Scholarships & funding

EPSRC Doctoral Studentship - The Social Study of Low Power Environmental Monitoring.

Project details

The climate crisis has produced an urgent, planet-wide demand for environmental data. As temperatures rise, air quality deteriorates, and extreme weather intensifies, the need to monitor environmental conditions has grown ever more pressing. Against this backdrop, environmental sensors have become a critical material infrastructure through which climate adaptation and corporate compliance with targets for reductions of greenhouse gas emissions reductions are being governed. Yet the design and deployment of electronic sensing technologies is also creating new flows of electronic waste, making this a critical frontier for innovation in circular engineering and manufacturing.

Supervised across the School of Social and Political Sciences and the REACT (Responsible Electronics and Circular Economy Centre) labs at the University of Glasgow, this fully funded doctoral project offers a cutting-edge opportunity for doctoral research at the intersection of anthropology, design, science/technology studies, and sociology to follow the development of next generation low power environmental sensing technologies from design to global contexts of use.

Low power environmental sensors are not neutral instruments. They enact visions of what a well-managed environment looks like, what counts as evidence, who produces knowledge, and whose experience of environmental change matters. When engineers design low-power environmental sensors, whose sense of urgency shapes the design? The regulatory urgency of net zero targets? The health urgency of particulate matter exposure? The political urgency of citizens seeking evidence of harm? How are low-power environmental sensors designed and what assumptions about environments, users, and evidence are embedded in their architecture? How do these devices operate in across radically different contexts. And what adaptations, improvisations, and failures occur when environmental monitoring devices designed and built in the UK meet diverse material and institutional realities around the world?

This EPSRC funded Doctoral Project will address these questions by investigating the design, deployment, and lived experience of environmental sensing technologies, tracking the development of prototype devices from laboratory settings in Glasgow into real-world contexts, bringing ethnographic and design research methods to bear on the development of future technologies that seek to reduce electronic waste and regenerate planetary ecosystems.

The project will generate ethnographic data about how monitoring technologies operate across diverse social contexts, revealing where design assumptions break down, and produce new insights into the relationship between sensor data and lived experience.

Supervisory Team

Prinicipal Supervisor: Professor Jamie Cross

Secondary Supervisor/s: Dr Mark Wong & Professor Jeff Kettle

About the School/Research Unit 

The successful candidate will be based in the School of Social and Political Sciences (SPS) at the University of Glasgow, one of the largest and most research-intensive social science schools in the UK. SPS brings together 12 subject groups – including Social Anthropology, Sociology, Criminology, Media Studies, Urban Studies, Social Policy, Politics, and International Relations under a single roof, supporting a vibrant interdisciplinary postgraduate research culture of more than 200 doctoral students. The School was rated joint first in the UK for research impact in Sociology in REF 2021 and has long-standing strengths in the social study of science, technology, environment, and infrastructure.

Primary supervision within Social Anthropology & Migration (Professor Jamie Cross) will connect the project to a cluster of researchers working at the intersection of science and technology studies (STS), planetary health and the environmental humanities. The group has particular depth in ethnographic methods, energy and climate research, digital infrastructures, and the politics of measurement and evidence. The successful candidate will also have access to the Glasgow Ethnography Studio, a new initiative that brings social scientists, designers, and engineers together in ethnographic research projects for changing planetary conditions.

The project's cross-disciplinary supervision reflects Glasgow's commitment to research that crosses the social sciences and engineering. Co-supervision from Urban Studies & Social Policy (Dr Mark Wong) brings expertise in social inequalities, digital methods, and the urban politics of environmental monitoring. Co-supervision from the James Watt School of Engineering (Professor Jeff Kettle) and integration with the REACT (Responsible Electronics and Circular Economy Technologies) Centre gives the student direct access to the laboratories, prototyping facilities, and industry partnerships where next-generation low-power environmental sensors are being designed and tested. This is a rare opportunity to follow a technology from the lab bench into the world.

The student will join a thriving cohort of doctoral researchers across SPS and the wider College of Social Sciences, with structured training provided by the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science (SGSSS), Glasgow's PGR development programme, and tailored methods training in ethnography, design research, and STS.

Eligibility

Applicants must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Applicants will have a good Masters degree (or overseas equivalent)
• Applicants will have a demonstratable interest in the topic area under investigation
• Applicants must be able to study on a full-time basis only
• Applicants must meet the University's criteria to be considered 'Home' or 'Rest of UK' for fee status

Please note that all applicants must also meet the entry requirements for the Sociology, PhD. 

Number of Scholarships

1

Value

The scholarship is available as a full-time +3.5 (3.5 year) PhD programme only. The programme will commence in October 2026. The full funding package includes:

• An annual maintenance grant (stipend) at the UKRI rate
• Fees at the standard home tuition fee rate only
• Students can also draw on a Research Training Support Grant, usually up to a maximum of £940 per year 

How to apply

Applicants must apply via the Scholarships Application Portal (please see Scholarships Application Portal - Applicant Guide for more information).The funding opportunity is under 'College of Social Sciences Postgraduate Research Funding > COSS-26-023' - note the Portal will open for this opportunity shortly) uploading the following documentation:

• EPSRC Doctoral Studentship (Cross) Application Form (in Word format)
• Academic transcripts (All relevant Undergraduate and Master’s level degree transcripts (and translations, if not originally in English) – provisional transcripts are sufficient if you are yet to complete your degree).
• Academic Prizes
• Contact details for two referees (where possible your referees should include an academic familiar with your work (within the last 5 years). Both referees can be academics but you may include a work referee, especially if you have been out of academia for more than 5 years). Please note, a CoSS PGR Funding Reference template will be sent to your referees for completion)*. Note that no member of the above supervisory team can act as your referee. Please see CoSS PGR Funding Reference request guide for further guidance
• Curriculum Vitae (CV) (academic where applicable)

*Please note that when you enter your referees contact details on the Scholarships Application Portal and send the reference request, your referees are expected to provide their references by the closing date of the Scholarship (below). It is strongly recommended you complete this as soon as possible, as late or incomplete applications will not be considered.

Application Closing Date: 29 May 2026

References due no later than 05 June 2026

Selection process

Applications will be assessed by the project team. Shortlisted applicants may be requested to attend an Interview.

All scholarship awards are subject to candidates successfully securing admission to a PhD programme in the School of Social & Political Sciences. Successful applicants will be invited to apply for admission to the relevant PhD programme after they are selected for funding.

Contact Details

Questions on the Application Portal only: College of Social Sciences Graduate School

Questions on the Project: Professor Jamie Cross