Canada Impact+ Emerging Leader in Resilience of Infrastructure and Communities in a Changing Climate

The Canada Impact+ Emerging Leaders program is a one-time federal initiative that supports the recruitment of internationally based early-career researchers to Canadian institutions. This Emerging Leader position primarily aligns with Canada’s strategic priority in Environment, climate resilience, and the Arctic. The Emerging Leader award is valued at $100,000 annually for up to six years, with the possibility of extension for a further six years.

Applications are invited from exceptional candidates for the Canada Impact+ Emerging Leader position in Resilience of Infrastructure and Communities in a Changing Climate at Western University, with an anticipated start date no later than July 1, 2027. The Emerging Leaders award is awarded for a six-year term, renewable once, contingent on confirmation of the early-career researcher's academic progress and the transformational, translational impact of their research. The program is administered by the Tri-agency Institutional Programs Secretariat (TIPS). The successful applicant will also receive a probationary (tenure-track) appointment within the Faculty of Engineering and/or the Faculty of Social Science at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor, commensurate with their qualifications, experience, and record of performance in teaching and research.

The successful candidate will advance infrastructure and community resilience to severe weather and climate shocks. This emerging leader will work closely with a cohort of four research chairs and will contribute to a vibrant collaborative network of interdisciplinary researchers working in the broader area of multi-hazard risk and resilience, housed primarily in the Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory at Western, the Faculty of Engineering, the Faculty of Social Science, and the Faculty of Science.

Background
Canadians are increasingly affected by the compounding effects of climate change, including more frequent and severe storms, flooding, wildfires, and heat waves. These hazards are causing acute and chronic disruptions to critical infrastructure and the essential services on which communities depend. They are disrupting people’s lives, businesses, and economic opportunities, and doing so in an unequal fashion across socioeconomic and racial/ethnic groups as well as place of residence. The changing patterns of climate and weather extremes mean that Canadian society will face difficult choices about investments in adaptation: to what extent do we fortify infrastructure, and how do we optimize equitable recovery? There is a clear need for engineering solutions and policy approaches that strengthen community resilience and support informed, equitable decision-making.

This research theme is closely aligned with the strategic priority area of the Eddie Goldenberg Research Chair in Climate Risk and Resilience Analytics. In keeping with the requirements of the Canada Impact+ Emerging Leaders program, the successful candidate’s research program must align with the same strategic priority area identified in the Chair’s application: Environment, climate resilience, and the Arctic. An Emerging Leader recruited in this area will offer strong opportunities for collaboration with the Chair, with complementary expertise focused on strengthening the resilience of infrastructure systems and the communities that rely on them, an essential component of the broader Chair’s proposed program to enhance climate resilience at the community scale.

Eligibility
In keeping with the requirements of the Canada Impact+ Emerging Leaders program, applicants must be early-career researchers who were working and residing outside Canada on July 3, 2026 — date when the associated Eddie Goldenberg Research Chair in Climate Risk and Resilience Analytics award formally accepted his position. Applicants may apply from any current location and can be Canadian or of other nationalities.

As of the same date (July 3, 2026), candidates must also be within five years of the start date of their first research-related appointment (i.e., an appointment with the autonomy to conduct research independently), less any eligible delays in research. Candidates are encouraged to describe in their application how career interruptions and personal circumstances have affected their career. Please note delays due to eligible leaves (e.g., parental leave, chronic illness) will be credited at twice the time taken; however, professional leaves (e.g., training, sabbatical, administrative) are not considered an eligible delay.

Academic Expectations:
Research/Impact:
We seek a candidate with a demonstrated record of excellence in contributing innovative insights and measurable impact on infrastructure resilience and adaptation and/or community response and resilience to severe weather. A defining feature of the Emerging Leader’s research program will be strong interdisciplinary collaboration and impactful engagement to ensure research is grounded in real-world need and rapidly translated into impact.

The successful candidate will work at the interface of engineering and social science to address the infrastructure and societal dimensions of climate adaptation and resilience, working in one or more of the following areas of interest:
• Vulnerability and risk assessment: evaluating how infrastructure systems and communities are exposed to severe-weather or climate-related disruptions, and how that exposure varies across place, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity.
• Resilient and equitable infrastructure: designing, monitoring, and managing infrastructure to withstand and recover from severe weather and climate shocks, while examining how social inequality shapes both the process and outcomes of that resilience, including who has access to its benefits and protections, and who bears the greatest costs when it fails.
• Data, analytics, and decision-making under uncertainty: using data analytics and artificial intelligence, alongside quantitative or mixed-methods empirical research, to predict resilience and identify adaptation strategies, including where and for whom those strategies work.
• Policy, place, and adaptive capacity: analyzing how public policies, the spatial distribution of resources, social ties, and place-based governance shape the capacity of neighbourhoods, communities and nations to prepare for, respond to, and recover from climate-related shocks, with attention to housing, essential services, and community well-being among marginalized populations.

Teaching/Mentoring:
The successful candidate will be expected to teach undergraduate and graduate courses in the Faculty of Engineering and/or the Faculty of Social Science and to supervise graduate students.

Service/Leadership:
The successful applicant will be expected to participate in other educational and professional activities including administrative duties within the Department, the Faculty and the University.

Qualifications or Experience and Skills Required:
The successful applicant will have completed a PhD degree in an engineering discipline (e.g., civil, environmental, or a related field), a social science discipline (e.g., geography, economics,
political science, sociology, or public policy), or in a closely related field (e.g, urban planning, disaster risk management, data science). The PhD is a requirement of Western University and not of the Canada Impact+ Emerging Leaders program. The successful candidate will demonstrate a trajectory of research excellence that points to the prospect of becoming a leader in their field. This should include evidence of high-quality scholarly output that demonstrates independent research potential, leading to peer-assessed publications and the securing of external research funding. Evidence of effective teaching at the university level is required through a teaching statement highlighting previous experience that can include leading successful workshops or seminars, student mentorship, delivering conference presentations or posters, or experience as a teaching assistant or course instructor. Evidence of effective teaching at the university level will also be considered, as the successful candidate will be expected to teach a diversity of introductory, fundamental, or advanced undergraduate and graduate courses.

Individuals from any relevant discipline are welcome to apply, with the understanding that collaboration across traditional boundaries is required.