Postdoctoral Research Fellow in AI/machine learning for climate and health

The above full-time post is available immediately until 31st Dec 2026 in the Faculty of Environment Science and Economy.

The post

Are you a machine learning specialist? Do you want to use your skills to help address health crises in Africa, potentially saving thousands of lives?

The Faculty wishes to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (PDRF) to join an innovative, high impact project: ‘Health System Resilience to Climate-related Surges (HeRCS)’. The PDRF will lead ambitious research to forecast surges in health and nutrition service utilisation due to climate shocks and variability in Kenya. The resultant tools will enable health system actors to know where and when to take anticipatory action to prevent climate-related health crises. This two-year project is funded under the UK-Canada Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CLARE) programme. The successful applicant will be responsible for:

• Data Preparation: Collate, organise, and preprocess large, spatiotemporal datasets, including environmental, socio-economic, and health data.
• Model Development: Design and implement a probabilistic Bayesian hierarchical model to forecast health facility caseloads.
• Feature Analysis: Integrate insights from participatory mapping to identify and assess the importance of features driving health surges.
• Validation and Application: Test and validate the model using synthetic and real-world data, quantify uncertainties and adapt based on insights from resilience analysis
• Collaboration and Dissemination: Work closely with stakeholders in Kenya, including the Ministry of Health and NGOs, to demonstrate the model and co-develop actionable insights. Present findings through workshops, conferences and academic publications.

About you

The successful applicant will be able to develop research objectives, projects and proposals; identify sources of research funding and contribute to the process of securing funds and make presentations at conferences and other events.

Applicants will possess a relevant PhD or equivalent qualification/experience in Machine Learning, Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, or a related field. The successful applicant will be a nationally recognised authority in the subject area and possess sufficient specialist knowledge in the discipline to develop research programmes and methodologies. The successful applicant will also be able to work collaboratively, supervise the work of others and act as team leader as required.

Please ensure you read the Job Description and Person Specification for full details of this role.

What we can offer you

• Freedom (and the support) to pursue your intellectual interests and to work creatively across disciplines to produce internationally exciting research;
• Support teams that understand the University wide research and teaching goals and partner with our academics accordingly
• An Innovation, Impact and Business directorate that works closely with our academics providing specialist support for external engagement and development
• Our Exeter Academic initiative supporting high performing academics to achieve their potential and develop their career
• A multitude of staff benefits including sector leading benefits around maternity, adoption and shared parental leave (up to 26 weeks full pay), Paternity leave (up to 6 weeks full pay), & a Fertility Treatment Policy
• A beautiful campus set in the heart of stunning Devon

Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Commitment

We are committed to ensuring reasonable adjustments are available for interviews and workplaces.

Whilst all applicants will be judged on merit alone, we particularly welcome applications from groups currently underrepresented within our working community.

Further information

For further information please contact Dr Tinkle Chugh, e-mail t.chugh@exeter.ac.uk

Interviews are expected to take place in March.

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