotland, where suitable rocks (e.g. basalt) are abundant. This might offer potential opportunities including new local industry and skills, as well as broader benefits through limiting the damaging effects of climate change. However, implementation would also entail new uses of land, and potential risks to rural communities such as increased noise, disruption and disturbance or even pollution of groundwater resources. Moreover, there is ongoing ethical debate over whether carbon capture is the right response to the climate crisis at all.  

This interdisciplinary project would engage with these issues to better understand the feasibility, risks and ethics of CCM in rural landscapes and communities. The project focus and approach will be guided by the candidate’s interests but will include a combination of desk and laboratory studies, alongside active engagement with potentially affected communities. By synthesising data from a variety of methods, this project will ultimately seek to answer the key questions around carbon capture and mineralisation: Can we? Should we? And, if so, how? 

Research questions

• What is the technical feasibility of carbon capture and mineralisation in the UK? 
• How do rural communities weigh the opportunities and risks of carbon capture against the climate crisis? 
• Can specific applications of carbon capture and mineralisation (e.g. mine waste remediation) make it more socially and/or economically feasible? 
• Is carbon capture a remedy for climate change or a distraction from real change? 

Lead supervisor

Dr Elliot Carter, e.carter2@keele.ac.uk

Possible SURF partners

Institute of Quarrying

Disciplines 

Core discipline: Geology, Earth Science, Chemistry or similar. 

Other disciplines: Social Science

Training in all required experimental and analytical techniques will be provided. 

Candidates will be fully trained in social science approaches (e.g. collecting and interpreting qualitative data) and engagement with stakeholders. These will provide the candidate with highly transferrable skills.  

Summary

Working with Kindling Farm, – a community-owned farm near Liverpool – this project will seek to understand the financial implications of different on-site sustainable farming initiatives, set against their environmental impacts.

Description

The financial and regulatory landscape for farming has changed dramatically in the past few decades. Farming is recognised as a multidimensional and multifunctional activity, and while its contribution to food security is highlighted, some farming practices are under scrutiny due to impacts on biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, the well-publicised financial plight of some farmers leaves them ill-equipped to take the risks necessary to develop new ways of growing food.

Nevertheless, new and experimental business models are emerging, aiming to combine rural revitalisation with more environmentally-friendly practices. Using Kindling Farm as a series of case studies, this project will explore the factors affecting the financial and environmental sustainability of different agricultural activities while accounting for potential biodiversity, climate and soil-health trade-offs and site-specific characteristics. The selected candidate will work closely with our partners, Kindling Farm, who will facilitate data, including environmental indicators.

The project will ask why some farming initiatives produce better yields than others, scrutinising the scale of activity, specific local conditions and/or market fluctuations, or distinguishing between short term measurable gains and potential long-term impact. Specific characteristics include the costs of biodiversity data gathering, the roles of regular volunteers, and community ownership through a community benefit society. The project will offer a model of farming activity diversification that can be used as a guideline by farmers elsewhere in the country and potentially beyond, where the best land and investment returns (profits) can be paired with positive outcomes for biodiversity, climate and soil health. 

Research questions

• How can we best model sustainable farming initiatives at a farm-level? 
• Does community farming offer a reliable model for sustainable practices alternative or complementary to traditional farming? 
• What are the barriers that would need to be overcome for farmers to embrace more sustainable farming practices? 
• How can farmers distinguish between short-term benefits and long-term sustainability? 
• Are there specific incentive measures that could be implemented to scale up sustainable farming practices across different rural areas? 

Lead supervisor

Rosa Fernandez Martin r.fernandez.martin@keele.ac.uk

Specific requirements

Proficient quantitative data analysis skills.

Possible SURF partners

Kindling Farm 

Disciplines 

Primary: Economics, Environmental Science.

Secondary: Sociology.

Summary

This PhD project explores the movement ecology of common pollinators (such as butterflies and bumblebees) in UK rural environments, investigating how community practices influence their movements and survival, using innovative tracking technologies, citizen science, and storytelling to foster sustainable human-pollinator relationships.

