Royal Meteorological Institute

The Dynamical Meteorology and Climatology Unit, currently composed of 6 researchers, studies fundamental aspects of atmosphere and climate dynamics, in particular their variability and predictability. Different numerical weather and climate models as well as different time series analysis techniques are used. The Unit uses tools from nonlinear dynamics and information theory, including causal methods, to characterize relationships between climate variables. The Unit is active in several national and international projects, and has many international collaborations. More information about the Unit is available online: https://climdyn.meteo.be/.

The Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (RMI), located in Uccle (Brussels), is a center of excellence in meteorology and climatology in Belgium. The RMI observational infrastructure allows measuring several meteorological parameters, including temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, and precipitation. Within RMI, an advanced meteorological research center is composed of scientists and experts in climatology who study meteorological phenomena, climate models and long-term trends. Their research allows improving weather forecasts and better understanding climate change impacts on the environment. RMI plays a crucial role in providing meteorological information towards the public. The Weather Office provides weather forecasts and alerts to citizens, companies and authorities, contributing to the security and well-being of the population.

Homepage: https://climdyn.meteo.be/.

We are looking for a highly motivated PhD student within the Dynamical Meteorology and Climatology Unit of the Research Department at the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (RMI) in the context of the IcyAlert project (“Intelligent Climate Early Warning Alert for Arctic Ice-Free Summers”).

The IcyAlert project is funded by the Danish Novo Nordisk Foundation and spans from October 2025 to September 2031. The goal of IcyAlert is to improve predictions of Arctic ice-free summers and their climate impacts at multi-seasonal timescale using global climate models, causal methods and machine learning tools. The project is led by the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), in collaboration with RMI and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

The PhD student will be based at RMI during 4 years and will be co-supervised by both Dr. David Docquier (RMI) and Prof. François Massonnet (Université catholique de Louvain [UCLouvain], Belgium), with multiple collaboration opportunities with colleagues in the two research institutes, as well as with collaborators in the two Danish IcyAlert partners (DMI and DTU) and RMI external partner institutes.

The full job offer can be found at https://www.meteo.be/en/info/news-resume/offre-demploi-chercheur-projet-icyalert.

If you hold an MSc degree in a field related to the topic of this PhD and are interested in this position, please apply until Friday 3 April 2026.

Please contact David Docquier (david.docquier@meteo.be) if you have any question about this job opportunity.

The full job offer and instructions to submit an application can be found at https://www.meteo.be/en/info/news-resume/offre-demploi-chercheur-projet-icyalert.