NERC GW4+ DTP PhD CASE studentship for 2024 Entry. - Improved extreme climate indices for food security risk analysis

About the Partnership

The GW4+ DTP consists of the Great Western Four alliance of the University of Bath, University of Bristol, Cardiff University and the University of Exeter plus five Research Organisation partners: British Antarctic Survey, British Geological Survey, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the Natural History Museum and Plymouth Marine Laboratory. The partnership aims to provide a broad training in earth and environmental sciences, designed to train tomorrow’s leaders in earth and environmental science.

For eligible successful applicants, the studentships comprises:

• An stipend for 3.5 years (currently £19,237 p.a. for 2024-25) in line with UK Research and Innovation rates
• Payment of university tuition fee;
• A research budget of £11,000 for an international conference, lab, field and research expenses;
• A training budget of £3,250 for specialist training courses and expenses
• the Met Office will supplement the RTSG by £1000 per year (£4000 total)

Project details

Project Background

The occurrence and severity of extreme climate events is changing globally and has marked impacts on agriculture and food security (Falloon et al. 2022), but we currently lack a robust understanding of their impacts and how to quantify them. There have been attempts to estimate impacts based on empirical approaches (e.g. Bradshaw et al. 2022), while dynamic process-based models are also known to have limitations in representing the impacts of extreme events (e.g. (e.g. Franke et al. 2020; Li et al. 2019). Preliminary work involving the supervisory team, combining production and trade data with novel agroclimatic indices for extreme events has demonstrated significant challenges in representing yield shocks at national aggregate level. This studentship will therefore aim to develop improved extreme climate indices for agriculture to support resilience and adaptation planning.

This CASE project is partly funded and supervised by the Met Office, the internationally-recognized weather and climate research service. The student will benefit from interactions from some of the world’s foremost expertise in climate and food security research.

Project Aims and Methods

The project will:

1. Quantify the effect of extreme weather events on crop yields and prices, and in particular on the occurrence of market ‘shocks’. This work will use statistical data fusion to coherently merge observations and climate model output on extreme weather events, while also combining these data with existing impacts indices and approaches (including process-based models).

2. Develop improved approaches for assessing extreme event impacts (building on existing approaches and exploring new avenues), and demonstrate them for a small number of representative case studies in agriculture across land uses and geographies. 

3. Perform future assessments of impacts, using the improved/developed indices to support risk assessment, resilience and adaptation planning.

The project will provide feedback to the development of climate observations and models, building on the assessment of current capabilities in Task 1. The student will be given opportunities to develop their own ideas and interests within the scope of the project, in discussion with the Lead Supervisor.

Candidate requirements

The successful candidate should hold a degree in a STEM subject, and/or be able to demonstrate numerical aptitude (e.g. familiarity with mathematical and statistical techniques, basic understanding of coding in an appropriate language) to be comfortable when undertaking the research. Training will be provided in methods and approaches throughout the PhD programme. 

Project partners 

This project benefits from close collaboration with the Met Office, the internationally-recognized weather and climate research service. The student will benefit from interactions from some of the world’s foremost expertise in climate and food security research.

Training

Training will be given in handling and analysing large spatiotemporal datasets in popular data science languages (R, Python).

Background reading and references

Bradshaw et al (2022) Environ. Res. Lett. 17 084028. DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/ac816d

Falloon, P et al (2022) Environmental Research Letters 17, 051001, DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/ac68f9

Figueiredo, R., et al (2018). Risk Analysis 38(11), 2400–2414. DOI: 10.1111/risa.13122.

Franke, J. A., et al. (2020) Geosciences Model Development, 13, 2315–2336, DOI 10.5194/gmd-13-2315-2020

Li, Y, et al. (2019) Global Change Biol. 2019; 25: 2325– 2337. DOI 10.1111/gcb.14628

Please note that applications received via other routes including a standard programme application route will not be considered for the studentship funding.

Eligibility

NERC GW4+ DTP studentships are open to UK and Irish nationals who, if successful in their applications, will receive a full studentship including payment of university tuition fees at the home fees rate.

The conditions for eligibility of home fees status are complex and you will need to seek advice if you have moved to or from the UK (or Republic of Ireland) within the past 3 years or have applied for settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme.

For full information and how to apply please use this link - Award details | Funding and scholarships for students | University of Exeter