Description of 38 cycle scholarships (2022-2025)

Scholarship 1: Solid Earth physics

All aspects of solid earth geophysics, such as seismology, volcanism physics, geodesy, quantitative geodynamics and tsunami

This scholarship is open to any research topic in the field of solid Earth Physics.
The scholarship is funded by the University of Bologna, through the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The reference person is Prof. Filippo Zaniboni

Scholarship 2: Synthesis, characterisation and application of new Cu-based Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs)

The thesis project will be devoted to the synthesis or electrosynthesis and characterization of Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs), a class of crystalline materials constructed from organic linkers and inorganic nodes that possess high surface areas and pore volumes. These materials are ideal candidates for biomedical, energetic and sensor applications. 

The scholarship is totally co-funded by the University of Bologna general budget and the Department of Industrial Chemistry “Toso Montanari”; the interested candidate can contact for information Prof. Maria Cristina Cassani of the Department Industrial Chemistry “Toso Montanari”.

The reference scientist is Prof. Maria Cristina Cassani

Scholarship 3: Earth Observations for atmospheric circulation and change

Analysis of the potential use of atmospheric radiance measured by new space missions such as FORUM (Far-infrared Outgoing Radiation Understanding and Monitoring) and CAIRT (Changing-Atmosphere Infra-Red Tomography) of the ESA Earth Explorer to study the atmospheric circulation and climate change.

The boursary is offered by the Department of Physics and Astronomy in collaboration with IFAC - Istituto di Fisica Applicata “Nello Carrara” in Florence.

The reference scientists are from IFAC Dr. Piera Raspollini and from UNIBO Prof. Tiziano Maestri

Scholarship 4: Climate change and population dynamics

Assessing the impact of climate change on human fertility behaviour

Funded by the Department of Statistical Sciences “Paolo Fortunati” with funds made available by the EU project ERC H2020 “Population Dynamics under Global Climate Change – POPCLIMA” (Grant Agreement n. 101002973), with foreseen duration of 60 months within the Framework Programme HORIZON 2020, main partner Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Principal Investigator Prof. Raya Muttarak. The POPCLIMA project was kicked off on 01/01/2022.

The reference scientist is Prof. Raya Mutarak  raya.muttarak@unibo.it

Scholarship 5: Assessing the impact of climate change on human mortality patterns

Scholarship 6: Neural network/time reversal/source scanning methods for detection and location of micro-earthquakes

Several modern methods, based on the full recorded seismic waveforms, are particularly suitable for locating micro-earthquakes such as necessary for monitoring possibly anthropogenically-induced earthquakes. Some of these methods are for instance based on wave field back propagation; waveform stacking; delay-and-sum of waveforms (also known as source scanning); or arrival time picking using deep neural networks. Although at the expense of increased computational cost, they can operate automatically and result in much improved earthquake catalogs. The successful candidate will mostly concentrate on one of such methods, implement and apply it with the objective to decrease the detection threshold of a local network.

This scholarship is funded by the Center for monitoring subsurface activities (CMS) of Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). The reference scientists for INGV are Drs. Andrea Morelli and Thomas Braun.

Scolarship 7: Seismic noise for determination of shallow Earth structure and monitoring crustal variations

Background seismic noise has revealed to be a trove of information for retrieving (mostly) shallow earth structure and -- by virtue of its persistence -- uncover variations with time. The successful candidate will analyse and cross-correlate ambient noise records from a local seismic network to extract Green's functions and use them for surface wave tomography -- implementing efficient ray tracing in heterogeneous structure and non linear inversion -- and monitoring temporal changes of properties of crustal rocks.

This scholarship is funded by the Center for monitoring subsurface activities (CMS) of Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV).  The reference scientists for INGV are Drs. Andrea Morelli and Lucia Zaccarelli.

