Research Fellow in Climate Change and Public Health

Faculty of Population Health Sciences

Job Description

Research Fellow in Climate Change and Public Health Institute for Global Health

Grade: UCL Grade 7

Full-time: 1.0 FTE (i.e. 36.5 hours per week)

Duration: This post is available until 30 April 2029 in the first instance.

Location: 30 Guilford Street, London, WC1N 1EH

Reports to

Senior Research Fellow in Lancet Countdown

Context

Climate change is increasingly affecting the health of people in every country. Actions to tackle climate change are falling short of international commitments, and the window of opportunity to achieve the commitments of the Paris Agreement is closing. However, a robust response to climate change today could still deliver transformational and immediate health benefits and deliver a thriving future for all.

The Lancet Countdown: tracking progress on health and climate change, is an independent, international research collaboration, that works to track the evolving links between health and climate change globally, regionally and nationally, in partnership with The Lancet and the World Health Organization. Its aim is to inform a robust response to climate change that protects and promotes human health. Following a successful first phase of work, the Lancet Countdown brings together almost 300 researchers from nearly 100 universities, research institutions and UN agencies worldwide, within its global and its six regional centres. Its secretariat is based within UCL’s Institute for Global Health, where it is core to the institute’s climate change and health strategy.

As the urgency of climate action escalates, the Lancet Countdown is entering an exciting new phase of increased ambition. Having secured increased funding until 2029, it will focus on advancing its scientific research, as well as its policy, communications, and stakeholder engagement efforts, to put people’s health at the centre of the global response to climate change. The group are also expanding into new research areas, including the design and evaluation of interventions to mitigate the effects of

climate change.

UCL Institute for Global Health

The UCL Institute for Global Health (IGH) is one of 82 Departments at UCL. Our mission is to improve health worldwide through research and education.

professional services staff, and have an annual research income in excess of £21M.

We focus on conducting impactful research that informs health policies and practices, tackling the biggest health challenges facing the world. We with We comprise 160 research, teaching and have strong long-standing partnerships researchers, patients, communities, health care providers and policymakers in the UK, other parts of Europe, across Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and South America.

We foster a culture of critical thought and continuous learning and believe that equality and diversity make us better at our work and promote these in all dimensions. Building the capacity of early career staff is central to our mission and we have multiple supportive schemes ranging from mentoring to funding for small grants.

In Education, our aim is to train the next generation of health and research leaders. Our postgraduate programmes include the MSc Global Health and Development, the MSc Health Economics and Decision Science, and the MSc Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology. We have 50 students on PhD programmes and contribute to teaching medical students.

IGH comprises three Departments

The Department for Environmental and Community Health conducts research on health and climate change, migration and conflict. It houses among the largest groupings in the UK of researchers working on non-communicable diseases, mental health and global health economics. It supports pragmatic global health trials including research on new methods.

The Department of Infection and Population Health brings under one roof all the infection, clinical and population health, including sexual health, molecular epidemiology, and tuberculosis. It has one of the largest cohorts of people living with HIV and includes groups skilled in statistics, mathematical modelling and evaluation. It is home to Natsal, one of the largest and most detailed studies of sexual behaviour in the world.

The Department of Global Health Equity and Social Justice conducts research on the health of women, children and adolescents, on gender-based violence and on the wellbeing of minoritised people. The Department has critical mass in social epidemiology, anthropology, gender and feminisms, paediatrics, community psychology, and political science and has been at the forefront for developing participatory research methods.

We arrange regular events to bring staff together across different themes for closer collaborative working. Team science is encouraged and valued so that staff from different disciplines work together in partnership to tackle the bigger health challenges.

Equality and diversity are integral to our approach to our work. We hold an Athena SWAN Charter Silver award, are committed Friends of Out@UCL, and champion all aspects of equality.

Main purpose of the job

The successful candidate will have experience in and climate change global health and/or epidemiology, with strong quantitative skills and the ability to apply this expertise across climate change and health research. This will include supporting the development and evaluation of indicators of the health impacts of climate change, policies and actions to address climate change, and use of findings to inform real-world impact. The postholder will support the delivery of the health research and academic initiatives of the Lancet Countdown, including the collation of health and epidemiological evidence for the annual Global Lancet Countdown Report, Regional Reports, special issues, and additional academic and research outputs. They will also support the development of research to quantify the impacts of climate on health, and the health opportunities of climate change mitigation and adaptation action.

This role offers the opportunity for an early career researcher to develop a research portfolio in the intersection of climate change and health, in support of the overall Lancet Countdown aims and their personal academic career development.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: the successful candidate must be living in the UK for the duration of the contract.

Duties and responsibilities

Lancet Countdown academic activities

• Contribute to the drafting of the annual Lancet Countdown global indicator report, providing intellectual input and editorial support.
• Support and contribute to the Lancet Countdown’s key academic outputs, including the development of indicators tracking the links between climate change and public health or global health.
• Contribute to the development and publication of evidence-based case studies on the link between health and climate change, with a focus on global health, public health and/or epidemiology.
• Support and coordinate contributions from Working Groups towards the annual Lancet

Countdown Global and Regional reports and other academic outputs, including through technical and scientific input. Support the development of a process of quality improvement of the Lancet Countdown’s indicators from a health perspective, including by contributing to the refinement of methodologies.

