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

1000scholars; Exeter; Hybrid; GBP 20,000 - 24,000; Full time

Job summary

University of Exeter in Exeter, United Kingdom invites applications for a PhD Studentship focused on quantifying compounding and cascading physical climate risk to UK infrastructure. The project develops risk assessment, hazard damage modelling, and economic loss estimation for investors and policymakers, using UK climate projections and infrastructure data.

The studentship is funded by EPSRC, offering a stipend of £21,805 per annum for 2026/7 and covering fees.

Job description

# PhD Studentship: Quantifying compounding and cascading physical climate risk to UK infrastructureUniversity of ExeterExeter, United KingdomPhD / DoctoralPhysical Sciences08 Dec 2026## About the positionClimate change is intensifying hazards, such as flooding, heat, drought, storms, that threaten the resilience of UK infrastructure. Most existing risk assessments treat these hazards in isolation and for single asset classes, missing two critical realities: hazards compound (e.g. heat and drought together) and cascade across interdependent systems (e.g. flooding disrupts power, which disrupts water treatment and transport).This project will develop a UK infrastructure risk assessment that starts with rigorous hazard damage modelling for a single infrastructure sector, then extends this to quantify compounding and cascading risk pathways across interconnected infrastructure systems, and finally translates physical risk into economic loss estimates relevant to investors, insurers and policymakers. The student will use probabilistic UK climate projections (UKCP18) and infrastructure network data to develop this analysis from the ground up.The project offers training in climate science, infrastructure risk engineering, network analysis and economic risk quantification, and the opportunity to engage with real-world users of climate risk assessments in finance, insurance and government.Funded by: EPSRC Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council£21,805. The studentship will provide funding of fees and a stipend of £21,805 per annum for 2026/7.This listing was collected from a public source and is reproduced here forinformation only. Always confirm the details on the original posting before applying. View the original postingApply on the source siteTakes you to University of Exeter.Deadline: 08 Dec 2026Duration: Full Time, Fixed-Term/ContractPosted: 28 Oct 2026Institution: University of ExeterLocation: Exeter, United Kingdom