Research Fellow in Climate Innovation

The Grantham Institute, Imperial College London, with the support of Quadrature Climate Foundation (QCF) is looking for two researchers to work for us for two years to set a firm scientific basis for climate change innovation and climate change philanthropy.

The staff at the Grantham Institute is a mix of professional staff, with specialisms in innovation, research translation, communication and impact, and lecturers and research specialists jointly appointed with departments of the university, to ensure a strong cross-university integration. The institute is an excellent home for some postdocs and PhD students who carry out interdisciplinary research that doesn’t naturally fit into any of the departments of the university, but have strong connections across several, and excellent potential for impact.

In parallel, QCF has built science into the heart of its strategy, which is reflected by its values: “Dispassionate: decisions follow the science” and “Humble: intellectually curious”.

We are looking for two Research Fellows to help deliver the scientific base for QCF’s work, whilst working firmly within the research groups at the Grantham Institute and Imperial. You will work closely with both Alyssa Gilbert (Director of Innovation) and Joeri Rogelj (Director of Research) to ensure a combination of excellent academic-standard research with real-world applicability, including in the innovation sphere.

You will have the opportunity to deliver your own deep and state-of-the art research whilst also producing outputs in a way that can help guide and shape significant philanthropic investments. These jobs offer the opportunity to amplify impact with your research.

Working closely together with our Directors of Innovation and Research, as well as the funders, you will develop and deliver a programme of research in a specialist area of climate-related topics and manage and deliver high quality research over the two-year period.

These fellowships are unconventional and some non-academic outputs will be expected at shorter-term intervals than conventional papers in parallel to your overall programme of research.

To be applicable in the philanthropic context, your work may include some of these activities:

• Stress-testing programmes against scientific evidence
• Identifying explicitly where science is uncertain, which can feed into the development of experimental programmes
• Scoping specific scientific areas to highlight where there is the potential for innovation or other activities to fill gaps in the deployment of climate solutions
• Upskilling non-scientists about your area of research.

We are looking for applicants with the ability to think strategically about a range of different topic areas, and their applicability to climate change innovation and action. These skills should be coupled with an ability to guide and conduct high-quality research and critical analysis across. We are open to receiving applications from a range of disciplines, however, we have significant interest in expertise covering the following areas:

• Chemical engineering or electrochemistry for the decarbonisation of hard-to-abate industries.
• Geology/geo(bio)chemistry as applied to carbon dioxide storage or fuel extraction (petrochemicals, hydrogen, geothermal).
• Other talented individuals with a relevant climate-focused background

These research fellowships may attract researchers from unconventional backgrounds, from individuals looking to take a break from another career track, or returners to the academic community and we would welcome such applications.

We expect our fellows to be real team players, interested in collaborating with academics and a range of other stakeholders. As such, excellent communication skills are essential.

This is a full time, fixed term post for two years. You will be based at South Kensington Campus.

For informal queries please contact Dora Vrkic, [email protected]  

This is a hybrid role.  Staff working in roles that are suitable for hybrid working will normally be expected to work 60% of their time onsite. The opportunity for hybrid working will be discussed at interview.

More information is available on the following web page: Work Location Categories (from 30 September 2023) | Administration and support services | Imperial College London  

The College is a proud signatory to the San-Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA),which means that in hiring and promotion decisions, we evaluate applicants on the quality of their work, not the journal impact factor where it is published. For more information, see https://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-evaluation/  

The College believes that the use of animals in research is vital to improve human and animal health and welfare. Animals may only be used in research programmes where their use is shown to be necessary for developing new treatments and making medical advances. Imperial is committed to ensuring that, in cases where this research is deemed essential, all animals in the College’s care are treated with full respect, and that all staff involved with this work show due consideration at every level.http://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-integrity/animal-research /