PhD in Environmental Life Sciences
Trieste, Italy
PhD
DURATION
3 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
Key Summary
About: The PhD in Environmental Life Sciences focuses on resolving complex environmental issues through interdisciplinary research.
Students engage with life sciences, social sciences, and interdisciplinary approaches to study ecosystems, biodiversity, and sustainability.
The program emphasizes fieldwork and practical applications, preparing graduates to tackle real-world challenges.
Career Outcomes: Graduates may pursue careers in various sectors, including environmental consultancy, research institutions, government agencies, and non-profit organizations.
Potential roles could include environmental scientist, policy analyst, sustainability expert, or academic researcher.
This program equips students with the skills needed to contribute positively to environmental management and conservation efforts.
The Ph.D. Course aims to prepare well-qualified scientists able to critically manage the implementation of EU and national regulations concerning with environmental analysis and to autonomously develop research activities in the field of environment. The course is focused on both theoretical and experimental activities. It includes the following ERC research areas:
Terrestrial ecology, land cover change (PE10_4); Biogeochemistry, biogeochemical cycles, environmental chemistry (PE10_9); Soil science (PE10_13); Ecology (theoretical and experimental; population, species, and community level) (LS8_1); Biodiversity, conservation biology, conservation genetics, invasion biology (LS8_4); Evolutionary biology: evolutionary ecology and genetics, co-evolution (LS8_5); Environmental and marine biology (LS8_8); Environmental toxicology at the population and ecosystems level (LS8_9); Microbial ecology and evolution (LS8_10); Agriculture related to animal husbandry, dairying, livestock raising (LS9_3); Agriculture related to crop production, soil biology and cultivation, applied plant biology (LS9_5); Population biology, population dynamics, population genetics (LS8_2); Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology (LS2).
Lines of research covered by the ERC panels
- PE10_4 Terrestrial ecology, land cover change
- PE10_9Biogeochemistry, biogeochemical cycles, environmental chemistry
- PE10_13Soil science
- LS8_1Ecology (theoretical and experimental; population, species and community level)
- LS8_4Biodiversity, conservation biology, conservation genetics, invasion biology
- LS8_5Evolutionary biology: evolutionary ecology and genetics, co-evolution
- LS8_8Environmental and marine biology
- LS8_9Environmental toxicology at the population and ecosystems level
- LS8_10Microbial ecology and evolution
- LS9_3Agriculture related to animal husbandry, dairying, livestock raising
- LS9_5Agriculture related to crop production, soil biology, and cultivation, applied plant biology
- LS8_2Population biology, population dynamics, population genetics
- LS2Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology
Job placement opportunities
Possible job placements are mainly in the environmental research field at national or international universities or research institutions, both in marine and terrestrial area of interest. The considerable interdisciplinary approach characteristic of this Ph.D. course will allow the training of new and complete professional figures that will afford multidisciplinary scientific issues. Methodologies learnt during the Ph.D. course will apply to complex themes like effects of global change on different natural ecosystems (from deep ocean to high mountains) or man-managed ones (agro-ecosystems, forestry, and so on); the biodiversity role in maintaining ecosystem efficiency and goods and service production; the onset of new pollution sources, the appearance of new pollutants and their effects on organisms, the management of new productive close – loop systems, the digitalization of environmental data to spreading them to the public for stimulating a general increase in the ecological awareness.