UNRISK is a Centre for Doctoral Training with fully funded PhD research opportunities at the University of Leeds, University College London, the University of Exeter collaborating with over 40 external partners.
A Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) is a cohort (group) of PhD research students doing research projects focused on a common challenge combined with a common skills training programme. The advantage over other PhD opportunities is that it allows students to interact and learn from each other. Students will be at Leeds, UCL and Exeter, but you will interact online and at numerous cohort events.
The focus on uncertainty and climate risk is because we have low confidence in how our climate will change and how it will affect societally important hazards like extreme storms, heat waves, sea-level rise, and declining crop yields. Uncertainty is a barrier to climate policy development and it has an estimated global economic cost of trillions of dollars by delaying investment and adaptation decisions.
PhD research topics cover the breadth of climate science where uncertainty presents a major scientific or societal challenge, such as transition pathways, extreme events, ice sheet decline, sea-level rise, future drought and flood occurrence, and tipping points. PhD opportunities, suggested by academic staff and our collaborative partners, can be tailored by applicants.
Funding for successful applicants covers university fees, a maintenance grant, research and training costs. UNRISK will be able to appoint a small number of international applicants. Read about funding. Our funding lasts for 3 years and 9 months, giving you 3.5 years to finish your PhD and 3 months on an industrial placement.
The skills and competencies training programme focuses on the skills needed by employers and university researchers, including computer modelling, machine learning, digital twinning, rare event modelling, model-observation fusion, decision systems, decision-making under uncertainty, and how uncertainty and risk are communicated. Skills training is done in parallel with your own research throughout your PhD, with many options for tailoring.
Our academic supervisors are among the world leaders in climate science, risks and decision making, with several involved in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the UK’s Climate Change Risk Assessment.
Over 40 external organisations are involved in UNRISK and bring enormous multi-sectoral expertise across climate services, including weather and climate operational centres, consultancies, financial and re-insurance organisations, public bodies and humanitarian organisations. As a PhD student, you can benefit from their involvement during skills training, as co-supervisors, placements and during our partner-led Challenge Weeks.
Preparing our students for climate careers is central to our training programme. As a graduate of UNRISK, you will have the skills and knowledge urgently needed by the range of organisations that are involved in UNRISK. It’s a rapidly growing employment market, with climate services set to grow from working on the urgent challenge of predicting and responding to the urgent challenge of climate change.
