Research Fellow: INHABIT

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The role

To meet its legally binding 2050 net zero target, the UK must retrofit 29 million homes to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. While such retrofits can improve winter warmth and reduce exposure to outdoor pollutants—offering major public health co-benefits—they also risk worsening indoor air quality if poorly executed, especially for vulnerable groups.

The investment required presents a vital opportunity to improve health and reduce inequalities. However, limited scientific understanding of real-world retrofit impacts and inadequate tools to assess both risks and benefits hinder progress. Gaps remain in our knowledge of how retrofitting interacts with health, behaviours, and regulatory frameworks.

The INHABIT Hub was created to address these challenges. It aims to become a global centre of excellence, generating evidence and policy solutions to support a health-centred net zero housing transition. Objectives include developing systems-level understanding of retrofit effects, co-producing retrofit projects that address health and inequality, and building capacity through collaboration.

Working with local authorities, housing associations, businesses, and researchers, the Hub will support real-world studies and inform practice. Its outcomes will empower stakeholders to deliver healthier homes, cut emissions, lower healthcare and energy costs, and improve equity—maximising the benefits of the UK’s net zero transition.

The person appointed will be a member of a team but will take the lead in:

• Constructing a stakeholder map from a systematic review of policy papers, grey/research literature to identify the main stakeholder categories.
• Reviewing policy, regulatory and technological interventions likely to be implemented in urban and rural housing in the UK, now and in future.
• Convening  Participatory System Mapping (PSM) workshops, in which participants will identify and group factors (e.g., health, finance, mould) that influence net zero housing policies.

About you

You should have a PhD (or be close to completing a PhD) in a relevant social science discipline or have equivalent relevant professional experience. You should have experience of using qualitative methods in research, including recruiting, conducting and analysing depth interviews and focus groups and of stakeholder engagement.  Experience of system mapping and system thinking more generally in a research context would be a bonus. You will need excellent communication skills, including writing in an accessible way for various non-specialist audiences and have experience of disseminating research findings verbally and in writing to a wide range of audiences.

How to apply

Please apply with your CV and a cover letter on the university website.

A copy of the proposal on which the project is based is available from Professor Nigel Gilbert n.gilbert@surrey.ac.uk who is also able to answer questions about the research.

Further details

For more information and to apply online, please download the further details and click on the 'apply online' button above.

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