Senior Research Fellow in Climate Change and Health

Faculty of Population Health Sciences

Job Description

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

Grade: UCL Grade 8

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

Prof Marina Romanello, Executive Director of 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 be responsible for leading the coordination and timely 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. This role is designed to provide specialist expertise on public health, global health and/or epidemiology to advance the Lancet Countdown’s academic work, and ensure the Lancet Countdown achieve the high standard of academic rigour and science. They will also support the development of research to quantify the effects of climate on health or the possibilities and health opportunities of climate change mitigation.

The postholder will be an expert in climate change and global health and/or epidemiology, with strong quantitative skills and the ability to apply this expertise across climate change and health research, including development and evaluation of indicators of the effects of climate change and policies to address it on public health, and use of findings to inform real-world impact. Their public or global health disciplinary expertise will be essential to ensuring critical appraisal and interpretation of evidence as well as the integration of public and global health principles across all Lancet Countdown outputs. Their leadership and network understanding will be critical in the integration of expertise from across the climate and health fields.

The postholder will also be encouraged to develop and expand a research programme at 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

• Under the direction of the Executive Director, support the drafting of the annual Lancet

Countdown global indicator report, providing expertise on public health, global health and/or epidemiology, and working with contributing authors to achieve a high standard of evidence, quality, and scientific writing.

• Lead, provide support, and contribute to the Lancet Countdown’s key academic outputs, in particular on the development of indicators tracking the links between climate change and public health, global health and/or epidemiology.
• Drive 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 the contributions from each Working Group towards the annual

Lancet Countdown Global and Regional reports and other academic outputs, including through technical and scientific input. Lead a process of quality improvement of the Lancet Countdown’s indicators from a health perspective, including by overseeing the indicator assessment process, and leading the process of development of a long-term strategy to

improve and refine the Lancet Countdown's academic outputs.

• Support the other Senior Research Fellow in all other editorial aspects of finalizing, submitting, and publishing the annual report and any other publications, as well as maintaining an up-to-date list of contributing authors.
• Provide oversight and support the development and management of the Lancet Countdown’s indicator database, and online data repository.
• Oversee, coordinate and deliver the contributions of Lancet Countdown to technical reports developed jointly with international organisations and other high-level stakeholders.
• Represent the Lancet Countdown publicly as a technical expert, including through participation in conferences and high-level events.

Research activities and academic development

• Lead 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.
• Develop and lead funding applications to contribute to advancing research on climate change and public health both across the Lancet Countdown and within UCL, in agreement with institutional objectives and personal development goals.
• 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.
• Conduct structured literature reviews.

Management and Academic Stakeholder Stewardship

• Under the leadership of the Executive Director and the other Senior Research Fellow leading the Lancet Countdown’s academic workstream, contribute to the coordination of the academic collaboration of over 300 individuals around the world.
• Support the network of relationships with academic partners and individual researchers on behalf of the Executive Director, ensuring collaborative and productive relationships are nurtured.
• Keep abreast of climate change and health research development, and of all major networks/collaborations that are driving academic progress in fields related to climate change and health.
• Under the leadership of the Executive Director, lead the timely delivery of research activities on global or public health and climate change across the Lancet Countdown’s global and regional centres.
• Provide expertise on public health, global health and/or epidemiology to the Lancet

Countdown Research Fellows’ group and coordinate the public health related work of Fellows (across the five Working Groups and six regional centres), ensuring their research contributions feed into the Lancet Countdown’s academic outputs, including the annual report.

• Assist the coordination of the Lancet Countdown’s Academic Steering Committee, and High-level Scientific Advisory Group, comprised of leading scientific experts in health and

climate change who provide guidance to the Lancet Countdown on science direction.

Teaching and student supervision

• Lead the design, production and delivery of capacity building and knowledge translation seminars in regards to climate change and global health, public health and/or epidemiology.
• Contribute to teaching on climate change and public health in the Institute for Global Health.
• Supervise master’s and doctoral students and provide pastoral support to students in the Institute.

Communication and policy engagement support

• Coordinate and oversee the translation of the Lancet Countdown’s science for policy engagement and communication purposes, working with the communications and policy teams of the Lancet Countdown, to ensure the research of the collaboration is communicated faithfully and efficiently.
• Contribute to the communication and policy engagement strategy, ensuring accurate representation of the Lancet Countdown’s findings.

Other

• Support the broader work of the Lancet Countdown collaboration, working closely with the executive team, regional partners, and academic collaborators.
• Support the Lancet Countdown Operations team in putting together a detailed annual progress report to the Wellcome Trust.
• 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 in the intersection of climate change, and global health, epidemiology, or a closely related discipline.

Postdoctoral experience in the intersection of climate change, and global health, epidemiology, or a closely related discipline Demonstrated experience in quantitative analysis, including the development of models and/or advanced data analysis in climate change and global health, ideally with expertise in epidemiological modelling Excellent technical knowledge of climate change – health intersection Experience managing and working with multidisciplinary academic teams, and participating in cross-disciplinary and international academic projects Experience in leading teams through complex programmes of work, delivering high-quality outputs against tight deadlines Experience translating scientific and technical evidence into policyrelevant products Experience working constructively and diplomatically with partners in Low and Middle-income Countries Track record of securing research grant income and to developing successful grant applications Track record of academic publications including some as first and/or senior author positions Experience delivering talks to a broad range of audiences

Skills and abilities

Excellent planning and organisation skills, with the ability to organise research activities efficiently and to a high standard 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 Application Application Application

Excellent interpersonal skills, including diplomacy and discretion, and the ability to build relationships of trust 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 Willingness to travel and to occasionally participate in meetings outside of normal working hours

UCL Ways of Working

Actively seeking solutions to any bullying, harassment and discriminatory behaviour in teams Developing resilience strategies and supporting health resilience in the wider team Making inclusivity, diversity and (inter)cultural awareness core to actions and decision-making for self and the team

Desirable Criteria

Research experience including the development and evaluation of interventions targeting non-communicable diseases and climate change Interest in the research areas of the Institute for Global Health Experience working with or developing indicators Experience engaging with external stakeholders, including government representatives, members of international organisations, and NonGovernmental Organisations

Apply

To apply for this position visit: ucl.ac.uk/jobs For informal enquiries about the role, please contact Clare Scully (Head of Operations) on c.scully@ucl.ac.uk.

For queries about the recruitment and application process, please contact IGH

HR Team on IGH.HR@ucl.ac.uk