Research Fellow in Resilience Engineering for Disaster Risk Reduction

Research Fellow in Resilience Engineering for Disaster Risk Reduction

As a multi-disciplinary university, UCL (www.ucl.ac.uk) has around 25,000 undergraduates and 25,000 postgraduates, with degree programmes in Arts & Humanities, Engineering Sciences, Education, Laws, etc. The ethos of FES is to bring discoveries closer to the people who need them.

The vision of the UNESCO Chair in DRR & RE is to co-create a common culture of resilience and sustainability, based on engineering principles, to deliver safer social and critical infrastructure in vulnerable communities. We workswith universities and industrial partners in countries worldwide to contribute towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically 4, 9, 11, and 13.

The UNESCO Chair has a highly interdisciplinary approach to research. Ongoing projects include partnership with universities in USA, Netherlands, Nepal and Sri Lanka, to work on a multimillion project funded by the Wellcome Trust on Heat Resilience and Mental Health: Engineering Pathways to Reduce Depression and Anxiety in Schools in Nepal and Sri Lanka. Our team will deliver environmental testing and mitigation measures designed at the UCL’s StrEnTHE laboratory, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/engineering/civil-environmental-geomatic-engineering/facilities-cege/structural-environmental-testing-here-east-strenthe . Other ongoing projects focus on understanding the compound effects of multi-hazard sequences on communities and infrastructure recovery, with reference to the Hatay region in Turkey. We also work on innovative use of Machine learning and AI approaches to quantify infrastructure damage due to natural hazards and minimise functional disruption.

About the role

We are looking for a research fellow to support and contribute to the activities of the UNESCO Chair developing independent cutting edge research in the field of Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Engineering. The role is highly inter-disciplinary, creating an opportunity to work across structural and seismic engineering, system analysis and applications of artificial intelligence, collaborating with social scientists and urban development academics.

Success in the role will require establishing productive relationships with several project partners including the UNESCO DRR unit, the World Bank, other UNESCO Chairs and several academic partners worldwide.

The role will run initially for two years, extendable to three, and will support the organisation of the UNESCO Chair’ webinar series, preparation and delivery of training material in the field of structural and infrastructure resilience, and proposal and development of research activities in line with the UNESCO Chair DRR_RE’s objectives. Dissemination strategies will include public speaking, media output, scientific publishing and guidance documents.

About you

The successful candidate should be able to demonstrate:

• PhD, or MSc with a strong expectation of a PhD shortly, in multi-hazard Resilience Engineering or related topic.




• Working experience and knowledge of nonlinear numerical modelling of structure and infrastructure exposed to multi-hazards conditions




• Working experience of advanced programming using python, MATLAB, or ML, LLM and AI tools for engineering.




• Ability to support organisation of webinars and remote and in person training activities




• Excellent interpersonal, oral and written communication skills

Appointment at Grade 7 is dependent upon having been awarded a PhD; if this is not the case, the initial appointment will be at Research assistant Grade 6B with payment at Grade 7 being backdated to the date of final submission of the PhD Thesis.

This role meets the eligibility requirements for a Skilled Worker Visa certificate of sponsorship under UK Visas and Immigration legislation. Therefore, UCL will be able to sponsor individuals who require right to work in the UK to carry out this role.

What we offer

As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer great benefits some of which are listed below:

• 41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days)




• Additional 5 days’ annual leave purchase scheme




• Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE)




• Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan




• Relocation scheme for certain posts




• On-site gym




• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay




• Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.

We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce.

These include people from Black, Asian, and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.