Edinburgh - Central Area, Midlothian, United Kingdom (Hybrid working)
College of Science and Engineering / School of GeoSciences
Full time: 35 hours per week
Fixed term: for 24 months, with start date of 1st September 2026, or as soon as possible thereafter
The University of Edinburgh is a world class, research intensive institution. We offer a supportive working environment, excellent facilities, and opportunities for professional development within a diverse and international community.
The Opportunity:
This is an Academic Research (Postdoctoral Research Associate) opportunity within the School of GeoSciences.
We seek a postdoctoral research associate (PDRA) for a 24 month position to work on the UK NERC funded grant "Quantifying Efficacy and risks of solar radiation management (SRM) approaches using natural analogues". The project will use novel machine learning based methods to determine the climate response to a range of natural events (e.g., wildfires, volcanic eruptions) which can be used as analogues of SRM to provide evidence for informing model improvement without worry about the risks of field experiments. The derived large scale observational constraints will be used to constrain and advance climate models, and to attribute climate response to SRM.
This position will target a critical problem in climate modelling to improve cloud scheme that contributes one of the most important uncertainties in climate projections (Wang et al 2026, Nature Communications). Wang et al (2026) found that climate models largely underestimated cloud cover response to aerosol perturbation, pointing a key direction for improving climate projections. You will work closely with a Scientist at ETH Zurich to apply a new Neural Network Based Cloud Fraction scheme into UKESM (UK Earth System Model) and design sensitivity experiments to test its effect, and lead the further improvement of cloud fraction scheme for climate simulations.
This post is full time (35 hours per week), however, we are open to considering part time or flexible working patterns. We are also open to considering requests for hybrid working (on a non contractual basis) that combines a mix of remote and regular on campus working.
Your skills and attributes for success:
Please upload your CV, cover letter, and a Personal Statement detailing your motivation and how your experience meets the requirements.
Prior to any employment commencing with the University, you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK. Further information is available on our right to work webpages.
Closing date for applications is 15th June 2026.
Interviews will be held in June/July 2026.
As a world leading research intensive University, we are here to address tomorrow's greatest challenges. Between now and 2030 we will do that with a values led approach to teaching, research and innovation, and through the strength of our relationships, both locally and globally.
The School of GeoSciences explores the factors and forces that shape our world. The School aims to understand the world through fundamental curiosity driven research and to support prescient decision making at individual to global scales. We undertake world leading research; offer new ways of understanding natural and social drivers of change; provide inter and trans disciplinary solutions; and work in partnership to improve livelihoods and explore ways to manage the environment that are both sustainable and socially equitable.
With over 500 academics, researchers and research students, we are the largest and most successful interdisciplinary grouping of geoscientists and geographers in the UK. Research activity is coordinated within three main Research Institutes - Global Change, Earth and Planetary Science, and Geography and the Lived Environment - and within smaller research groupings that reach across and beyond the School.
A distinctive feature of the School is the combination of academic strength, intellectual breadth and societal relevance. Our interdisciplinary research and teaching builds on established core disciplines (ecology, environmental sciences, geography, geophysics, meteorology, oceanography) to provide a variety of approaches to understanding the world (including, for example, system scale modelling, process studies and the development of urban and social theory). The School's research covers fundamental 'blue skies' questions, as well as having application to key societal challenges including inequality and vulnerability, urban precarity, nature and cultural meaning, development and sustainability, climate and environmental change, energy, food and water security, health and wellbeing, natural resources, and natural hazards.
The School of GeoSciences aims to recognise and value diversity in our staff and students, and to support flexible and family friendly working.
