The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has been awarded funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) in collaboration with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to host the Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Climate Change and Health Security.
HPRUs are joint research units that facilitate world-class research between UKHSA and leading UK universities in areas of applied health protection research that are directly relevant to the mission of UKHSA. They have a strong emphasis on research training and provide opportunities for students to undertake research degrees on highly topical issues that feed directly into national policy and public health response. Our HPRU also includes University College London (UCL) and the Met Office as partners. More information about our HPRU can be found on our website.
Funding is available for three 3-year full-time PhD studentships to start during the academic year 2025/2026.
The awards will cover a tax-free stipend of £22,780 per year and tuition fees at home rates. The studentship is not available to candidates who would be liable for overseas fees, applicants must meet the criteria for Home fees to be eligible to apply. Your fee status is determined in accordance with the Fee Assessment Policy of LSHTM and regulations defined by the UK Government.
The successful candidates will conduct research in a range of priority topics relevant to climate change and health security in the UK.
The Research Training Environment
Students, academics, and professionals come to LSHTM from all over the world because of its international presence, collaborative ethos, research excellence and prestigious study programmes in public and global health. Find out details of the School’s rankings and awards as well as current research in action.
There are three academic faculties at LSHTM: Public Health & Policy; Epidemiology & Population Health; and Infectious & Tropical Diseases. There are also School Centres, which are cross-institution networks of academics collaborating and innovating to address global health challenges, including the Centre on Climate Change and Planetary Health.
The studentship will be based in the Faculty of Public Health and Policy and will be mentored by supervisors at LSHTM/UCL and UKHSA. They will have the unique opportunity of conducting research in academic settings, public health settings and at the Met Office, as well as having access to an extensive training programme offered by NIHR.
HPRU in Climate Change and Health Security
The HPRU in Climate Change and Health Security is offering the choice of PhD topics detailed in the list below. Funding will be available to support 3 PhD studentships. Although all students will be registered for their PhD at either LSHTM or UCL, supervision will be shared with supervisors at UKHSA. For some topics, the work may be carried out at UKHSA premises.
The programme of PhD research for the Climate Change and Health Security HPRU is coordinated by Dr Peninah Murage ([email protected]). General enquires should be directed to her or to the HPRU Director, Professor Shakoor Hajat ([email protected]).
Career development opportunities
Students completing a HPRU PhD will be trained for a career in either academia or public health practice, or indeed spanning both. At LSHTM, support for research students’ future career development is covered through the supervision process, through the Transferable Skills Programme (both at LSHTM and the Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network) and the LSHTM’s Careers Service. There will be opportunities to spend time at UKHSA observing and participating in research to address the practical day-to-day delivery of public health services. Short-term placements at the Met Office may also be possible. Students will have a unique opportunity to network and establish professional contacts through formal and informal interactions with members of staff and other students at LSHTM and UKHSA. Activities include an extensive range of seminars and workshops. The PhD studentships also include some funding for national and international conference attendance by students, providing further networking opportunities.
Financial support
This 3 year award includes payment of fees and a tax-free stipend at the UKRI rate (which is £22,780 in 2025/26). The award is only available to those who are eligible for Home fees. Further information about fees status assessment can be found on the UKCISA website and in the LSHTM Fee Assessment Policy.
General eligibility criteria
- Relevant undergraduate and Masters degrees, both awarded at a high grade. Applicants with a very strong undergraduate degree and relevant work experience may also be considered
- Demonstrable attention to detail
- The ability to work independently, manage own workload and work to deadlines
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
- An interest in applied climate change health protection research in the UK
Each research project also has specific eligibility criteria - please see list of projects below for further details.
How to apply
Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact the proposed primary supervisor of the project(s) they are interested in, for an informal discussion before applying
To apply, submit a completed research degree application online using the LSHTM application portal. The deadline for applications for this scholarship is 5.00pm (BST) 20 October 2025.
Applicants must ensure all information and documents outlined on the LSHTM ‘before you apply’ page is included/uploaded with the application, including:
- academic transcripts (official transcripts for all completed study; interim transcripts for any ongoing programmes of study);
- a two-page Curriculum Vitae;
- references
- a brief (under 500 words) research proposal outlining the PhD project you are applying for and some of your initial research ideas and proposed methodological approaches for this project (this is only required for your 1st choice project). The proposal should also indicate your 2nd and 3rd project choices if applicable. Please refer to the list of projects for further details.
