PhD Studentship: Quantifying compounding and cascading physical climate risk to UK infrastructure

Overview

A full-time, fixed-term PhD studentship is available at the University of Exeter within the Department of Geography. This research project focuses on quantifying compounding and cascading physical climate risk to UK infrastructure. Climate change is increasing the frequency of hazards like flooding, heat, drought, and storms that threaten infrastructure resilience. Because most current risk assessments examine hazards in isolation and for single asset classes, this project aims to address how hazards compound and cascade across interdependent systems.

The selected student will develop a comprehensive UK infrastructure risk assessment. The work involves rigorous hazard damage modelling for a single infrastructure sector, extending the analysis to quantify compounding and cascading risk pathways across interconnected systems, and translating physical risk into economic loss estimates for investors, insurers, and policymakers. The methodology utilizes probabilistic UK climate projections from UKCP18 alongside infrastructure network data.

What you get

The studentship is funded by the EPSRC Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. It covers tuition fees and provides an annual stipend of £21,805 per annum for the 2026/7 period. Additionally, the position provides specialized training in climate science, infrastructure risk engineering, network analysis, and economic risk quantification. Participants also gain the opportunity to engage directly with real-world users of climate risk assessments across government, finance, and insurance sectors.

Key dates

The closing date for applications is 2026-12-08.