📌 Title: Fully Funded 4-Year PhD Position – AI-Based Prediction and Climate-Change Attribution of Extreme Events
🏛️ Institution: Instituto de Geociencias (IGEO), CSIC–UCM
📍 Location: Madrid, Spain
🔬 Project: ADAPT-X – AI-Driven AnticiPated aTtribution of eXtreme events
⏳ Duration: 4 years, full-time
📅 Expected Start: Spring 2027 or as soon as possible thereafter
💰 Salary: Approximately €1,655 net/month, depending on personal tax circumstances, plus full Spanish Social Security coverage and standard employee benefits.
📋 Summary
The Instituto de Geociencias (IGEO, CSIC–UCM) is inviting applications for a fully funded 4-year PhD position under the ADAPT-X project, funded by the Comunidad de Madrid through the César Nombela Talent Attraction Programme.
The project will investigate how AI-based weather prediction models can be used to predict extreme weather events and quantify the influence of climate change before or while an event is unfolding.
The research will focus on extreme events such as:
🌡️ Heatwaves
🌧️ Extreme precipitation
🏜️ Droughts
⛈️ Severe storms
👨🎓 Designation
PhD Researcher / Predoctoral Researcher
The successful candidate will be enrolled in the PhD Programme in Physics at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM).
🔬 Research Area
- Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
- AI-based weather prediction
- Climate-change attribution
- Extreme weather and climate events
- Atmospheric dynamics
- Numerical weather and climate modelling
- High-performance computing
- Meteorological and climate data analysis
📍 Location
Instituto de Geociencias (IGEO, CSIC–UCM), Madrid, Spain
The candidate will join the Physics of Climate and Climate Change group at CSIC-IGEO and the STREAM research group at UCM.
🎓 Eligibility / Qualification
Applicants should hold or be close to completing a Master’s degree that provides access to a PhD programme.
Suitable academic backgrounds include:
- Atmospheric Sciences
- Meteorology
- Climate Science
- Physics
- Applied Mathematics
- Environmental Sciences
- Computer Science
- Data Science
- Related quantitative disciplines
Required skills:
- Good scientific programming skills, particularly Python
- Strong quantitative background
- Interest in atmospheric and climate science
- Good written and spoken English
- Ability to work independently and collaboratively
Advantageous but not mandatory experience:
- Atmospheric dynamics and extreme events
- Numerical weather/climate modelling
- AI or machine learning for weather and climate
- Linux/UNIX and shell scripting
- High-performance computing
- Large meteorological or climate datasets
💼 Job Description / Research Activities
The PhD researcher will:
- Evaluate the predictive skill of AI-based weather models and their ability to represent extreme events and atmospheric dynamics.
- Develop factual and counterfactual forecast experiments under present-day and pre-industrial climate conditions.
- Assess the physical consistency of climate-attributed responses using dynamical and thermodynamic diagnostics.
- Benchmark AI-based climate attribution against physics-based modelling, including high-resolution numerical weather prediction simulations.
- Investigate the predictability and climate-change influence of major extreme events.
The project provides access to GPU infrastructure, computational resources and technical support for running AI and physical weather models.
The position also offers opportunities for international research collaborations, research stays, international conferences and scientific publications.
💰 Employment Conditions
- Contract: Full-time predoctoral employment
- Duration: 4 years
- Salary: Approximately €1,655 net/month
- Benefits: Full Spanish Social Security coverage and standard employee benefits
- Workplace: IGEO, Madrid, Spain
📩 How to Apply
Applicants should send an email to Dr. Bernat Jiménez at bernatji@ucm.es with the subject:
“ADAPT-X PhD application – [Candidate name]”
Submit one PDF file containing:
- Curriculum Vitae – including research and programming experience and publications, if applicable.
- Motivation Letter – approximately one page describing your background, research interests and motivation for undertaking the PhD.
- Bachelor’s and Master’s academic transcripts.
- Names and contact details of two potential referees.
📅 Last Date to Apply
31 December 2026
Applications may also be accepted after 31 December 2026 until the position is filled, so early application is encouraged.
⭐ Why Apply?
This PhD offers an excellent opportunity to work at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, weather prediction, climate science and extreme-event attribution, with access to advanced computational resources and international research opportunities at CSIC and UCM.
#PhD #FullyFundedPhD #PhDScholarship #Scholarship #Spain #Madrid #ClimateScience #ArtificialIntelligence #MachineLearning #WeatherPrediction #ClimateChange #AtmosphericScience #Meteorology #DataScience #CSIC #UCM #PhDPosition #ResearchOpportunity