Description

Pollinators such as bumblebees and butterflies play a vital role in sustaining ecosystems, contributing significantly to biodiversity and agricultural productivity. Despite their importance, these species are under threat due to widespread insect declines linked to factors such as climate change and habitat loss. Repeated initiatives, such as no-mow-May, bee- and bug-hotels, encouraging wildflower patches, or reducing verge cutting, have placed rural communities at the heart of pollinator conservation. Yet we still know little about how rural community practices influence pollinators’ behaviour and survival, how pollinators’ presence and actions interact with rural people and society or what more can be done to create vibrant pollinator-human communities. 

This project investigates the complex relationship between pollinators and rural communities, focusing on common pollinator species and their interactions with human-managed landscapes, including gardens, university campuses, and nearby rural areas. By examining the impacts of everyday practices such as gardening and mowing, the research addresses the question how community practices shape pollinator movements and survival – and vice versa. This will be studied using advanced tracking methods, citizen science and various community engagement approaches. 

A core aim of this work is to study interactions of community practices on pollinators together with fostering new connections between people and pollinators. Through participatory approaches, including citizen science and storytelling, the project seeks to engage residents in tracking pollinators and reframing human-pollinator relationships in more relatable and actionable terms.  

Ultimately, the study will contribute to our understanding of pollinators’ role in more-than-human rural systems and emphasize the importance of a collaborative, community-driven approach to land use that supports biodiversity and mutual thriving.  

Research questions

• What factors and common land-use practices influence the movements and survival of pollinators in rural environments, and how do they exert this influence? 
• How can we raise awareness among rural communities about human-pollinator interactions and engage them in developing a deeper understanding of these relationships? 
• What role can pollinators play in creating more sustainable rural communities? 
• How can participatory approaches, such as citizen science and storytelling about human-pollinators interactions, influence relationships between rural communities and pollinators, and what broader impacts, such as greater adoption of sustainable practices, might result? 

Lead supervisor

Dr Dmitry Kishkinev d.kishkinev@keele.ac.uk

Possible SURF partners

Natural England 

Disciplines 

Primary: Biology, Ecology, Biodiversity, Conservation Biology, Environmental Science, Sustainability, Agricultural Sciences, Rural Studies, GIS. 

Secondary: Social Sciences, Human Geography, Citizen Science and Science Communication or similar.

Summary

The project seeks to empower both conservation practitioners and local communities in the vital and urgent work of peatland conservation through the development of shared knowledge, imaginations, and mutual understanding.

Description

Peatlands are the largest natural terrestrial store of carbon on Earth and have been prominently recognised as a key component of pathways to net-zero both globally and in the UK. In line with this, the Sixth Carbon Budget (CCC 2020) commits the UK government to achieve significant enhancement, restoration and sustainable management of UK peatland area. Peatlands are also vitally significant in terms of biodiversity conservation supporting specialised species and providing refuge to others impacted by habitat degradation and climate change. Despite this clear scientific consensus on their immense value and its recognition in an emerging UK policy focus, public understandings of peatlands and the mechanisms and need for their enhancement and sustainable management have not been sufficiently investigated. 

The proposed project seeks to address this gap through an examination of public understandings of the peatland conservation with a particular focus on lowland peatland in Cheshire, Shropshire, and Staffordshire. The project builds on an existing partnership (since 2022) between the Keele supervisory team and Natural England, that has involved public communications and community engagement work on raised bogs in Shropshire (Fenn’s Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses NNR) and Cheshire (Wybunbury Moss NNR).

The project will have two components: 1) a qualitative investigation of the public perceptions, understandings and attitudes towards peatland conservation (focussing on rural communities living adjacent to chosen conservation sites) and 2) a programme of community engagement work bringing together conservation science and creative storytelling co-developed with conservation practitioners and local communities.

Research questions

• How do rural communities living close to lowland peatland sites in Cheshire, Shropshire, and Staffordshire perceive and understand the ecological significance, conservation value, and threats facing these ecosystems? 
• What are the attitudes of these communities towards peatland conservation, including restoration, management, and policy initiatives? What factors influence these attitudes, such as socio-demographic characteristics, environmental values, and past experiences? 
• What are the key barriers and enablers to public engagement in peatland conservation initiatives in these regions? How can these insights be used to develop more effective and inclusive community engagement strategies? 
• How does the integration of creative storytelling into community engagement programs influence public understanding, attitudes, and behaviours towards peatland conservation? What are the most effective storytelling techniques for engaging diverse audiences? 
• How can the findings from this research be used to inform and shape future peatland conservation policies and practices, particularly in relation to public engagement and community-based conservation? What are the potential policy implications of different public perceptions and attitudes?

