Deadline: 11-Jul-25
The Planetary Health Postdoctoral Fellowship seeks to foster the professional development of a new generation of planetary health researchers and ambassadors committed to protecting health on a changing planet and developing solutions for a healthier future.
The Planetary Health Postdoctoral Fellowship cultivates new knowledge and solutions at the intersections of health and the environment. Through two-year fellowships, the programme supports early-career researchers in conducting cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research on planetary health challenges and solutions.
The 2026 round will be recruiting two fellows: one to be based at LSHTM, and one to be based at Stanford University, with separate recruitment processes for each.
Objectives
- Develop evidence on emerging health risks to protect vulnerable populations impacted by environmental change
- Assess the health consequences of environmental inaction to drive new policies & interventions
- Identify strategies to simultaneously advance health, environmental stewardship & community resilience
- Train early-career researchers and provide opportunities to gain skills in new disciplines for human & planetary health impact
Focus Areas
- Food security and the environmental impacts of crop and livestock production
- Healthy cities, clean air and water, sustainable transport
- The health implications of extreme weather events
- The impact of climate change and land use on infectious diseases (e.g., vector-borne and zoonotic diseases)
- The impact on health of environmental waste such as micro plastics
- The link between climate change and non-communicable diseases
Funding Information
- Fellows receive a competitive postdoctoral salary, full benefits, and modest travel and fieldwork budgets. To supplement the research funding available, fellows are invited to transfer existing awarded funding and encouraged to apply for additional research funding during their fellowship.
- £45,097 to £48,909 per annum pro rata inclusive.
Program Highlights
- Mental health & resilience: Researching mental health responses to environmental change in young people facing eco-anxiety and lower-resourced communities contending with climate disasters and identifying opportunities to build resilience.
- Air quality & health: Assessing the impacts of climate change on air pollution and health and how these findings can influence carbon pricing and build policy support for climate action.
- Ecology, agriculture & infectious disease: Exploring how ecological changes and agricultural practices impact local infectious disease transmission and transcribing this knowledge to public health interventions.
Eligibility Criteria
- This fellowship program is open to researchers from anywhere in the world who are within three years of successfully completing their doctoral degree. Prior research output in the intersections of health and environmental science is a prerequisite.
- As instruction and support will be provided in English, high-level proficiency in the English language is a requirement of the fellowship. Candidates from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds are invited to apply, including global health, health systems, epidemiology, health policy, environmental science, environmental policy, disease ecology, and more.
Application Requirements
- Within the application is a supporting statement that should set out how applicants qualifications, experience and training meet each of the selection criteria.
- Based on their research interests, applicants will be asked to submit a short (500 words) research proposal as part of their response to the essential criteria for the post.
- Applicants should identify a location for the research and a proposed LSHTM supervisor for this work as well as ideally a Stanford mentor.
- Project proposals must be feasible in terms of identified supervision, timeframe and budget.
For more information, visit LSHTM.
