Research Assistant / Associate Islands of Britain and Ireland Climate Dataset

We are seeking a Researcher to work on the development of an hourly (or higher resolution) gridded rainfall dataset for the UK and Ireland and for its assessment against existing datasets. The Climate+ Co-Centre is a new initiative to address water challenges on the Islands of Ireland and Great Britain. Led by Trinity College, Dublin; Queens University Belfast, University of Reading; UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and Newcastle University, it is funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), Northern Ireland's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The Climate+ Co-Centre brings together over 60 leading researchers from 14 academic partner institutions in the UK over a six-year period. It will undertake research to provide evidence and urgently needed solutions for the interlinked crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and water quality degradation on the islands of Ireland and Great Britain, and globally. More information about the Climate+ Co-Centre can be found here. The researcher will build upon recent work at Newcastle University to evaluate, develop and improve observational datasets of climate variations across the British & Irish Isles, including quantification of uncertainties. A specific task will be the development of an hourly (or 15-min) rainfall dataset for the UK and Ireland which blends quality-controlled radar, gauge and satellite datasets (based on methods developed in Yu et al. 2020 and Lewis et al. 2018, 2021). There will be a need to quality-control radar data, and assess the appropriateness of including satellite data within this dataset, as well as collecting and quality-controlling relevant gauge observations. A second task will be the assessment of the blended dataset against existing sub-daily and daily precipitation datasets, including UK and Ireland specific products and global reanalysis and satellite datasets such as IMERG or ERA5. The researcher will be responsible for developing this dataset and implementing it within a climate atlas to be developed in a larger team within the Climate+ project. We are looking for candidates who can work well with other members of the team at Newcastle, which includes 3 other post-doctoral researchers and four academics, as well as our academic collaborators across the islands of the UK and Ireland.

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution. We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society. We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population. At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC. We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme. In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe.