Research Assistant/Research Associate

Applications are invited for a Research Assistant/Associate to join the Finance department to work on dynamic models of climate change through the introduction of different technologies (for example, heat pumps). The project is interdisciplinary and involves researchers from the Faculty of Engineering as well as the Centre for Climate Change.

Duties and responsibilities

This role would involve a high degree of teamwork and interdisciplinary research. The researcher will be based in London. Duties will cover all aspects of the research and involve working jointly with Professor Alexander Michaelides and Dr Anastasiya Ostrovnaya.

The successful candidate would be involved in the ‘Heat Pumps in the Economy’ project, which is to develop tractable stochastic models to better understand the role of uncertainty in commodity prices and costs from adopting new technologies (for instance, heat pumps) in the actual implementation of these new technologies. The models have a micro component that involves understanding the decision of an individual household to adopt a new technology in the presence of macro uncertainty. The individual models can be enhanced to study the role of different government policies in encouraging technology adoption and the design of financial contracts that can facilitate the process. The models also have an aggregate component that solves a similar model from the representative agent point of view and investigates aggregate outcomes.

Essential requirements

• Experience of handling, and quantitative analysis of large datasets


• Experience of stochastic modelling tools


• Experience writing reports, literature reviews and other written deliverables


• Knowledge of business and finance - strong familiarity with concepts such as required rate of return, risk assessment methodologies and barriers to investment, portfolio management concepts, corporate finance


• Knowledge of at least one (preferably more) of the following coding languages: Python, Fortran, IDL, Matlab


• Excellent programming skills to solve dynamic models under uncertainty


• Advanced computing skills, including coding and a range of data visualisation techniques


• Highly proficient in Python; additional software competencies (e.g., R)

Further information

• Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as Research Assistant within the salary range £38,194 - £41,388 per annum.

Should you require any further details on the role please contact: Anna Wilhelme – a.wilhelme@imperial.ac.uk

• Research Assistant or Associate - JD.pdf