Fully Funded PhD in Water-Energy-Food Systems and Climate Change for Africa’s Energy Transition Politecnico di Milano in Italy

Fully funded PhD opportunity at Politecnico di Milano in the Science in Policy programme, jointly offered by the PhD in Science, Technology and Policy for Sustainable Change and the PhD in Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering.

The project focuses on the water-energy-food nexus and how competition for water between energy and food systems may shape Africa’s energy transition under climate change. The research introduces the idea of water bankruptcy to study allocation under structural scarcity and will develop an integrated modelling platform combining energy systems, hydrology, and agriculture.

Research themes include energy system expansion, irrigation and food security, water stress, greenhouse gas emissions, cross-sectoral trade-offs, and equity. The project is linked to an ongoing collaboration with the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) and Prof. Kaveh Madani, and a visiting period at UNU-INWEH is planned during the PhD.

Supervision is by Andrea Castelletti and M. Cristina Rulli. The ideal candidate has an MSc in engineering, environmental sciences, physics, applied mathematics, or a related field, plus strong quantitative/modelling and programming skills (Python, MATLAB), interest in sustainability and climate change, and good English proficiency.

Applications must be submitted via the official online form. Prepare a CV, publication list, motivation letter, and two referees. Deadline: 31.05 (normalized here as 2026-05-31).