- the project proposal should be appropriately referenced with up to 5 citations.
In addition, applicants for this scholarship must upload the following documents:
- A brief (under 300 words) personal statement outlining why you are interested in, and suited to, undertaking a PhD on this topic.
Applicants must indicate that they wish to apply for this funding by writing 'HPRU – Climate Change and Health Security’ in the funding section of the application form.
Incomplete applications will not be considered for this studentship. This includes any applications missing supporting/supplementary documents (e.g. transcripts or references) at the deadline. It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that the application is complete and therefore applications should be submitted as early as possible to give referees time to submit their references prior to the deadline.
By submitting an application for this funding applicants agree to its Terms & Conditions.
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend an interview as soon as possible after the deadline (20/10/2025).
List of the projects and potential supervisors
- Ambient heat, air pollution and acute kidney injury
Supervisors: Shakoor Hajat, Dorothea Nitsch, Kai Wan
Email: [email protected]
As global temperatures continue to rise, the health risks associated with the renal system are of particular concern. The incidence of Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) is increasing worldwide. In the UK, it is associated with approximately 100,000 deaths annually, and AKI inpatient costs account for up to 1% of the NHS budget. Since 2015, the NHS has been operating an automated real-time electronic alert system to detect episodes of Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) occurring in both hospital and community settings, with the resulting data being sent to the UK Renal Registry (UKRR) for collation.
This PhD proposes linking this unique dataset to high-resolution weather and air pollution data to identify the environmental conditions that may trigger an AKI event. Furthermore, the UKRR dataset can be linked to hospitalisation data to obtain detailed patient information, which can help identify those most at risk of a heat-related AKI event and who require acute dialysis for acute kidney failure.
The work will include a literature review of how heat and air quality may interact to affect the kidneys. Analyses will explore the influence of air pollution and heat on AKI events, complementing previous work that only looked at heat. Outcomes of AKI events include acute dialysis, rehospitalisation, and death, and analyses will explore climate-related complications amongst people with AKI. The economic costs associated with these outcomes will also be estimated. Lastly, more detailed analyses will identify those at highest risk to help UKHSA and local authorities target those who may benefit from health protection measures to address climate and air pollution vulnerability. This will include people who are frail, living in more deprived areas, and with a history of previous AKI or kidney disease.
Specific eligibility criteria (in addition to general eligibility criteria above)
- Masters degree (or equivalent training) in a quantitative subject, preferably epidemiology, public health or medical statistics
- Basic knowledge of health economics
- Strong interest in climate change adaptation
- Familiarity with programming in R software or STATA
- Quality of green infrastructure and mental health resilience during climate hazards
Supervisors: Peninah Murage, Elaine Flores, Emma Gillingham, Helen Macintyre
Email: [email protected]
Climate change intensifies mental health risks across the UK through increased exposure to extreme weather events, including flooding, heatwaves, and storms. Climate-related mental health impacts is an emerging public health priority. Green infrastructure (GI), such as urban vegetation, is linked to protective effects on mental health and psychosocial wellbeing, but the specific characteristics of GI that confer resilience during climatic hazards remain poorly understood. This knowledge gap limits evidence-based policy for climate adaptation and mental health protection. The project will identify which characteristics of urban green infrastructure most effectively support mental health resilience during the occurrence of a climate hazard, and how these effects vary across socioeconomic groups. This may include a combination of some or all of the following:
- developing a conceptual framework to map the linkages between GI and mental health outcomes in the context of climate hazards
- quantitative assessment to examine the characteristics of GI that contribute to their effectiveness in providing mental health and environmental benefits, and how these effects differ across demographic groups
- examine the extent (dose-response) by which GI impacts on mental health outcomes, including understanding and identifying any points of saturation where additional greenspace may not provide additional benefits
- estimate potential NHS cost savings from improved mental health linked to high-quality GI
- qualitatively explore lived experiences to contextualise quantitative findings.