Lead supervisor

Dr Pawas Bisht p.bisht@keele.ac.uk  

Specific requirements

Work experience in conservation and/or public community engagement would be desirable. 

Possible SURF partners

Natural England, CPRE, Shropshire Wildlife Trust.

Disciplines 

Primary: Communication and Cultural Studies; Sociology; Human Geography.  

Secondary: Ecology; Conservation Science.

Summary

This project will examine the experience, memories, and long-term impact of temporary construction workers’ camps in the late-twentieth century, and offer recommendations for their future as a new round of rural infrastructure construction accompanies the transition to net-zero. 

Description

Late-twentieth century rural Britain experienced an unprecedented wave of major infrastructure projects, from gigantic power stations to new reservoirs, refineries and transport networks. The construction of these facilities often took place over many years, and required large numbers of workers in some of the least populated places in the UK. In some cases, construction camps disappeared after completion; in others, they became permanent and sometimes idiosyncratic additions to the landscape.

Construction worker camps can be experienced as significant disruptions for rural inhabitants (human and non-human), intimately connected with the sudden emergence of vast new buildings, and with overwhelmingly male populations with little or no connection to the rural places that they occupied. Yet these were also sites that placed (sometimes migrant) workforces in vulnerable positions, and which – over time – became more embedded in nearby economies.

Despite their number and continuing role in rural construction, we know very little about the history and memory of these camps – how they operated, their social networks, their legacies or how these temporary sites interacted with their hosting rural environments. This project will break new ground in rural history, and seek to understand the role that workers camps play in the impact of large infrastructure on rural society and landscape, in the past and today.

Research questions

• How did workers’ camps come into being? To what extent were they ad-hoc, planned, based on ‘camp’ designs or conceived as longer-term accommodation? 
• What are the core memories of these sites, from their residents or those who lived nearby? 
• What were the more-than-human implications of large, semi-permanent ‘camps’ in the countryside? 
• What happened at the end of construction work? Why did some ‘camps’ remain, and what legacies have they left? 

Lead supervisor

Dr Ben Anderson b.anderson@keele.ac.uk  

Possible SURF partners

CPRE: The Countryside Charity. 

Disciplines 

Primary: History.  

Secondary: Geography, Sociology, Law. 

Summary

Combining approaches from both natural and social sciences, this project will address the challenge of protecting crop harvests from attacking insect pests in an agricultural ecosystem.

Description

Farmers are having to adapt crop pest management practices as a reliance on insecticides becomes increasingly untenable. The answers “no longer all come out of a spray can”, hit by resistance evolution, legislative restriction and widespread evidence of biodiversity effects There is an opportunity to develop biological and landscape management practices but these can be difficult to implement, often requiring a change in culture and lifestyle from overreliance on insecticide sprays.   

The project will: 

1) explore the range of options available to farmers using a systematic literature review and review of industry information sources   

2) conduct semi-structured interviews to survey farmers current practices, plans for the future and views on changes.   

3) co-design innovative practices for pest management in collaboration with farmers and farming organisations as well as natural scientists in the public and private sectors  

4) engage in on farm field experiments with agronomists and innovative farmers affiliated with the project  

5) provide a policy brief for policymakers and practical recommendations for farmers  

6) analyse how farm business performance and livelihoods are affected, including farm subsidies.  

The student will gain experience of interdisciplinary approaches spanning the divide between natural science (insect-plant interactions) and social science (socioeconomics of crop protection and production; cultural and behavioural change). The project will collaborate with conservation organisations (Natural England) and farming organisations (NFU, Agrii). There are knowledge gaps about the future of crop protection that the project will fill to advance science and benefit rural society. 

Research questions

• How to protect crops, developed as a package with pesticides in the Green Revolution, when pesticides are no longer available? 
• How do farmers view pest management and which options are viable and preferred by them? 
• How can options for the future be increased and improved? 
• (What are the core social, economic and cultural barriers to change?) 

