Recruitment & Admissions

The CEADs team brings together scholars from research institutions in China, the United Kingdom and other countries. The team has long been committed to studying carbon emission characteristics and emission reduction pathways in China and other emerging economies, providing solid theoretical foundations and data support for sustainable development toward carbon neutrality in emerging economies.

The CEADs team is now recruiting PhD students for October 2022 entry through the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction at University College London, the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, and the Business School at the University of Edinburgh. The positions can support applications for CSC scholarships. Research directions include greenhouse gas emissions accounting, integrated assessment of climate change, environmental input-output analysis, carbon neutrality pathways, urban low-carbon transition, climate finance and investment, and related areas.

Requirements

1. A Master degree, obtained before August 2022

2. IELTS 6.5, with no component below 6.0

3. Applicants with backgrounds in mathematics, economics and environmental science are preferred

Application Materials

Interested applicants should send the application materials to the following email addresses before February 28:

xi.liang@ucl.ac.uk (Xi Liang);

shanyuli@outlook.com (Yuli Shan);

mengfeijiang20@gmail.com (Mengfei Jiang);

aihan.gao@ucl.ac.uk (Aihan Gao);

z.mi@ucl.ac.uk (Zhifu Mi);

jing.j.meng@ucl.ac.uk (Jing Meng)

Application materials include:

1. A self-recommendation letter, one page, in English

2. A CV in English

IELTS score report, or other materials demonstrating IELTS 6.5-level English proficiency

University Profiles

University College London (UCL), founded in 1826 and located in London, is a world-leading public comprehensive research university. It is consistently ranked among the top ten universities worldwide and is a long-established UK university with an outstanding reputation. In UK university research rankings, UCL ranks first in the country. It is a founding college of the University of London and is known as one of the G5 super-elite universities together with the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Imperial College London and the London School of Economics and Political Science. UCL is also a member of the Golden Triangle universities, the Russell Group, the UK-China University Consortium on Engineering Education and Research, and SES-5. UCL has produced 34 Nobel laureates and 3 Fields Medalists, as well as prominent figures in science, politics and culture, including Charles K. Kao, known as the father of fiber optics; Alexander Graham Bell, a pioneer of telephone communication; Francis Crick, a discoverer of DNA and a founder of molecular biology; Peter Cook, a core member of Archigram; Demis Hassabis and David Silver, creators of the AlphaGo algorithm; literary master Rabindranath Tagore; and Mahatma Gandhi.

The University of Birmingham, founded in 1825, is located in Birmingham, the second-largest city in the United Kingdom. It is a top 100 global university, ranked 90th in the 2022 QS World University Rankings and 92nd in the 2022 U.S. News Best Global Universities rankings. It ranked first in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers list in 2020 and received a Gold rating in the UK Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) assessment in 2017. The University of Birmingham is one of the UK red brick universities and received a royal charter from Queen Victoria in 1900. It is a founding member of the Russell Group, Midlands Innovation, the Universitas 21 global network and the Worldwide Universities Network. By the end of 2017, the university had educated 11 Nobel laureates, 3 UK prime ministers and 5 heads of foreign governments. Notable alumni include UK prime ministers Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain and Robert Anthony Eden; Nobel laureate Francis Aston, inventor of the mass spectrometer; and Chinese scholars such as Li Siguang, Yao Tongbin and Ke Jun.

The University of Edinburgh Business School, part of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, has a history of nearly one hundred years. The University of Edinburgh ranked 20th in the 2020 QS World University Rankings. Its Business School is among the leading business schools in the United Kingdom, with business subjects at Edinburgh consistently ranked around the top 20 in The Times subject rankings. The University of Edinburgh is a world-renowned public comprehensive research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is the highest seat of learning in Scotland and one of the UK long-established universities.

Supervisor Profiles

Professor Xi Liang

Professor Xi Liang is Chair Professor in Climate Investment and Finance at University College London and a PhD supervisor. He also serves as Secretary-General of the UK-China (Guangdong) CCUS Centre, a standing committee member of the Climate Investment and Finance Association (CIFA) of the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences, and Deputy Director of the CCUS Professional Committee. Professor Liang is a leading expert for climate investment and finance projects conducted by multiple government and multilateral institutions. He has served as Chief National Expert for the Asian Development Bank China Urban Climate Investment and Finance Project, leader of the Climate Finance Accelerator project team, and leader of the CCS Centre of Excellence (Guangdong) project team. He has led climate change-related research with total funding of GBP 6.2 million and developed multiple CCUS projects, including the completed USD 20 million China Resources Power Haifeng carbon capture testing platform. This project is the first phase of the Guangdong Offshore CCUS Project (GOCCUS) and the first open carbon capture technology testing center in Asia. He has also advanced the planning and development of multiple CCUS projects in Guangdong Province, including large-scale carbon capture retrofits for coal power, cement and steel, as well as offshore CO2 storage demonstration projects. His research focuses on the digital upgrading and efficiency improvement of carbon markets, carbon capture process innovation, flexibility assessment of clean energy projects and energy systems, incentive mechanism design for greenhouse gas mitigation, and financing and risk management for emerging low-carbon technologies. He has published extensively in economics, carbon capture policy, carbon storage technology and climate policy.

