Students are working with businesses to become the next generation of financial climate risk analysts.
Two PhD candidates and a post-doctoral researcher are participating in internships with national and international financial services businesses, boosting their professional development while meeting a need for climate and environmental analysts from employers.
The programme has been developed by Patricia Grant, UK CGFI Leeds Innovation Hub Manager at the UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment (CGFI) Leeds Innovation Hub, located in Nexus.
The CGFI industry internship programme enables students to work on challenge-led projects that are co-created with financial institutions, fostering innovative approaches to address the most pressing climate-related challenges while providing valuable industry experience.
Our relationship with the CGFI hub and the University of Leeds provides fantastic access to the multidisciplinary academic expertise required to develop our understanding of the complex risks the financial services industry faces.
Alongside co-creation, the CGFI hub offers co-support for both the students and host businesses. Support for students is further enhanced through regular mentor meetings.
Polly Foster, a PhD candidate in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds, who is currently undertaking an internship with the Bank of England, said: “I’ve been attending meetings at the Bank’s Leeds office twice a week and they have also invited me to wider meetings with the Bank. It has been really insightful to see how it all fits into the wider working of the Bank of England.”
Polly is currently exploring how climate change effects UK residential property, with a focus on flood risk and heatwaves for the Bank of England and CGFI hub.
Polly added: “I have a background interest in policy making and scientists are the ones who make research applicable to the public, so I wanted to do this internship to impact society and help financial institutions to make informed decisions around climate science.
“The internship has helped me to see what it is like working in industry and I would like to do a similar role in the future, bridging the intersection of science and industry to help do something for the betterment of society. I want to help society with science communication.”
Dr David Wilkinson, Supervisory Risk Specialist, PRA, Bank of England and CGFI Associate Fellow, said: “Our relationship with the CGFI hub and the University of Leeds provides fantastic access to the multidisciplinary academic expertise required to develop our understanding of the complex risks the financial services industry faces.”
Bailey Andrew, a PhD candidate in the School of Computing at the University of Leeds, recently completed his internship with JBA Risk Management in Skipton. He researched how to calculate present day flood risk under a changing climate and investigated new approaches using observations and modelling.
Bailey said: “My background is in computing, and I wanted to see what it was like in the climate area. I’m really passionate about the climate and following my internship, I want to continue working in this field.”
Paul Young, Head of Science at JBA, said: “We’ve really valued this opportunity to strengthen our connections with CGFI and the University of Leeds. It’s also been fantastic having Bailey work with us, who has brought novel insight to bear on our work from his medical statistics PhD.”
The next generation of climate scientists are bringing their expertise directly into financial institutions.
Dr Sania Wadud, a postdoctoral researcher in Accounting and Finance at the University of Leeds, who is currently taking part in an internship with the Building Societies Association (BSA), said: “This internship has given me the opportunity to explore climate risk communication. By developing narrative-driven frameworks, we can help lenders, brokers, and consumers better understand climate impacts and make informed decisions. I plan to develop this into a paper on using storylines to enhance climate risk awareness.”
Dr Wadud’s focus for the internship is to co-develop a practical climate risk communication framework to enhance customer awareness for the housing finance sector.
Working closely with lenders from BSA and climate and social scientists at the University, she will help translate complex climate risk data into practical, easy-to-understand, and visualised storyline narratives, developed through a co-designed approach involving surveys and stakeholder engagement. This will help lenders and borrowers make more risk-informed choices during the property purchase journey.
Paul Broadhead, Head of Mortgage Policy at BSA, said: “We are pleased to collaborate with CGFI and the University of Leeds on the development of vital tools and resources to enhance climate risk awareness and support better decision making across the sector. We greatly value the expertise that Sania brings in shaping this important work.”
Professor Iain Clacher, Director of the CGFI-Leeds Innovation Hub added: “Our climate-intern programme is a key pillar of the work of CGFI. Connecting science to finance is crucial in accelerating the use of science-informed climate information by the finance industry.
“The development of the talent pipeline is essential to enable the whole financial system to change, where the next generation of climate scientists are bringing their expertise directly into financial institutions.”
The CGFI hub, recently celebrated one year since opening and has helped to bridge the gap between climate science and the financial industry. Working with a range of key partners including the Bank of England, Aon, Nationwide and the Met Office, the hub has provided a link between academia and industry.
Further information
For more information, please contact Rebecca Hurrey at r.hurrey@leeds.ac.uk in the University of Leeds Press Office.
Picture credit: CGFI.
Hub Contact
For more information about the hub and to discuss opportunities please contact programme developer Patricia Grant at p.grant@leeds.ac.uk - UK CGFI Leeds Innovation Hub Manager.