Scholariship 8: Development of decision support tools based on geophysical data

Geophysical monitoring of the effects of underground anthropic activities provide fundamental parameters for managing induced seismicity. The objective of this PhD project is to analyze geophysical and production-related data near geo-resource development sites (as e.g., geothermal, oil&gas, etc) in order to develop tools and methods for implementing dynamic, risk-informed, decisional systems. The successful candidate will be involved in research activities related with (i) physical and stochastic modeling of seismic events and seismic sequences, (ii) probabilistic hazard and risk assessment, (iii) decisional problems under uncertainty.

This scholarship is funded by the Center for monitoring subsurface activities (CMS) of Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV).  The reference scientists for INGV are Drs. Andrea Morelli and Alexander Garcia.

Scholarship 9: Complex tsunami modeling: earthquake and generation, propagation and flooding

The scholarship will be focused on the development and testing of innovative approaches to the modelling of the generation of tsunamis by earthquakes in different tectonic contexts. The candidate will also use, and possibly further develop, an existing and validated code for tsunami wave propagation, and will finally compare different approaches for the inundation phase. The entire process will be applied to both tsunami hazard assessment and tsunami early warning for few selected coastal areas/sites.

Funded by Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Rome.

The reference scientists are Dr. Stefano Lorito (stefano.lorito@ingv.it) from INGV-Rome and Prof. Alberto Armigliato (alberto.armigliato@unibo.it) from UNIBO.

Scholarship  10: Southern European Seas interannual to decadal variability

The ocean dynamics and circulation of the Southern European Seas (Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea) will be assessed and studied by means of advance methods such as AI applied to model outputs (e.g. Copernicus Marine Service reanalysis for the Mediterranean and Black Sea). In particular the PhD will focus on the study of interannual and decadal variability of key ocean mechanisms and processes such as deep-water formation, inter-basins exchange, air sea fluxes, ocean river interaction.

Scholarship 11: Ocean litter dynamics

The PhD will focus on supporting the marine plastic dynamics understanding also to support decision support systems for plastic managing. Modelling tools, in situ and remote sensing observations and AI will be developed, integrated and used to make investigate the plastic dynamics in the open and coastal ocean and develop what-if scenarios (WiS ) for marine plastic pollution at sea. Different scenarios will be investigated for different geographic domains. The WiS might assess assess the impact of reducing their discharges for a given river catchment or at countrywide level. The PhD will explore the potential impact of plastics from a given river catchment (and therefore also their reduction) on the marine environment in different geographic areas.

his scholarship is funded by the Foundation CMCC (Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici), The OPA research group is presented here https://www.cmcc.it/research-organization/research-divisions/ocean-predictions-and-applications. The successful applicant will carry out his/her research at the Bologna CMCC site.

The interested student can contact for more information Dr. Giovanni Coppini of CMCC Foundation (giovanni.coppini@cmcc.it)

Scholarship 12: Coastal Ocean Modelling in support of Marine Nature Based Solutions

Scholarship 13: Exploration and quantification of the  role of macrophytes in the  mitigation of climate change, its blue  carbon potential and co-benefits in a  physical-biogeochemical modelling  framework

Macrophytes play a vital role in the mitigation of climate hazards and the provision of ecosystem services via the sequestration of carbon, habitat provision, the consolidation of the seabed. This scholarship, funded by the Ocean Modeling and Data Assimilation Division of the Centro Euro - Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC), proposes the development and the implementation of a macrophyte parameterization into a physical-biogeochemical model system taking into consideration their physiological, ecological and morphological characteristucs fostering the exploration and quantification of their role in the marine biogeochemical cycles and in the enhancement of the cohesion of the seafloor.

The fellowship is offered by CMCC-Ocean Data Assimilation division of Bologna and the scientist responsible is Dr. Momme Butenchon (momme.butenschon@cmcc.it)

Scholarship 14: Impacts of the Earth System Models’ systematic error on teleconnections

In atmospheric science, the term "teleconnections" refers to climatic anomalies related to each other over large distances, typically (several) thousands of kilometers. Therefore, this term is generally used to indicate space structures with two or more distinct and strongly correlated action centers, in atmospheric or oceanic anomalies. The most prominent and well-known examples of teleconnections are the so-called Southern Oscillation, which links the sea level pressure anomalies in Tahiti and Darwin (Northern Australia), and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), which links the pressure at the level of the sea to the Azores and Iceland.