Email: xi.liang@ucl.ac.uk

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/construction/people/professor-xi-liang

Associate Professor Yuli Shan

Associate Professor Yuli Shan is a tenured associate professor and PhD supervisor at the University of Birmingham. He is an author of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, a Clarivate Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher, and has been listed among the global top 2% scientists by Stanford University. He has received more than ten academic honors, including the German Green Talents Award and the China Top 100 Most Influential International Academic Papers Award. He serves as Associate Editor of journals including Journal of Cleaner Production and as an overseas standing council member of the National Association for Input-Output and Big Data Studies. Associate Professor Shan has long worked on carbon emissions accounting, regional sustainable development and climate change economics. His research provides important data support for government management practices related to carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. His interdisciplinary research across natural and social sciences is widely recognized by the academic community. Over the past five years, he has published nearly one hundred papers in leading international journals including Nature Climate Change and Nature Sustainability, with more than ten papers selected as ESI hot papers or highly cited papers. His papers have been cited more than 6,000 times and have received extensive coverage from media including CGTN, Xinhua News Agency, Reuters and the Financial Times.

Email: shanyuli@outlook.com /

Assistant Professor Mengfei Jiang

Dr. Mengfei Jiang is Assistant Professor in Finance at the University of Edinburgh Business School. She received a PhD in Carbon Finance from the University of Edinburgh and a Master degree in Finance and Investment Management from the University of Aberdeen. From 2021 to 2022, she served as a research fellow at Heriot-Watt University Business School, participating in research on the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) sustainable cold chain finance project (Va Co BD Program) and the UK National Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Research Programme (NICER Program). From 2018 to 2020, she served as a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh Business School, responsible for research and management of the BHP China steel industry CCUS project. She has participated in a series of major research projects related to low-carbon environmental protection and carbon market development, including a low-carbon building retrofit project supported by the Scottish Funding Council and the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, a carbon market linking project supported by the World Bank, and a CCUS legal and regulatory framework project supported by the Asian Development Bank and the Guangdong Development and Reform Commission. Her main research areas include climate investment and finance, sustainable finance, energy and climate change policy assessment, including carbon pricing, emissions trading schemes and renewable energy policies, circular economy, energy conservation and emission reduction, and CCUS business models, policy and finance.

Email: mengfeijiang20@gmail.com

Lecturer Zaihan Gao

Dr. Zaihan Gao is Lecturer in Sustainable Construction and Investment at the Bartlett School, University College London. He received his PhD in Finance from Durham University Business School. His research areas include corporate finance, green finance, climate investment and finance, sustainability and transport economics, and he has published multiple papers in related fields. He has led or participated in several research projects, including studies on dual-carbon strategies for central state-owned financial institutions in China and the role of high-efficiency motors in supporting the dual-carbon goals.

Email: zaihan.gao@ucl.ac.uk

Associate Professor Zhifu Mi

Dr. Zhifu Mi is a tenured associate professor and PhD supervisor at University College London, and a senior visiting scholar at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the SSCI journal Structural Change and Economic Dynamics (IF=3.579). He has published more than 60 papers in Nature Energy and other high-quality journals. He has been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and recognized as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher. His honors include the China Top 100 Most Influential International Academic Papers Award, the World Sustainability Award, the Energy Economics Best Paper Award, the Nature Communications Top 50 Earth and Planetary Sciences Papers Award, the Geophysical Research Letters Highly Cited Paper Award, the Environmental Research Letters Best Early Career Paper Award, and the Applied Energy Highly Cited Original Research Paper Award.

Email: z.mi@ucl.ac.uk

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/construction/people/dr-zhifu-mi

Associate Professor Jing Meng

Dr. Jing Meng is a tenured associate professor at University College London and a researcher at the Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (C-EENRG), University of Cambridge. She received her undergraduate degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and her PhD from Peking University. Her research interests include climate change policy, low-carbon technology innovation, and the environmental and economic impacts of air pollution. Over the past five years, she has published more than 40 papers as first author or corresponding author, including more than 10 papers in PNAS, Science Advances and multiple Nature portfolio journals. She received the 2018 Nature Communications Top 50 Earth and Planetary Sciences Papers Award, the 2020 Sustainability Future Leader Award, and was recognized as a Clarivate Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher in cross-field research in 2020 and 2021.

Email: jing.j.meng@ucl.ac.uk

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/construction/people/dr-jing-meng