University of Reading’s £16 Million Maths Doctoral Training Centre Joins the Climate Fight

The University of Reading will take a leading role in training a new generation of mathematical climate scientists following an award of £16 million.

The Mathematics for our Future Climate Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) will build a scientific community to address the grand mathematical challenges raised by the significant levels of uncertainty in our future climate. It will equip a new generation of mathematicians with key skills in mathematical modelling, scientific computing, statistics and data science to address the diverse problems and pressing challenges posed by climate change.

The funding has been awarded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as part of a £1 billion investment to train doctoral students. The Mathematics for our Future Climate CDT is a joint venture between Imperial College London, the University of Reading and the University of Southampton, plus ocean, weather and climate services, and a wide range of industrial partners.

Professor Jennifer Scott, of the University of Reading’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics, will lead Reading’s involvement in the CDT.

Professor Scott said: “Mathematics plays a crucial role in our understanding of climate change and how we fight it. Mathematics helps us answer key questions about extreme weather, melting ice, droughts, and changing ecosystems. The CDT will bring together people studying maths with those studying climate. Joining forces will enable us to find solutions and make progress in dealing with the biggest issue our planet is facing. The CDT will have a lasting effect on the capability to inform decisions and efforts related to climate change.”

The Mathematics for our Future Climate CDT will train graduates with strong mathematics, physics and engineering backgrounds, focussing on four areas:

• Fundamental mathematical advances needed to understand and anticipate the climate crisis, and to quantify and mitigate the risks associated with extreme events and cascading impacts of a changing climate
• Methods needed to exploit large-scale computing and big data

• Solutions to tackle climate change, enhance sustainability, and ensure economic prosperity and fairness by optimising the effectiveness of renewable energy and the trade-off between mitigation and adaptation actions
• Tools to enable transparent, accessible, scalable, user-relevant and user-friendly analysis of real-time data