Job description

Job summary

Are you a researcher and modeller interested in how climate mitigation and adaptation interact and how we can ensure our societies transition towards a resilient future? This opportunity might a perfect fit for you!

We are seeking to recruit a creative Research Associate with a strong background in energy-system and integrated assessment modelling (IAM) to become part of our team. In this role, you'll take the lead on interdisciplinary research that will combine climate scenario modelling, uncertainty and risk quantification, and aspects of decision analysis. The aim is to develop new ways to robustly identify mitigation strategies by integrating climate risk and uncertainty in the production and use of climate change scenarios.

Duties and responsibilities

You will be part of the team responsible for developing analysis to translate insights about climate risk to insights for policymakers, led by Prof. Joeri Rogelj at the Centre for Environmental Policy, in close collaboration with the partners from the wider ESM2025 and SPARCCLE consortia. Your research will explore the potential for feedback between climate impacts and society, and use pathway discovery methods to identify climate resilient transformations. In addition, the research will assess strategies for resilient decision-making in light of the United Nations Paris Agreement and investigate the robustness of mitigation pathways under uncertain information on how the planet responds to human perturbation.

You will be an active member of the thriving academic community at Imperial College and the Centre for Environmental Policy, with opportunities to participate in seminars, receive targeted training, and engage with MSc and PhD students.

Essential requirements

You will have, or be near completion of, a PhD in an area relevant to climate science, integrated assessment or energy system modelling, or research software development.

In addition, we are looking for candidates with the following essential criteria:

• Excellent knowledge of climate science and climate scenarios
• Knowledge of integrated assessment modelling and energy system modelling
• Knowledge of robustness approaches to scenario modelling, including scenario discovery, uncertainty and risk quantification, and aspects of decision analysis
• Knowledge of scientific computing languages, including excellent knowledge of Python, and collaborative programming processes, or a demonstrable ability to reach this level in the first two months of the project
• Creative approach to problem-solving, and ability to develop and apply new concepts
• Ability to rapidly learn new ways of thinking and ability to critically reflect on strengths and weaknesses of methods and approaches

Further information

This is a full time, fixed term position for 24 months. You will be based at South Kensington Campus.

Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as a Research Assistant.

Should you have any queries about the role, please contact: Prof. Joeri Rogelj – j.rogelj@imperial.ac.uk

Useful links:

ESM2025: https://www.esm2025.eu/

SPARCCLE: https://sparccle.eu/

Centre for Environmental Policy: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/environmental-policy

The College believes that the use of animals in research is vital to improve human and animal health and welfare. Animals may only be used in research programmes which are ultimately aimed towards finding new treatments and making scientific and medical advances, and where there are no satisfactory or reasonably practical alternatives to their use. Imperial is committed to ensuring that, in cases where this research is deemed essential, all animals in the College’s care are treated with full respect, and that all staff involved with this work show due consideration at every level. Find out more about animal research at Imperial.

The College is a proud signatory to the San-Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which means that in hiring and promotion decisions, we evaluate applicants on the quality of their work, not the journal impact factor where it is published. For more information, see https://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-evaluation/

Documents

• Job Description Research Associate.pdf