Uncovering the impacts of climate-driven multi-hazards on health outcomes across diverse landscapes

About the Project

Do you want to shed light on place-based health inequalities and contribute to improving the health and wellbeing outcomes experienced by rural, coastal and remote communities?

Applications are invited for fully funded, three-year PhD Studentships within the Lincoln Institute for Rural and Coastal Health (LIRCH), the country’s first integrated, multidisciplinary research Institute dedicated to rural and coastal health research. With £10.9m of funding from Research England, this innovative centre is striving to understand the intersection between place-based deprivation and poorer outcomes for health and wellbeing. Successful students work on projects that aim to make a real difference for affected communities, by investigating challenges including but not limited to aging populations, healthcare workforce shortages, housing issues, and transportation challenges. LIRCH work closely with local commuities and there is an expectation that students will spend dedicated time within LIRCH and our surrounding Lincolnshire area to support connectivity and awareness.

The LIRCH fully funded studentship package includes:

• PhD tuition fees paid (home fee rate*).
• Tax-free stipend to cover living costs.
• Research Training Support Grant (RTSG).
• Additional funding available to support skills development, outreach and dissemination, attendance at summer schools, and research events.

Students can also expect to benefit from the opportunity to develop their career, working alongside and in collaboration with experienced and supportive academic colleagues, as well as joining an existing cohort of students working in a similar field.

This is a fantastic opportunity to support the development of a research agenda to understand and improve the health and wellbeing inequalities faced by rural, coastal and remote communities.

Please note, we are unable to provide financial support after the 31^st July 2029 due to the fixed end date of our project. Therefore, our PhD Studentships are not available to international students.

Project One: Uncovering the impacts of climate-driven multi-hazards on health outcomes across diverse landscapes.

Climate-driven multi-hazards like high temperatures, flooding and drought have direct and indirect impacts on the physical and mental health of societies. Most research considers the impact of individual hazards (e.g., heatwaves) on discrete health outcomes (e.g., heatstroke). In reality, most if not all climate-driven hazards precipitate additional secondary hazards, such as the impact of flooding on landslides, and the cumulative effect of drought and heatwaves on the physical and mental health of farming communities. Very little is understood about multi-hazard-to-health-outcome transitions, including how pathways vary between urban, rural, and coastal areas. In England, coastal communities are exposed to unique hazards associated with oceanic processes like storm surges, often within immediate landscapes of health service scarcity situated in wider rural hinterlands with similar health access challenges.

The Lincoln Institute for Rural and Coastal Health (LIRCH) welcomes PhD proposals that seek to explore multi-hazard-to-health-outcome pathways across diverse geospatial landscapes including the UK, focusing on challenges that emerge at the intersection of hazard exposure, underlying vulnerability, and health service access and availability. Potential projects should involve multi-data analytics (e.g., health and climate/environmental data) and could include a range of data science methods, such as utilising geographical information systems (GIS), statistical analysis, machine learning, deep learning, high powered computing (requiring Python etc) or a combination of data science and qualitative methods (e.g., interviews and focus groups). Project themes include (but are not limited to) exploring the impact of heat-related meteorological multi-hazards on physical/mental health (e.g., ambulance attendance records), investigating associations between meteorological conditions (e.g., temperature), greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (e.g., CH4), air quality (e.g., NOx, PM 2.5, CO), and health outcomes (e.g., severe health emergencies), and considering the cumulative impact of coastal, fluvial, and groundwater flooding on the physical and mental health of diverse geospatial areas. Multi-region studies involving critically comparing multi-hazard-to-health-outcome pathways it the UK and elsewhere are appropriate. For informal inquiries, please contact Dr Harriet Moore (HaMoore@lincoln.ac.uk).

Applications

If you are a dynamic, focused graduate with a relevant first or upper second-class honours degree (e.g. public and population health, nursing, social and behavioural sciences, social policy, environmental and place-based health) a Master’s degree or equivalent professional experience that directly relates to rural or coastal health, then we want to hear from you. The current round of applications closes on 17^th May 2026.

Apply now by sending the following documents to the LIRCH team for consideration: cohsstudentships@lincoln.ac.uk : with the subject of: LIRCH PGR Application.

• Your academic CV (no longer than 2 pages) that includes information on your research and teaching and/or professional practice experience and achievements.
• Personal statement (no longer than 1 page) should outline how your qualifications, skills and experience meet the requirements, why you feel you would be well suited to the studentship at LIRCH that you are applying for as well as a brief overview of your approach to conducting this research.
• Contact details for at least two academic references
• Transcript of your first degree
• Transcript of your master's degree and any other previous degrees