• Support the development and management of the Lancet Countdown’s indicator database and online data repository.
• Support contributions of the Lancet Countdown to technical reports developed jointly with international organisations and other high-level stakeholders.
• Keep abreast of scientific literature to inform and update indicator development.
• Coordinate assessment of new indicator proposals, including through peer-review activity.

Research activities and academic development

• Develop and expand a research programme in the field of climate change and health in support of the overall Lancet Countdown aims and personal career development.
• Apply to research grants, in agreement with institutional objectives and personal development goals.
• Support and lead the writing and development of academic publications.
• Deliver talks at high-profile academic and public and political engagement events.
• Develop and manage research projects, including through protocol development, ethics applications, data management and storage, and any other project requirements.

Management

• Support the coordination and timely delivery of research activities on global or public health and climate change across the Lancet Countdown’s global and regional centres.
• Support coordination of the public health related work of Research Fellows (across the Lancet Countdown’s five Working Groups and six regional centres), ensuring their research contributions feed into the Lancet Countdown’s academic outputs, including the annual report.

Capacity building, teaching and student supervision

• Design, produce, and deliver capacity building and knowledge translation seminars (and other activities) in regards to climate change and global health, public health, and/or epidemiology.
• Contribute to teaching on climate change and health in the Institute for Global Health.
• Supervise master’s and doctoral students and provide pastoral support to students in the Institute.
• Support the development of indicator blueprints and standardized methodologies to support national capacity-building efforts, aligned with WHO standards.

Communication and policy engagement support

• Lead the translation and sharing of data with the Communications and Policy teams of the Lancet Countdown, to ensure the research of the collaboration is communicated faithfully and efficiently.
• Support the data requirements for policy briefs and communication products, working with the Communications and Policy teams where required.

Other

• Support the broader work of the Lancet Countdown collaboration, working closely with the Global Secretariat team, regional partners, and academic collaborators.
• Represent the Lancet Countdown collaboration internally and externally with professionalism and respect.
• Maintain excellent, positive, and constructive interpersonal relationships with the members of the broader Lancet Countdown collaboration and external stakeholders.
• Proactively engage and liaise with staff within the Institute for Global Health, the Faculty of Population Health Sciences, and UCL to ensure academic quality, project management, branding and website content, staffing procedures and code of conduct is maintained.
• Participate in departmental and faculty seminars aimed at sharing research outcomes and building interdisciplinary collaboration within and outside IGH.
• Contribute to the academic life of IGH and UCL including teaching and supervision of students on relevant topics.

General

• Follow and actively promote the UCL Ways of Working.
• Takes responsibility to carry out duties in a way that embodies UCL's environmental and social sustainability values, actively supporting UCL's Sustainability Strategy, policies and objectives within the remit of their role.
• Carry out any other duties within the scope, spirit and purpose of the job as requested by the line manager.
• This job description may be reviewed and be subject to amendment in consultation with the post holder.
• UCL offers hybrid working where appropriate and the successful applicant may normally work remotely for up to 60% of the week if they wish.

Person Specification

Note to job applicant: copy and paste the following criteria into your “Statement in support of your application” and describe underneath each criteria how you meet it, giving examples. You will be scored on how you meet each criteria.

Essential Criteria

Qualifications, experience and knowledge

PhD or equivalent working experience in the intersection of climate change, and global health, epidemiology, or a closely related discipline Research experience in climate change and global health, epidemiology, or a closely related discipline Experience in epidemiological modelling, ideally environmental epidemiological models Intermediate proficiency in R or similar coding language Experience working with multidisciplinary academic teams Experience contributing to the delivery of high-quality outputs against tight deadlines Experience communicating scientific and technical evidence to nonacademic audiences Experience working constructively and diplomatically with partners in Lowand Middle-income Countries Track record of leading or contributing to academic peer-reviewed publications

Skills and abilities

Highly organised, with attention to detail Excellent drafting and editing skills, with an excellent command of written English and the ability to adapt scientific content to a broad range of audiences Strong analytical and critical thinking skills Excellent interpersonal skills, including diplomacy, discretion, and the ability to build trusted relationships Excellent communications skills including ability to express ideas clearly through multiple modes Ability to liaise appropriately and effectively with staff and external individuals at any level of seniority Ability to work both independently and within a multidisciplinary team

Application Application

Willingness to travel and to occasionally participate in meetings outside of normal working hours

UCL Ways of Working

Anticipating issues and adjusting approaches when necessary Promoting personal and professional development Making inclusivity, diversity and (inter)cultural awareness core to actions and decision-making for self and the team

Desirable Criteria

Experience incorporating equity aspects into research projects Experience participating in international academic projects Experience working with or developing indicators

Apply

To apply for this position visit: ucl.ac.uk/jobs For informal enquiries about the role, please contact Senior Research Fellow, Dr Jennifer Israelsson on j.israelsson@ucl.ac.uk For queries about the recruitment and application process, please contact IGH HR

Team on IGH.HR@ucl.ac.uk