Research Fellow in Energy and Transport Modelling

The UCL Energy Institute hosts a world-leading research group focused on the decarbonisation of the shipping sector. The shipping research group undertakes research to support the above using models of the shipping system, shipping big data, and social science analysis of the policy and commercial structure of the shipping system. The research group’s multi-disciplinary work is underpinned by state-of-the-art data supported by rigorous models and research practices, which makes it have a cutting edge on three key areas; using big data to understand drivers of shipping emissions, using models to explore shipping’s transition to a zero emissions future and providing interpretation to key decision makers in the policy and industry stakeholder space. Within the UCL Energy Institute, the research group’s mission is to accelerate the transition to an equitable, globally sustainable energy system through world-class shipping research, education and p olicy support. More details can be found here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/energy/research/shipping and www.shippingandoceans.com

UCL is part of a consortium of eight universities leading on the maritime component of TransiT, a new UK research hub dedicated to digital twinning for transport decarbonisation. TransiT brings together 8 leading universities and 67 industry partners and was formed through an EPSRC and Stakeholder commitment of £46M. In addition, this national Hub as one of UKRIs largest investments into digital twinning, is responsible for supporting the coordination of other strategic investments into digital twinning, towards securing UK capability and capacity building in digital Twinning for critical networks and services.

The Research Fellow will be leading the digital twin modelling related to maritime transport (freight and passenger) decarbonisation as part of a multi-university consortium funded by the UKRI. As part of the team, the post-holder will ensure that a wide range of impactful digital twin research and simulation applications can be implemented by designing and developing appropriate software solutions and architectures, communicating across the diverse specialist TransiT teams to ensure these approaches are accessible and maintainable for all. The research fellow will be based in the shipping and oceans research group at the UCL Energy Institute, led by Dr Tristan Smith and Dr Nishatabbas Rehmatulla. The individual will also be supporting the group’s modelling around shipping emissions and other models. The successful applicant will work in a multi-disciplinary team and where possible also support several ongoing commercial and policy consultancy projects. They should have an enthusiasm for working in multidisciplinary environments alongside physical scientists, social scientists and economists to achieve joint research goals, as well as supporting MSc programmes and PhD students in the shipping group.

This post is available from 01 January 2026 and is funded until the 31 December 2027 in the first instance.

The successful candidate will have a PhD degree in one of the following disciplines: energy systems, data analytics, quantitative methods, mathematics, engineering or other relevant discipline, have commensurate research which includes programming such as Python, R, MATLAB, or other similar programs and experience in using simulation/optimisation models and advanced data handling techniques e.g. machine-learning techniques, statistics

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