Capturing Health Risks Of National Indicators of Climate (CHRONIC)

The UK’s next official climate risk assessment—a document that shapes national adaptation policy—is being written, and a postdoctoral researcher will help deliver it. This matters because the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) is the government’s primary tool for deciding which climate threats to prepare for: flooding, heatwaves, food security, infrastructure failure, and more. The previous assessments have informed everything from flood defence spending to heatwave health warnings. But each assessment must be updated with new science, and the gap between research and policy is often wide. This project closes that gap by embedding a researcher directly in the report-writing process. If successful, the CCRA4 will reflect the latest evidence on how climate change affects people’s health—not just in extreme weather events, but through slower, cumulative risks like degraded air quality, disrupted supply chains, and pressure on the NHS. The impact is not a new technology or discovery, but a better-informed government response. The work is applied and policy-facing: it translates existing science into actionable recommendations, rather than generating new fundamental knowledge.