Modelling climate adaptation futures in the Arctic

One full scholarship is available in the School of Geography in 2025. This scholarship is open to UK applicants and covers fees plus maintenance, and associated fieldwork costs. <br /> <br /> This fully funded PhD place provides an exciting opportunity to pursue postgraduate research in a range of fields relating to climate change, adaptation, and behavioural modelling, working with both Indigenous knowledge and science approaches in the Arctic. <br /> <br /> The School of Geography invites applications from prospective postgraduate researchers who wish to commence study for a PhD in the academic year 2025.<br /> <br /> The award is open to full-time candidates (UK only) who have been offered a place on a PhD degree at the School of Geography.

<p>The Arctic is undergoing transformative climate change, with profound implications for transportation systems. The lengthening of the shipping season in the Arctic Ocean is well-documented, with warming temperatures also compromising the operating period and safety of winter roads. Less studied are the more informal transportation networks involving use of unmaintained trails on frozen lakes, rivers, ocean, and the frozen ground, which are critically important for travel between communities, to cultural sites, and for practicing traditional hunting and fishing activities which have particular importance for Indigenous communities. </p> <p>The recently funded ETHNO-CLIM project (ERC Advanced Grant) is developing new conceptual and methodological tools to understand how different cultures encounter, perceive, adapt to, and interact with climate change. Collaborating with Inuit communities in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, the project focuses on the use of trails in a rapidly warming Arctic, combining both ‘bottom-up’ participatory modelling of current and projected climate-risk, and storytelling and visioning to create scenarios of how such changes might be experienced and responded to. As a PhD student, you will join an international and cross-cultural research team and will be responsible for working in the Canadian partner communities, building upon pilot research (Ford et al., 2019, 2023) to co-develop models to explore how projected changes in trail conditions might be experienced and responded to by communities at different levels of warming (e.g. Roxburgh et al., 2021), combining these models with already established trail access models (Ford et al., 2019, 2023) to simulate how climate risk may change this century. </p> <p>The PhD project will be on the cutting edge of developing innovative interdisciplinary approaches to connect science and Indigenous knowledge within a participatory modelling environment. Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the work, you will be supervised by a human geographer who works with Indigenous knowledge systems in the Arctic (Prof. Ford) and a computational geographer who specialises in developing models for simulating human systems (Prof. Malleson). You will be expected to spend considerable time doing fieldwork, co-developing the research with local partners, and conducting interviews, focus groups, and participatory modelling, and you must therefore be comfortable working in challenging cross-cultural contexts and climates. You will have prior experience collaborating with communities (be it in the Arctic or elsewhere), and have worked with qualitative and quantitative data and models. You will have a good foundational knowledge of statistics and some experience in computer programming and modelling, or the enthusiasm to learn these quantitative skills during the PhD.</p> <p><strong>Cited articles</strong></p> <p>Ford, J. D. et al. Projected decrease in trail access in the Arctic. Communications Earth & Environment 4 (2023). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00685-w">https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00685-w</a></p> <p>Ford, J. D. et al. Changing access to ice, land and water in Arctic communities. Nature Climate Change 9, 335-+ (2019). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0435-7">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0435-7</a></p> <p><a>Roxburgh, N., L. C. Stringer, A. Evans, R. K. Gc, N. Malleson, and A. J. Heppenstall (2021). Impacts of Multiple Stressors on Mountain Communities: Insights from an Agent-Based Model of a Nepalese Village. Global Environmental Change 66:102203. DOI: </a><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102203">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102203</a> <a href="#_msocom_1" id="_anchor_1" language="JavaScript" name="_msoanchor_1">[NM1]</a> </p> <div> <hr size="1" /> <div> <div id="_com_1" language="JavaScript"> <p style="margin-bottom:11px"><strong>Information about the Award</strong></p> <p>We are offering 1 full-time PhD scholarship in the School of Geography for one UK candidate, matching UKRI maintenance stipend (£19,237 in 2024/25) and UK tuition fees for four years, subject to satisfactory progress. </p> <p><strong>Duration of the Award</strong></p> <p>Full-time (4 years). The award will be made for one year in the first instance and renewable for a further period of up to three years, subject to satisfactory academic progress.</p> <p><strong>Other Conditions</strong></p> <ul> <li>Applicants must not have already been awarded or be currently studying for a doctoral degree.</li> <li>Award must be taken up by 1st March 2025.</li> <li>Applicants must live within a reasonable distance of the University of Leeds whilst in receipt of this scholarship.</li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>

<p style="margin-bottom:11px">To apply for this project you will need to make a formal application for research degree study through the <a href="https://www.leeds.ac.uk/research-applying/doc/applying-research-degrees">University's website</a>. You will need to create a login ID with a username and PIN.</p> <p>For ‘Application type’ please select ‘Research Degrees – Research Postgraduate’. The admission year for this project is 2025. You will need to select your ‘Planned Course of Study’ from a drop-down menu. For this project, scroll down and select ‘PhD Geography Full-time’. The project start date for this project is 1^st March 2025, please use this as your Proposed Start Date of Research. Please state clearly in the research information section that the research degree you wish to be considered for is ‘Modelling climate adaptation futures in the Arctic’ project as well as <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/see/staff/1030/professor-james-ford">Prof. James Ford</a> as your proposed supervisor.</p> <p>If English is not your first language, you must provide evidence that you meet the University's minimum English language requirements (below).</p> <p><em>As an international research-intensive university, we welcome students from all walks of life and from across the world. We foster an inclusive environment where all can flourish and prosper, and we are proud of our strong commitment to student education. Across all Faculties we are dedicated to diversifying our community and we welcome the unique contributions that individuals can bring, and particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to Black, Asian, people who belong to a minority ethnic community, people who identify as LGBT+ and people with disabilities. Applicants will always be selected based on merit and ability.</em></p>

Applicants to research degree programmes should normally have at least a first class or an upper second class British Bachelors Honours degree (or equivalent) in an appropriate discipline. The criteria for entry for some research degrees may be higher, for example, several faculties, also require a Masters degree. Applicants are advised to check with the relevant School prior to making an application. Applicants who are uncertain about the requirements for a particular research degree are advised to contact the School or Graduate School prior to making an application.

The minimum English language entry requirement for research postgraduate research study is an IELTS of 6.0 overall with at least 5.5 in each component (reading, writing, listening and speaking) or equivalent. The test must be dated within two years of the start date of the course in order to be valid. Some schools and faculties have a higher requirement.

<p class="MsoNoSpacing">We are offering a fully funded scholarship to study the project Modelling climate adaptation futures in the Arctic, at the School of Geography, University of Leeds for one UK status candidate. The funding covers UK tuition fees as well as a UKRI matched maintenance stipend (currently £19,237 in 2024/25) per year, for four years, subject to satisfactory progress.</p> <p>If you are unsure whether you are eligible for UK fees/funding, please see our <a href="https://www.leeds.ac.uk/undergraduate-fees/doc/fee-assessment">fee assessment page</a>.</p>

<p>For further information please contact the Postgraduate Research Admissions Team via email: <a href="mailto:env-pgr@leeds.ac.uk?subject=Modelling%20climate%20adaptation%20futures%20in%20the%20Arctic">ENV-PGR@leeds.ac.uk</a></p> <p>For specific programme information please contact Prof. James Ford via email: <a href="mailto:J.Ford2@leeds.ac.uk">J.Ford2@leeds.ac.uk</a></p>