About ECORISC
ECORISC is a 6-year Centre for Doctoral Training PhD programme funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.
ECORISC PhD projects focus on understanding and managing the risks of chemicals in the environment. Each project addresses one or more of six primary research themes, including studying chemical effects at different scales, evaluating the impact of chemical mixtures, and translating scientific knowledge into practical applications. ECORISC students are based at one of our six core institutions as well as working closely with our partners from research industry, policy and the third sector.
ECORISC graduates will be interdisciplinary researchers skilled in experimental, modelling and statistical techniques who will be able to apply their knowledge and skills to solve real-world problems alongside having an awareness of the wider policy and regulatory context within which chemicals are managed.
Graduates will be highly employable in global job markets across a range of sectors including: environmental monitoring, protection and regulation, chemical development and production, water, waste and wastewater management, environmental consultancy, analytical instrument development and services and research.
The Student Experience
Over the first two years of their ECORISC PhD programme students receive subject-specific training, delivered in collaboration with our partner organisations, in: ecotoxicology, environmental chemistry, ecology, risk assessment.
Students are also provided with real world scenarios linked to chemical risk assessment in yearly challenge events. These scenarios are developed with our partner institutions and are designed to provide interdisciplinary thinking and clarity of communication required when applying chemical risk assessment in the real world.
Challenge 1
Data Challenge
Hosted by the Rivers Trust, students have access to substantive ‘data’ sets and data analysis and interpretation platforms. They are challenged to analyse and interpret the data to address a real world question. They are introduced to regulatory monitoring data sets, giving them hands-on experience in the review and quality assessment of data and of the use of software tools for complex dataset analysis.
Challenge 2
Product Risk Assessment
Under the guidance of our business partners such as AstraZeneca, Reckitt Benkiser and Corteva students work in teams to perform an environmental risk assessment of a new to market chemical product. They develop and present a short ERA report, which will be scrutinised by our regulatory and third sector partners.
Challenge 3
Science to Policy
The final event is delivered in collaboration with our policy partners, Defra and JNCC. Students take a ‘hot’ environmental topic and through role playing exercises explore how best to translate the underlying science in the area to a policy outcome and communicate that outcome to a non-specialist audience. The challenge will end with a mock House of Commons Environmental Select Committee hearing.
Student Placements and Internships
Students undertake two workplace experiences based with our partner organisations.
Internships are shorter in length and provide students with a taste of what it is like to work in a partner organisation
Secondments are for a minimum of 2 months and involve students working on a project defined in consultation with the partner host organisation and the students supervisory team.
Many students have already completed placements with organisations such as Defra, South West Water, Natural Resources Wales, HSE, JNCC, Fera, Cefas and Welsh Water.
ECORISC CDT
Department of Environment and Geography
University of York
York
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1903 322999
ecorisc-cdt@york.ac.uk