PhD Studentship: Mitigating Climate Impacts: towards a national warning platform for reducing heat-and-air-pollution risk on human health, NERC GW4+ DTP PhD studentship for September 2026 Entry

About the Partnership

This project is one of a number that are in competition for funding from the NERC Great Western Four+ Doctoral Training Partnership (GW4+ DTP).  The GW4+ DTP consists of the Great Western Four alliance of the University of Bath, University of Bristol, Cardiff University and the University of Exeter plus five Research Organisation partners:  British Antarctic Survey, British Geological Survey, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology,  the Natural History Museum and Plymouth Marine Laboratory.  The partnership aims to provide a broad training in earth and environmental sciences, designed to train tomorrow’s leaders in earth and environmental science. For further details about the programme please see http://nercgw4plus.ac.uk/

For eligible successful applicants, the studentships comprises:

• An stipend for 3.5 years (currently £20,780 p.a. for 2026/27) in line with UK Research and Innovation rates
• Payment of university tuition fees
• The budget for project costs is £9,000 which can be used for computer, lab, and fieldwork costs necessary for you to conduct your research.
• There is also a conference budget of £2,000 and individual Training Budget of £1,000 for specialist training

Project Aims and Methods

Climate change is a crisis and mitigating its effects on human health is vital. Temperature records have been broken repeatedly in recent decades and heat-stress is poses a serious risk (e.g. 2007 London marathon fatalities). In addition urban population is increasingly exposed to poor air quality (AQ), with health-threatening thresholds being exceeded on a regular basis. This project aims to provide a synergistic temperature-AQ Early Warning System (EWS) for the UK, as a tool to mitigate such risk. It is an open research challenge and the candidate will be able to decide upon the most optimal approach towards tackling this. This is a collaboration between the University of Exeter and the Met Office, bringing together expertise and data in environmental intelligence and public health.  

The project is appropriately multi-disciplinary, at the interface between AI, environmental science, meteorology and epidemiology. Corresponding skills (machine learning, environmental and public health data manipulation, risk mapping, computational skills) will be gained by the doctoral researcher, who will be hosted at the Met Office as a visiting scientist. The project will also draw unique knowledge in heat-AQ warning systems from existing collaboration with the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Cyprus Institute.

CASE Partner

The Met office will provide expertise, health data, meteorological data, visiting scientist status for the Doctoral Researcher and hosting at premises.

Useful recruitment links:  

For information relating to the research project please contact the lead Supervisor via: t.economou@exeter.ac.uk

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