There is an opportunity to use a range of approaches and datasets, including cohort datasets such as the UK Biobank, ONS records and the Mental Health Services data to examine outcomes including depression, anxiety, trauma-related distress, subjective wellbeing, and resilience measures. Climate hazard characterization will utilize established environmental datasets, while GI assessment will employ advanced spatial analysis techniques.
Specific eligibility criteria (in addition to general eligibility criteria above)
- Demonstrated experience in quantitative research methods, including statistical analysis (e.g., regression, multilevel modelling and longitudinal data analysis).
- Familiarity with spatial analysis using QGIS, ArcGIS, or similar software
- Previous experience working with large health or environmental datasets
- Strong background in epidemiological methods, mental health research, or environmental psychology.
- Interest in interdisciplinary mental health research
- The health impacts of summer fuel poverty in the UK
Supervisors: Mike Davis, Sani Dimitroulopoulou, James Milner
Email: [email protected]
Due to climate change, summers in the UK are expected to become hotter, with heatwaves becoming more frequent and intense. Two likely consequences of this are increasing heat-related health effects and increasing demand for air conditioning.
Recent surveys suggest that ownership of air conditioners may be increasing rapidly in the UK, with one large survey conducted in 2023 finding that 19% of respondents had an air conditioner, compared to the 2% previously assumed. While fuel poverty in the UK is often associated with winter months and heating needs, it remains an important issue even in the summer. Hotter summers and the associated take-up of air conditioning will exacerbate this situation with important potential implications for public health.
This work will include exploring changes in indoor heat exposure due to the warming climate, changes in dwelling characteristics, occupant actions, and quantifying the percentage of summer fuel poor homes. As well as the direct impacts of exposure to heat, the project will also explore the implications of the ingress of outdoor air pollution indoors, if the occupants, instead of running air conditioning due to fuel poverty issues, choose to open the windows – especially in urban areas. Thermal comfort and fuel poverty will be considered together with the ingress of outdoor air pollution.
The project will model the impact of climate change policies on home environments and assess the personal exposure of various population groups, using microenvironmental and exposure models. The findings will feed directly into relevant national policy-making and public health responses. Outputs will increase awareness of the case for action around indoor environments, where linkages, trade-offs and co-benefits are identified and prioritised within national and local policies.
Specific eligibility criteria (in addition to general eligibility criteria above)
- An academic background in built environment, physics, climate, environmental, or atmospheric sciences, or a related quantitative field
- Expert skills in quantitative research and analysis
- Strong interest in addressing climate change-related challenges through improvements in environmental quality, built environment, health, and health equity.
- Keen interest in transdisciplinary research.
- Associations between syndromic infectious intestinal disease indicators, meteorological variables, and climate change
Supervisors: Kathleen O’Reilly, Daniel Todkill, Gauri Godbole
Email: [email protected]
This project will focus on examining the associations between syndromic infectious intestinal disease (IID) indicators and meteorological variables. Understanding the impacts of climate change on the epidemiological patterns of pathogens in the UK context remains a key gap in the current evidence-base, as identified in the recent Health Effects of Climate Change (HECC) report. While IID analysis typically relies on microbiologically confirmed cases, syndromic surveillance systems can provide an additional, reactive source to complement confirmed cases and, importantly, provide an estimate of the healthcare burden associated with gastrointestinal GI illness, which is critical for healthcare planning.
The project aims to describe patterns of IID syndromic indicators over the past five years to provide context for further analysis. A core objective is to quantify the effect of precipitation and temperature events on syndromic surveillance indicators of IIDs. This quantification will allow an assessment of how a changing climate might impact the need for healthcare services in the near future and facilitate hypothesis generation for public health interventions. Furthermore, the project seeks to establish methodologies that can be adapted for understanding these relationships with other (non-GI) syndromic indicators.
The work will involve developing a protocol, convening a working group, and identifying key non-syndromic variable datasets. The primary methods will include descriptive epidemiology, time series analysis, and multivariate analysis, integrating temperature, precipitation, and location data, and adjusting for key confounders. During the course of the PhD, the candidate will develop expertise in epidemiology, GI infections and the impact of climate change. Additional skills include mapping, and the use of geographic information systems.
