About the Project
Climate led hazards do not occur randomly in space. They cluster, propagate, and interact across landscapes, communities, and infrastructure networks. Spatial association the statistical relationship between what happens in one location and what happens nearby—is therefore fundamental to any system that aims to forecast risks and issue timely warnings. The successful candidate is expected to acquire mathematical and statistical skills for developing advanced modelling framework to capture the spatial behaviour of climate induced hazards and interdependence of climatic variables hazards (over space).
This PhD project will investigate spatial association as a foundational concept for understanding and predicting hazard risks, by integrating spatial statistics, geospatial data science, and risk modelling approaches. As current review shows (ref. Bhattacharjee & Bose 2026) there is a clear lack of such measures even in uni-variable set-up, and thus requires extension of the conceptual framework of spatial association to higher-dimensions.
By integrating spatial statistics, climate science, and risk modelling, the project aims to advance our ability to detect emerging hotspots, understand cascading hazard pathways, and improve predictive models for multihazard risk
The i-Risk Doctoral Focal Award
i-Risk PhD research offers a unique opportunity to contribute to the generation of new knowledge in the forefront of informatics. i-Risk cohorts will advance understanding and deliver innovative tools and solutions for multi-hazard systemic risk resilience and sustainability practice. Doctoral Researchers will undertake a structured training programme and partner co-created interdisciplinary research projects.
Our Vision
The vision of i-Risk is to train the next generation of research practitioners and leaders who will be at the forefront of collaborative research and:
Integrate informatics with understanding of evolving risk throughout the environment
Collaborate with a broad range of partners from industry, government agencies, global organisations (e.g., the United Nations) and Non-Government Organisations to ensure research directly informs policy and practice, delivering widespread impact.
Core Research Themes
i-Risk builds on 4 leading UK institution’s long-standing strengths at the vanguard of informatics, multi-hazard risk, and resilience research, with unparalleled facilities and >70 multidisciplinary academic supervisors for subject-specific support, providing students with an exceptional research environment.
i-Risk has four core research themes:
Observations, monitoring and understanding
Deploying nascent technologies and intelligent observation/monitoring/experimental approaches to gather rich data to understand evolving hazards.
Modelling and understanding processes/risk
Developing data analytics approaches/tools to model and understand intertwined natural, social, and engineering systems, enabling analysis and characterisation of multi-hazard systemic risks.
Forecasting, prediction and early warning
Predicting and forecasting hazard risks for timely, reliable warnings, facilitating elective risk mitigation and community/infrastructure resilience.
Risk communication and management solutions
Delivering innovative tools and solutions supporting sustainable multi-hazard systemic risk management, rendering hazard/risk information accessible to/intelligible by end-users/stakeholders, advancing sustainability practice and policy
Your application will not be processed without all of the required documents submitted at the time of application, and we cannot accept responsibility for late or missed deadlines. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Please note that interviews are anticipated to be held remotely via Microsoft Teams week commencing 29June 2026.