Central England NERC Training Alliance (CENTA)
CENTA stands for Central England NERC Training Alliance, a consortium of universities and research institutes which work together to provide excellence in doctoral research training within the remit of the Natural Environment Research Council. We are funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) through the UKRI’s Collective Talent Funding.
CENTA holds both Doctoral Training Partnership funding and a Doctoral Landscape Award from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), enabling us to deliver excellence in PhD training over further cohorts.
The CENTA consortium comprises Loughborough University, University of Birmingham, The Open University, University of Leicester, University of Warwick, and Cranfield University, and three research centres including British Geological Survey, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and National Centre for Earth Observation.
Our projects and training are supported by our external partners in the private sector, charity sector, non-governmental organisations and government agencies. A list of the external partners can be found here (https://centa.ac.uk/partners/).
CENTA will host studentships across the full range of NERC science with particular focus on three key science themes:
- Climate and environmental sustainability
- Organisms and ecosystems
- Dynamic Earth
The Doctoral Landscape Award (DLA) scheme provides funding to CENTA 3 that will support cohorts in 2027 onwards.
The application deadline is 23:59 GMT on Wednesday 6th January 2027
The CENTA Studentship Application Form for 2027 Intake can be downloaded from the CENTA webpage - https://centa.ac.uk/apply/