Teleconnections play an important role in the global climate system as they influence temperature and precipitation regimes and the location and intensity of the major jet streams and associated storm tracks. They can also be responsible for anomalous weather patterns occurring simultaneously and persisting for a long period over different regions. Furthermore, teleconnections are extremely important for climate forecasting. Indeed, since sea surface temperature anomalies, in some cases and in some regions, are predictable for up to a several years, knowledge of teleconnection patterns, triggered by such ocean anomalies, can provide predictability in remote locations, with prospects that they range from a few seasons to several years.

There is no a fully accepted theory of teleconnection yet, even if it has been shown that most teleconnections from the Tropics to the Extratropics can be explained by the propagation of linear, planetary waves upon a 3-dimensional seasonally-varying basic state (Held et al. 2002). Another mechanism proposed to explain teleconnections between Tropics and midlatitudes relies on the non–linear interaction between transient eddies and the mean atmospheric flow (Seager et al., 2005). In any case, the characteristics of teleconnections are strongly related to features of the mean state. Therefore, simulations of teleconnections can be strongly affected by the characteristics of models’ systematic errors and understanding the role of models’ bias in affecting teleconnection is of paramount importance.

The PhD candidate will exploit available (e.g., CMIP6) climate simulations and will perform sensitivity experiments, using the CMCC climate model, to explore the impacts of systematic errors in simulating teleconnection and possible consequences on climate prediction skills. The fellowship is offered by CMCC- Earth System and Climate Division and the responsible scientist if Dr. Silvio Gualdi (silvio.gualdi@cmcc.it).

Scholarship 15: Ocean predictions and data assimilation

This PhD will develop a new ensemble ocean forecasting system with assimilative capacities. The study will focus on the development of advanced numerical techniques for perturbing initial conditions and produce an ensemble of analysis (with data assimilation) to be used to produce ensemble short term forecasts. The ensemble assimilative forecasting methodology will be tested in the Southern European Sea forecasting systems (e.g. Mediterranean and Black Sea) of the Copernicus Marine Service.

This project is connected to the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (https://marine.copernicus.eu/).

This scholarship is funded by the Foundation CMCC (Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici), Ocean Predictions and Applications Division located in Lecce and the successful applicant will carry out the research in Lecce. The OPA research group is presented here https://www.cmcc.it/research-organization/research-divisions/ocean-predictions-and-applications

The interested student can contact for more information Dr. Eric Jansen of CMCC Foundation (eric.jansen@cmcc.it)

Scholarship 16: Interdependent role of radiative forcing, land- use and land management on present and future climate scenarios

Vegetation acts as an interface between the land surface and atmosphere and plays a significant role in regulating the land-atmosphere interaction. In particular, vegetation variations influence the mass, momentum and energy exchanges between the land surface and lower atmosphere.

Recent land-cover and land-use changes have altered the characteristics of the Earth's surface, and these changes have impacted on climate. Land-use activities are expected to intensify in the future to meet increasing human demand for food, water and energy. In addition, land-use changes and land management techniques are proposed among the climate mitigation measures to enhance the land carbon sink. The general biogeophysical impacts of land-use and land-cover changes on climate are relatively well understood, but various aspects need further investigation. Uncertainties and disagreements among models still exist, and some observed effects that involve albedo, above ground biomass, and plant phenology are not properly reproduced by the models. For these reasons, it is fundamental to explore the sources of uncertainties among state-of-the-art Earth system models to inform the future generation of models.

In the framework of CMIP6, LUMIP and CDRMIP, the global land community have developed specific experiments to investigate the impact of land-use and land-cover changes on climate.