Specific eligibility criteria (in addition to general eligibility criteria above)
- Background in a relevant science (e.g. epidemiology, microbiology, statistics, mathematics)
- Demonstrable quantitative skills
- Investigating the impact of climate and environmental changes on arthropod-related healthcare burden
Supervisors: Kathleen O’Reilly, Daniel Todkill, Jolyon Medlock
Email: [email protected]
This PhD proposal focuses on the growing public health challenge of arthropod-related healthcare burden and how they are influenced by climate and environmental changes, and leveraging how we can best monitor this using the advanced suite of syndromic surveillance systems in UKHSA. The global burden of disease associated with insects, including insect bites is expanding, with climate shifts, land use changes, and human behaviors altering their epidemiology and increasing human exposure. In the UK, the epidemiology of arthropod activity is changing, with increased human exposure predicted due to warmer temperatures and expanded tick ranges. Current surveillance methods for insect biting is developing, highlighting the need for enhanced monitoring.
The project involves two interconnected phases. First, it will design and validate an end-to-end syndromic surveillance programme specifically for arthropod bites. This involves defining and optimizing relevant indicators, exploring their epidemiology, and validating them against existing data for potential integration into routine surveillance activities. This is crucial given current system limitations in capturing the full human impact of arthropod biting.
Second, leveraging established and newly developed indicators, the research will comprehensively analyse the recent epidemiology of arthropod bites over the past decade. Key objectives include quantifying the effect of precipitation and flooding events, and assessing how climate change has affected healthcare attendances for arthropod bites. The project will also investigate whether human populations in closer proximity to wetlands or high-risk zoonotic bridge vectors experience a higher burden, and examine socioeconomic or urban/rural disparities in presentations.
Anticipated outputs include peer-reviewed publications and presentations to senior decision-makers, aiming to enhance prediction, prevention, and preparation strategies for future vector-borne disease spread. Challenges include ensuring sufficient geospatial resolution of syndromic data and accurately differentiating arthropod stings from bites or local versus abroad acquisition.
Specific eligibility criteria (in addition to general eligibility criteria above)
- Background in a relevant science (e.g. epidemiology, microbiology, statistics, mathematics)
- Demonstrable quantitative skills
- A benefit-cost analysis of home adaptations in the face of extreme heat
Supervisors: Luke Vale, Ian Ross, Paul Coleman
Email: [email protected]
Rising temperatures and extreme weather events place pressure on infrastructure, services, and population health. This is especially true for cardio-respiratory illnesses in vulnerable populations. Housing interventions for adaptation and mitigation, offer multi-sectoral potential benefits e.g. reducing indoor heat and pollutant exposure, improved energy efficiency, and reduce carbon emissions, and health and social care costs. Both the technical specification and if and how individuals access and use the interventions shape the intervention impacts. These in turn determine return on public investment.
This project will develop a benefit-cost analysis (BCA) for household climate adaptation policies, incorporating uptake, usage, and equity considerations. The work will be informed by behavioural feedback to assess the economic and social value of household adaptation strategies across UK housing contexts. It will monetise impacts across multiple domains, including health, energy, carbon impact, household energy costs, and productivity. Using data from UKHSA, UK ETS, ONS, NICE, and local authorities, the BCA will explore whether low-income households and those with vulnerabilities derive disproportionately higher net benefits using methods that align with HM Treasury Green Book.
Proposed areas/interventions include: household retrofit & energy efficiency schemes; heatwave preparedness scheme which are being considered and/or implemented throughout the country.
Suggested research questions include:
a) What is the monetised value of cardio-respiratory improvements from household adaptations?
b) How do behavioural elasticities affect intervention uptake, overall and by sub-groups?
c) What are the energy and carbon co-benefits?
d) How does distributional weighting affect estimated net public value across social groups?
Expected Outcomes will include a BCA capturing behavioural dynamics in climate-health adaptation a framework for local authority business cases and policy appraisal. The resulting evidence will support equitable targeting of programmes.
Specific eligibility criteria (in addition to general eligibility criteria above)
- Master’s degree, in a relevant discipline such as health economics, economics or equivalent experience
- A strong awareness of public health policy, early warning systems, or health emergency planning in the UK (or similar contexts).
- Evidence of experience with translating complex economic concepts into plain language is desirable.
- Strong skills in research design and evaluation are essential, with the ability in decision modelling or benefit cost analysis is desirable.
