Help create a forest! - Paid undergraduate opportunity to help develop climate resilient woodland in Leeds.

Pay: £9.72/hr
Duration: 6 weeks full time in July/August/September
Eligibility: UK citizens and people with a pre-existing right to work in the UK, undertaking their first degree (undergraduate or integrated masters) at any UK university.
Accessibility: Three additional placements are made available for applicants from under-represented groups. All placements are paid above the national living wage. Unfortunately, travel costs to our Leeds site are unable to be reimbursed. Project specifics can be tailored to suit applicant accessibility requirements.
Application Deadline: 5pm on Wednesday 29th June 2022

As part of the NERC Experience Placements program, we are advertising for a UK-based undergraduate to join us in creating a new climate resilient woodland in Leeds.

During this placement you will join a team who are designing and planting a new research woodland in Leeds. You will learn how to estimate projected carbon sequestration from a new woodland site in Leeds, collect baseline data from the site (currently grassland!) to inform these estimates, and explore how the design and composition of the new woodland could affect future carbon sequestration. You will have the opportunity to use the data collected on site to contribute to a short report quantifying the current carbon storage and the possible gains from woodland creation.

In collaboration with staff from different disciplines, you will help to set up long-term monitoring at the site to enable future studies as the woodland grows and contribute to the first cycle of annual measurements being taken.

You will join the UBoC-supported team in the School of Earth and Environment and be part of the Leeds Ecosystem, Atmosphere and Forest (LEAF) centre at the University of Leeds.

This project will include fieldwork at a location in Leeds so you will need to be living locally during the placement (July/August/September); the contingency plan for any return of Covid-19 restrictions will be to use and analyse data already collected for the site.

For informal enquiries, please email the project supervisors: Dr Tom Sloan (t.j.sloan@leeds.ac.uk) or Dr Cat Scott (c.e.scott@leeds.ac.uk).

Examples of how previous successful applicants to LEAF/UBoC placements got on can be found here, here, and here. We look forward to welcoming another placement student this year!

Application forms and complete instructions are available here.