CAST Careers

We’ll list any CAST career opportunities below, including PhD studentships with our partner institutions. If there aren’t any opportunities listed right now, or suited to what you’re looking for, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media on Twitter, BlueSky and LinkedIn to keep up to date on the latest CAST career opportunities.

CAST PhD studentship at the University of Bath

GIF CDT: Public perceptions of carbon capture & storage (CCS)

Topic overview:

The Green Industrial Futures Centre for Doctoral Training (GIF CDT) is inviting applications for the following project, expected to commence in either June or September 2025. This advert will close when a suitable candidate is identified, so early application is encouraged.

This PhD will apply qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods to explore CCS perceptions across and within several countries (including the UK). Methods may include deliberative focus groups, online surveys, and/or messaging experiments. There will be a particular focus on how perceptions vary geographically, across age groups, and in response to different messages or scenarios. Outputs will provide insights on how to engage adults and young people on CCS in the context of net zero energy transitions.

Three CAST PhD studentships available at the University of East Anglia

Three CAST PhD studentships working with CAST’s Prof Andy Jordan, Prof Olga Tregaskis and Prof Irene Lorenzoni, based at our partner institution, the University of East Anglia, are now open for applications. Please see below for further information on each PhD opportunity.

Net zero climate change: political and societal engagement with hard choices and difficult trade-offs

Topic overview:

Reducing UK emissions to (net) zero will be very difficult without policies that disrupt the status quo. However, it is an open question as to whether society – comprising publics, politicians and other policy makers – is willing and able to embrace and implement such policies, particularly if they curtail individual freedoms or make certain groups worse off.

This studentship will examine how different social actors perceive the challenge of achieving net zero and the policies to achieve it. Specifically, it will explore how far they perceive net zero to challenge the status quo, via the adoption of policies that involve difficult trade-offs and hard choices.

Human-Climate connections in the workplace

Topic overview:

This studentship will examine the human-climate connection as part of a values-based approach to sustainability transition for businesses. It examines the connection between environmental values and behaviour (e.g. climate, netzero, biodiversity) and meaningfulness, wellbeing and connectivity at work. It will build upon the existing evidence base on employee green behaviours and sustainability leadership roles. However, the focus on the human-climate connection offers an opportunity to understand the role of individuals in driving innovations and change through business and management communities. 

Net zero: confronting the political and societal barriers to behaviour change

Topic overview:

Reducing UK emissions to net zero by mid-century will be challenging and may require policies that significantly disrupt the status quo. However, is society – comprising publics, interest groups and politicians –willing and able to undertake and accept these, particularly if they impinge on individual freedoms and necessitate decisions on what to prioritise?

This studentship will examine the views and role of publics and politicians in enabling transitions to net zero societies, focussing on hard to change behaviours (or ‘sticky issues’ like flying and eating meat). It will explore how publics, stakeholder groups and politicians in the UK and potentially other countries view interactions between such behaviours; what the implications are for how these may (not) be undertaken and the effects of such choices on achieving net zero.

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