- Nature-based solutions, adaptations and interventions for coastal flooding
Supervisors: Luke Vale, Andrew Briggs, Paul Coleman
Email: [email protected]
As coastal flood risks increase, local authorities are turning to nature-based solutions (NbS) e.g. managed realignment and saltmarsh restoration for their climate resilience and ecological benefits. Conventional appraisals may overlook their broader health, ecosystem and social value, potentially leading to inefficient decisions.
This project addresses this gap by developing a Social Return on Investment (SROI) framework incorporating behavioural feedbacks and equity-sensitive valuation. By analysing how people’s interaction with restored coastal environments influences (e.g. increased physical activity, etc) the research captures the real-world benefits these spaces generate over time. It will consider how benefits (and costs) are distributed especially to the vulnerable or disadvantaged. Data will be sourced from the Environment Agency, Defra, UKHSA, Natural England, and local authorities and agencies. Examples of interventions of interest include coastal realignment and saltmarsh restoration; wetlands and intertidal habitat recreation, and tidal restoration and realignment.
Key Research Questions include
- What is the SROI of coastal NbS?
- How do behavioural responses such as increased use of blue spaces influence these outcomes?
- Are costs and benefits equitably distributed across groups?
- Which coastal NbS yield the highest net public value?
Some expected outputs include a replicable SROI model for coastal NbS incorporating behavioural and equity feedback loops, estimates of social and environmental returns to inform policy and investment and, policy guidance for developing NbS that deliver inclusive, measurable, and sustainable community benefits.
Specific eligibility criteria (in addition to general eligibility criteria above)
- Master’s degree, in a relevant discipline such as health economics, economics or equivalent experience
- A strong awareness of public health policy, early warning systems, or health emergency planning in the UK (or similar contexts).
- Evidence of experience with translating complex economic concepts into plain language is desirable.
- Strong skills in research design and evaluation are essential, with the ability in decision modelling or benefit cost analysis is desirable.
- Natural experimental evaluation of heat-health alerts in England
Supervisors: Sari Kovats, Hugh Sharma Waddington, Ross Thompson
Email: [email protected]
Extreme heat poses a growing public health risk in the UK, particularly for older adults, people with underlying health conditions, and those in health and social care settings. Sustained high temperatures are linked to excess deaths, increased hospital admissions, and disruptions to health and social care services.
During periods of sustained high temperature, heat-health alerts are issued by the UK Health Security Agency and Met Office, aimed at initiating preventative action across health, care, and community settings. However, emerging evidence suggests there is variability in awareness, interpretation, and implementation of these alerts across different services and regions. This PhD will improve our understanding of public and professional engagement and responsiveness for heat-health alerts. It will include a review of existing UK and international evidence, and communication and behavioural factors involved in weather-health risk management decisions and actions. Findings will guide policy and inform updates to the weather-health alerting system and wider Adverse Weather and Health Plan at UKHSA.
Specific components of the project would include:
- Assessment of existing methods and categorisation used for the weather-health alerting system
- Compilation and merging of quantitative data sets on weather forecasts, heat exposure and health outcomes
- Natural experimental evaluation of the impacts of heat-health warnings and their implementation processes on health outcomes
- Comparison of benefits and costs, including with other health alert warning systems, systems and approaches used for hazard alerting
This PhD project will involve stakeholder engagement at national, regional and local levels to guide the research and ensure findings are applicable to practitioners.
Specific eligibility criteria (in addition to general eligibility criteria above)
- Master’s degree, in a relevant quantitative discipline such as Data Science, Environmental Science, Health Economics, Social Science or a related field.
- Strong awareness of public health policy, early warning systems, or health emergency planning in the UK (or similar contexts).
- Strong skills in research design and quantitative impact evaluation methods are essential, with the ability to analyse complex systems such as early warning systems.
- Familiarity with mixed-methods research or evaluation methodologies is beneficial, including some evidence of qualitative research experience (e.g., interviews, focus groups, workshops)
- Experience in, or a strong aptitude for, engaging with a wide range of stakeholders
- Flooding and social care: evaluating public health interventions for better resilience
Supervisors: Sari Kovats, Hugh Sharma Waddington, Ross Thompson
Email: [email protected]
The third UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3) and the National Risk Register (HM Government, 2025) have identified flooding as one of the most important climate change adaptation challenges facing the UK. The potential for severe impacts of flooding on infrastructure, livelihoods and the economy has been clearly demonstrated by multiple previous events in the UK and internationally. In all future climate change scenarios, direct and indirect flood risks are projected to rise over the course of the 21st Century.
