CLIMATE AND HEALTH RESEARCH SCIENTIST (Senior Research Scientist or Principal Scientist)

The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) is a premier research-to-policy institution, generating evidence, strengthening research and related capacity in the African research and development ecosystem, and engaging policy to inform action on health and development. APHRC seeks to drive change by developing strong African research leadership and promoting evidence-informed decision-making (EIDM) across sub-Saharan Africa.

APHRC seeks to recruit a Researcher with strong knowledge and expertise in climate and health to work in the Health and Wellbeing Theme, within the Research Division, mainly leading work in the interlinkages between climate change and health.

Duties/Responsibilities

1. Conduct research on climate and health, which may include designing and executing studies to identify vulnerability to climate impacts on health, quantify the impact of climate on health, model climate impacts on health, and test adaptation, mitigation, and resilience solutions.

2. Lead and contribute to proposal development on climate and health.

3. Lead and contribute to scientific writing in climate and health.

4. Supervise, mentor, and train researchers at the Center.

5. Lead public and policy engagement, knowledge translation, and communication to appropriate audiences.

Scientific Leadership and Research Delivery

● Lead the scientific vision, design, and implementation of climate and health research programs.

● Provide technical oversight across multidisciplinary teams (climate science, health, epidemiology, policy, communications and data science).

● Ensure high-quality, rigorous, and policy-relevant research outputs.

Program Development and Strategy

● Contribute to proposal development processes for major grants.

● Strengthen APHRC’s climate and environmental health research portfolio.

● Identify emerging research opportunities and partnerships in climate-health.

Partnerships and Collaboration

● Build and maintain strategic partnerships with African and global research institutions.

● Lead and support consortium building, coordination and collaborative research delivery.

Capacity Strengthening

● Mentor and supervise early- and mid-career researchers.

● Contribute to institutional capacity building in climate and health science.

● Support the development of sustainable research systems within APHRC.

Policy Engagement and Impact

● Translate research findings into actionable policy insights.

● Contribute to regional and global dialogues on climate and health.

● Strengthen APHRC’s positioning as a thought leader in climate-health science.

● Engage communities, policymakers, regional bodies, and other stakeholders to enhance the uptake of evidence.

Key Competencies, qualifications, and experience

1. PhD in Environmental Health, Environmental Science, Geography, Climate Science, Epidemiology, Public Health or closely related fields.

2. At least six years of relevant post-doctoral experience in research on the interlinkages between climate change and health. Successful candidates may be appointed at Research Scientist (6-9 years postdoctoral research experience) or Senior Research Scientist or Principal Research Scientist levels (10+ years postdoctoral research experience), depending on experience and track record in research leadership.

3. Strong writing skills and a good record of publications on interlinkages between climate change and health.

4. Experience in designing and leading multi-country research programs, including developing proposals and attracting research grants, particularly on interlinkages between climate change and health.

5. Experience working in or with African research and policy contexts.

6. Strong networks within global climate and/or health research communities.

7. Demonstrated experience in building and managing research teams and partnerships.

8. Strong quantitative skills (data generation, management, analysis, and interpretation) in the area of climate and health interlinkages, including vulnerability assessments, attribution science, time series analysis, and modelling, with familiarity with quantitative statistical packages (e.g. STATA, SAS, R, SPSS).

Desirable/Added advantage

1. Expertise in qualitative methods, including familiarity with qualitative analysis software packages (e.g. NVivo).

2. Excellent interpersonal and organizational skills and ability to work in a culturally diverse team.

The successful candidate may be appointed at Research Scientist, Senior Research Scientist or Principal Research Scientist levels (6+ years after PhD), depending on experience and track record in research leadership. This position isclassified under Internationally Recruited Positions (IRP), Grades II- V in our scales.

Interested candidates are invited to submit their application in English through Climate and Health Researcher, and include:

I. A letter of application;

II. A statement of research interests and goals (1-2 pages); and

III. CV with contact details of three referees, clearly stipulating experience and track record in climate-health research leadership, including publications and fundraising.

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Special Notice

APHRC is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. All employment decisions are made on the basis of qualifications and organizational needs. Reasonable accommodation may be provided to applicants with disabilities upon request to support their participation in the recruitment process.

As part of our safeguarding and protection framework, successful candidate(s) will be subject to robust reference checks, including verification of past conduct related to safeguarding, and workplace behavior.