Current understanding of the extent to which climate change affects human health remains limited, as most studies focus on single outcomes despite the fact that the same climate-related exposures can influence multiple health outcomes. This project will investigate the diverse health impacts of climate change by investigating multiple exposure–response pathways. Potential pathways that will be investigated are: (i) the association between extreme climate events (heatwaves, floods, wildfires) and daily mortality at the municipal level across Italy; (ii) the meteorological and environmental drivers of the spatio-temporal distribution of vector-borne diseases recorded in Italy; or (iii) the effects of cumulative exposure to extreme climate events during critical windows of susceptibility on individual health trajectories (e.g. growth, respiratory health) and molecular markers (e.g. DNA methylation), leveraging data from the NINFEA and PiccoliPiù birth cohorts. For the selected pathways, the project will aim to formally attribute health risks to anthropogenic climate change by integrating epidemiological approaches with climate attribution methods. Exposure–response functions will be applied under both factual and counterfactual scenarios to quantify the burden of multiple health outcomes attributable to climate change. The position is co-funded by the FIS-2 “E-CHANGE: boosting Epidemiological methods to assess human health risks in a CHANGing climatE”,  CUP D53C25002090001.

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Background in epidemiology and/or biostatistics, with experience in epidemiological analysis and handling large datasets. Knowledge of a statistical software (e.g. R or Stata) is required. Experience in environmental or climate epidemiology is desirable, as is familiarity with geospatial and climate data integration. Familiarity with causal inference methods is a plus. Ability to work in interdisciplinary teams and communicate results effectively. Good command of English is required; knowledge of Italian is an advantage for data management and collaboration.

The research team includes a multidisciplinary group working on environmental, social, life-course and molecular epidemiology and includes, among others, epidemiologists, biostatisticians, computer scientists and molecular biologists. The team is based at the Cancer Epidemiology Unit of the Department of Medical Science (DMS) of the University of Turin. The DMS is an ideal place to carry out multidisciplinary projects thanks to the presence of shared facilities and collaborations among scientific domains with national and international research institutions.

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