PhD Position in Actuarial Science - Climate risks in life insurance

Research Institute: ISBA (Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Science) which is a part of Louvain Institute of Data Analytics and Modeling in Economics and Statistics (LIDAM).
Contract: Full-time doctoral fellowship, 2 years, renewable once (for a maximum of 4 years).
Start of contract: September 2025, depending on the availability of the candidate.
Campus: Louvain-la-Neuve.

Proposed PhD topic

We are seeking a highly motivated and talented Ph.D. student to join our research team at ISBA (UCLouvain) in the field of actuarial science. The successful candidate will work on cutting-edge research at the intersection of actuarial science, climate change, and financial risk management. The project will focus on the following core topics:

1. Integration of climate risks in mortality modelling: 
   Develop predictive mortality and morbidity models that explicitly incorporate climate variables such as temperature, pollution, and precipitation. Approaches will combine traditional actuarial models with machine learning techniques (e.g., LSTM neural networks) and epidemiological models (e.g. DLNM models) to capture the complex relationship between climate dynamics and mortality/morbidity.
    
2. Innovation in financial products for life insurance: 
   Design and price new financial instruments, such as mortality-linked CAT bonds and temperature derivatives, to hedge longevity risks under climate change scenarios. Incomplete market methods and machine learning-based pricing approaches will be explored.
    
3. The impact of climate risks on financial risks in life insurance: 
   Analyze the influence of climate risks on financial markets, focusing on interest rates and stock returns. The objective will be to assess the impact of climatic shocks on insurers’ financial portfolio returns, the resilience of life insurance products with financial guarantees in the face of these disruptions, as well as the implications for solvency capital and asset/liability management.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in actuarial sciences, mathematics, statistics, data science or similar.
• Solid knowledge of stochastic modeling and/or machine learning techniques.
• Interest in interdisciplinary research combining actuarial science, climate science, and finance.
• Fluency in English; knowledge of French is an asset, but not mandatory.

We offer

• A 2-year full-time position, renewable once in case of positive evaluation.
• A stimulating and collaborative research environment within the renowned Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA) – top 3 actuarial research institute worldwide.
• A net salary of around 2500 Euro per month.
• The opportunity for personal growth through, for instance, participation in international conferences, doctoral courses, collaboration with world-renowned faculty in the field of actuarial science.

Submission and deadline

Interested applicants are encouraged to submit their CV, transcripts, and a letter of motivation (and any relevant research work such as master’s thesis if available) to karim.barigou@uclouvain.be by May 25th 2025.
 

The title of the email should be “PHD CALL – [YOUR LAST NAME]”. The shortlisted candidates will be contacted in the week of May 26th for an interview.