Flooding can disrupt social care in care homes and care delivered at home. The PhD will help fill this knowledge gap and assess potential adaptive and mitigative measures to build resilience in associated health and social care settings, with the aim to inform UK flood response policy and practice.
Specific components of the project could include:
- Identification of the range of impacts on health and social care delivery associated with flooding, and existing and new interventions to reduce the impacts of flooding, including infrastructural, behavioural, and policy actions.
- Evaluation of the health, social and economic impacts of flooding, or of interventions for improving flood resilience, on vulnerable groups using existing data sources (natural experiment).
- Evaluation of the implementation of flood-health resilience recommendations through national adaptation plans, flood forecasting and local risk management strategies for vulnerable groups (e.g. those in health care and social care settings).
- Development of a toolkit for the evaluation, visualisation, and continued monitoring of flooding impacts for vulnerable groups.
This PhD project will involve stakeholder engagement at national, regional and local levels across multiple organisations and disciplines to guide the research and ensure development of policy-relevant research, including time spent with relevant agencies.
Specific eligibility criteria (in addition to general eligibility criteria above)
- Master’s degree, in a relevant discipline such as Public Health, Environmental Science, Climate Adaptation, Disaster Risk Management, Urban Planning, Social Science or a related field.
- Knowledge of how flooding or other extreme weather events impact healthcare delivery and infrastructure.
- Familiarity with UK climate adaptation policy, NHS preparedness frameworks, or similar international systems is advantageous.
- Experience or a strong interest in assessing vulnerability and resilience, particularly in healthcare settings including using tools such as GIS, climate scenario models, or risk assessment frameworks
- Familiarity with qualitative and mixed-methods approaches, systems thinking, or spatial analysis techniques will be beneficial. Experience working with climate data or scenario-based planning is a plus.
- Health equity implications of heat adaptation interventions and climate feedbacks
Supervisors: Kai Wan, Shakoor Hajat, Christophe Sarran, Peninah Murage
Email: [email protected]
As the UK experiences rising temperatures due to climate change, adaptation interventions to reduce heat-related health risks are increasingly critical. These interventions span multiple domains, including landuse (e.g. green/blue space, city layout), infrastructure (e.g. cool roofs, air conditioning, heat pumps), and behavioural changes. While such measures reduce exposure to extreme heat, they may also generate unintended environmental and health consequences. For example, air conditioning can increase greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions, which can exacerbate urban heat island effects from waste heat release, and heighten health risks during power cuts.
The feedback effects of adaptation interventions on the climate system are often absent from climate models and projections, leading to important uncertainties and evidence gaps. Importantly, the adoption and impacts of these interventions are unlikely to be equitably distributed. Evidence from the US suggests that unequal access to air conditioning leads to disproportionate heat-related risks among marginalised groups. Similar patterns may be emerging in the UK. This PhD project will investigate the climate feedbacks of key adaptation interventions (one or a combination of them) and their health and equity implications in the UK.
Potential research components include:
- Scenario development of adaptation interventions under climate and socioeconomic futures.
- Climate feedback modelling and projections of outdoor air temperature and health-related metrics (compound heat stress indices, tropical nights frequency, etc.) under climate and intervention scenarios.
- Health impact modelling to quantify the health effects associated with adaptation interventions, both benefits and disbenefits and across population groups.
- Policy analysis and recommendations to inform equitable and sustainable adaptation strategies.
Specific eligibility criteria (in addition to general eligibility criteria above)
- background in environmental modelling (e.g. meteorology, geography, urban environment), with an interest in health-related research or a background in health disciplines (e.g. epidemiology, medical statistics, public health), with an interest in environmental modelling
- familiarity with programming languages such as R and Python (training can also be provided during the PhD)
- experience working with environmental (e.g. climate, air pollution, landuse) and health (e.g. mortality, morbidity) datasets