The PhD candidate will exploit these and ongoing experiments to investigate the effects of land use and land cover changes, as well as land management, onto present climate at the global and regional scales. Future mean climate conditions and climate variability under specific land-use and land-management scenarios will as well be analyzed to inform decision makers about possible climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.

The schiolarship is offered by the CMCC Foundation and the responsible scientists is Dr. Silvio Gualdi (silvio.gualdi@cmcc.it)

Scholarship 17: Low frequency variability of the large scale ocean circulation and its links to the Mediterranean circulation

It is well known that the Mediterranean Sea low frequency variability is connected through the Strait of Gibraltar to the North Atlantic climate variability, as well as there are atmospheric teleconnections between the North Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea water mass formation processes. In this research work we will try to find causal relationships between the vertical circulation of the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the atmospheric circulation patterns, in an attempt to evaluate interannual to decadal predictions of the Medirerranean Sea variability.

The reference scientist is Prof. Nadia Pinardi

Scholarship 18: New Strategies for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage under Climate Change conditions

The Thesis project will focus, through updated artificial ageing protocols coupled with in-situ analyses, on the comprehension of mechanisms of degradation, fostered by climate change, involving bronze, stone and glass artefacts. The candidate will also test selected eco-friend coatings, tailored for improving protection of outdoor monuments. The interested candidate can contact for information Prof. Cristina Chiavari of the Department of Cultural Heritage.

The reference scientist is Prof. Cristina Chiavari,  cristina.chiavari@unibo.it

Scholarship 19: The ESA Earth Explorer 9 mission FORUM: study of its performances and impact on climate and weather forecast models

This fellowship will focus on the ESA Earth Explorer 9 mission FORUM, that is currently being developed by the European Space Agency and will be launched in 2027. The student will participate to the development stage of the mission, studying various analysis techniques, the impact of the instrumental characteristics on the FORUM measurements, and the possibility of exploiting FORUM measurements in weather forecast models and climate models.

The fellowship is offered by the Institute of Science of the Atmosphere and Climate (ISAC) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), based in Bologna, and by Serco Italia S.p.A., based in Frascati. The reference scientists are Dr. Bianca Maria Dinelli and Dr. Elisa Castelli from CNR-ISAC.

Scholarship 20: Assessment of weather numerical models for the prediction of meteo-related extremes in the Po Valley

As the world has warmed, that warming has triggered many other changes to the Earth’s climate. Changes in extreme weather and climate events, such as heat waves and droughts, are the primary way that most location and people experience climate change. Human-induced climate change has already increased the number and strength of some of these extreme events. In this context, this PhD program envisages the ability of two numerical weather prediction models (WRF and BOLAM/MOLOCH) to capture extremes in the Po valley such as intense precipitation, heat waves etc. in view of explaining these weather phenomena in terms of climate change indicators.

The responsible scientist is Prof. Silvana Di Sabatino    silvana.disabatino@unibo.it

Scholarship 21: Numerical modelling of the Mediterranean Sea

Scholarship 22: LOFAR for space weather ionospheric effects

The objective of the PhD project is the exploitation of the LOFAR (Low Frequency ARray) radio telescope for studying, modelling and, possibly, forecasting of the genesis and propagation of the ionospheric perturbations induced by Space Weather and lithospheric-atmospheric events (earthquake, volcanic eruption, tsunami, storms) i.e. Travelling Ionospheric Disturbances (TIDs) and small scale irregularities inducing scintillations. LOFAR measurements offer a great opportunity for studying the variation of the ionospheric morphology with unprecedented accuracy compared with an accuracy  that can be obtained with other measurements (e.g. GNSS measurements). 
On other hand, modelling of the ionosphere will be applied on the correction of the noise induced by the ionosphere on astronomical radio observations at low frequencies (20-80 MHz)
The scholarship is funded by Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (Upper Atmosphere and radiopropagation unit in Rome). For more information you can contact Dr. Claudio Cesaroni (claudio.cesaroni@ingv.it) or Dr. Luca Spogli (luca.spogli@ingv.it)