Modelling climate risk in the Arctic

One full scholarship is available in the School of Geography in 2025. This scholarship will cover full home (UK) fees plus maintenance, and associated fieldwork costs. <br /> <br /> This project is only fully funded for applicants with home (UK) fee status. <br /> <br /> This 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.

<p style="margin-bottom:11px">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 one of the field sites to 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), and simulate how climate risk may change this century. You will further advance the trail modelling framework of Ford et al (2019, 2023, 2024), with potential to focus on particular trail types (e.g. lake ice, open water), types of trail user (e.g. high skilled v low skilled), and/or adaptation scenarios (e.g. low adaptation vs. high adaptation).</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 time doing fieldwork and conduct interviews, surveys, and participatory modelling, and you must therefore be comfortable working in challenging cross-cultural contexts and climates. You will have worked with qualitative and quantitative data and models, and prior experience working the Arctic will be an asset. You will have a good foundational knowledge of modelling approaches and some experience in computer programming, or the enthusiasm to learn these quantitative skills during the PhD.</p> <p><strong>Cited articles</strong></p> <p>Ford, J.D., et al. Re-conceptualizing the IPCC's 'burning embers'. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment (2024). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-024-00594-2">https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-024-00594-2</a></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>Roxburgh, N., L. C. Stringer, A. Evans, R. K. G, 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 href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102203">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102203</a></p> <p> </p> <p>Information about the Award</p> <ul> <li>We are offering 1 full-time/part-time PhD scholarship in the School of Geography for one UK candidate, covering a maintenance grant matching UKRI maintenance stipend (£20,780 in 2025/26) and UK tuition fees for four years, subject to satisfactory progress. </li> </ul> <p>Duration of the Award</p> <ul> <li>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.</li> </ul> <p>Other Conditions</p> <ul> <li>Applicants must not have already been awarded or be currently studying for a doctoral degree.</li> <li>Awards must be taken up by 1st October 2024.</li> <li>Applicants must live within a reasonable distance of the University of Leeds whilst in receipt of this scholarship.</li> </ul>

<p class="MsoNoSpacing">To apply for this project you will need to make a formal application for research degree study through the University's website. You will need to create a login ID with a username and PIN:</p> <ul> <li>For ‘Application type’ please select ‘Research Degrees – Research Postgraduate’.</li> <li>The admission year for this project is 2025.</li> <li>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’.</li> <li>The project start date for this project is 1st October, please use this as your Proposed Start Date of Research.</li> <li><strong>Please state clearly in the research information section that the research degree you wish to be considered for is <em>Modelling climate adaptation futures in the Arctic</em> project as well as <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/see/staff/1030/professor-james-d-ford">Professor James Ford</a> as your proposed supervisor.</strong></li> </ul> <p>More information on how to apply is available on our website <a href="https://www.leeds.ac.uk/research-applying/doc/applying-research-degrees" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">here</a>. You will be required to provide a personal statement which outlines your interest in the project you are applying for, why you have chosen it and how your skills map onto the requirements of the project.</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>

The minimum entry requirements for PhD study is a 2.1 honours degree, or equivalent, in geography or a related subject. <br /> <br /> Applicants who are uncertain about the requirements for a particular research degree are advised to contact the School or PGR Admissions Team prior to making an application.

The minimum English language entry requirement for the School of Geography 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 scholarship to study the project <em>Modelling climate risk in the Arctic</em> in the School of Geography, University of Leeds for one candidate. The funding covers UK tuition fees as well as a UKRI matched maintenance stipend (currently £20,780 in 2025/26) per year, for three years, subject to satisfactory progress.</p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing">This project is only fully funded for applicants with home (UK) fee status. 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 by emailing <a href="mailto:env-pgr@leeds.ac.uk">ENV-PGR@leeds.ac.uk</a>.</p> <p> </p>