Lead supervisor

Professor Toby Bruce t.j.a.bruce@keele.ac.uk 

Possible SURF partners

Natural England.

Disciplines 

Primary: Life Sciences; Environmental sciences; Economics.

Secondary: Psychology, Sociology.

Summary

This project will consider how women farmers in rural Cumbria engage with their local landscapes to develop their lifestyles in both the past and the present; such research will provide evidence on how government and civic society can better support the future of women in farming.

Description

Women might well be the future of farming, hailed by diverse figures for their increasing role (Guardian, 2024; Defra, 2016). Yet while female students have dominated agricultural studies over the last decade, women’s labour is hardly a new resource for farming. Stubbornly low figures for female principle farmers suggest that there is more to do to recognize and reward contribution (Defra, 2024). Indeed, we are yet to fully understand how women have experienced and contributed to these changes, or intersections with accompanying economic and environmental challenges since the late-twentieth century. 

‘Women’s Words, Farming Futures’ will examine women’s agricultural roles in rural Cumbria, and how these have changed over time and specifically within contemporary women’s lifespans as responses to both human and environmental catalysts.  To do so, this project will create and collate an oral history collection of women’s lived experiences of farming. This study will centralise women’s first-person narratives to interrogate economic and environmental challenges. Contextualising these issues in the wider historical regional context and in individual generational family histories will foster a more nuanced understanding of these issues in the present, and provide evidence to effectively address them for the future. Narratives collected as part of the project will also be mobilised creatively to transform public understandings and imaginations of farming and its future. As such, this project is crucial to advancing government and civic agendas related to sustainable farming futures, and women’s increasingly important roles in ensuring the economic and environmental sustainability of this industry for the next generation.

Research questions

• What are the challenges facing farming as a family business? 
• How can the recruitment/retention of women in the farming profession be improved for future generations? 
• What is the impact of climate change on farming practice? 
• How does the relationship between women farmers and the environment ensure environmental sustainability and economic security? 
• How can women farmers’ narratives transform understandings of farming and its future? 

Lead supervisor

Dr Kristen Brill k.c.brill@keele.ac.uk  

Possible SURF partners

Friends of the Lake District; Museum of English Rural Life.

Disciplines 

Primary: History.

Secondary: English, Media, Geography.

Summary

How can we support young people to navigate entry barriers into the agricultural sector and how can young people promote sustainability within this sector?

Description

Farming in the UK faces a well-documented challenge of an ageing workforce. As of 2023, over two-thirds of farmers in England were aged 55 or older, while in Scotland, 85% were aged 45 and above. Aspiring young farmers encounter significant obstacles, including high land costs, a lack of supportive policies, declining profitability, and difficulties in accessing finance. Across Europe, addressing the “young farmer” issue has become a priority for EU agricultural policy. In the UK, a key barrier to generational renewal in agriculture is the limited access to skills training. 

More broadly, rural youth often express pessimism about their futures, citing issues such as unaffordable housing, social isolation, and poor digital and transport connectivity. These challenges cannot be viewed in isolation. The long-term sustainability of the UK’s agricultural sector—and rural communities as a whole—relies on equipping young people with the resources, opportunities, and support needed to navigate the transition to adulthood in rural settings. Notably, younger farmers are more inclined to adopt innovative approaches to sustainability and develop new farming practices.

This project aims to examine how the “young farmer” issue is understood and addressed by rural communities and stakeholders, and addressed in farming policy. It will explore how societal attitudes and assumptions about young people influence these discussions and exacerbate the challenges faced by new entrants to agriculture. Additionally, the project will highlight the potential benefits of generational renewal for agricultural policy and practice.

Research questions

• What are the main barriers and opportunities facing young entrants into the agricultural sector? 
• What support do rural youth require to realise opportunities in the agricultural sector? 
• What are the generational views on the “young farmer” problem? 
• What policy initiatives have proven successful so far in addressing generational renewal? 
• How are youth voices listened to and acted upon in agricultural policy and by employers? 

Lead supervisor

Professor Clare Holdsworth c.m.holdsworth@keele.ac.uk

Possible SURF partners

Expected to work with existing farmers networks in SURF.

Disciplines 

Primary: Human Geography, Sociology.

Secondary: Politics, Environmental Science.