Program Overview

The Fellowship program has an outstanding reputation for attracting the best and brightest PhDs in the sciences and for training future leaders in Climate and Global Change Science. The C&GC Postdoctoral Fellowship Program is seeking applications from across the full breadth of disciplines contributing to Climate and Global Change Science.

Innovative research within and across disciplines spanning the spectrum of physical, social, and integrated sciences is needed to better understand, predict, plan for, and manage the Earth System and its interactions in a changing climate, as well as how communities experience and are affected by these changes, and how society will pursue low-carbon pathways for a secure and sustainable future. Each appointed Fellow is hosted by a mentoring scientist at a U.S. University, Research Institution, or Federal Agency to work in an innovative climate-related research area of mutual interest, advancing the fundamental science and our understanding of climate-related issues.

Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellows focus on advancing Climate and Global Change Science. This includes research that advances our understanding of the Earth system (e.g., climate, freshwater, ocean, carbon and other biogeochemical cycles), energy, and decarbonization processes. Examples include but are not limited to: observing, understanding, modeling, and predicting climate variability, change, and impacts on seasonal and longer time scales; documenting and analyzing past, current, or possible future climate variability and change; enhancing Earth system model development through improved process representation, novel observational constraints, innovative data assimilation and statistical methods, systematic calibration, evaluation and uncertainty characterization; advancing data assimilation of both atmospheric and terrestrial freshwater processes in order to inform and improve human use of freshwater consumption with high fidelity within global Earth system models and data products; studying the underlying Earth Systems processes, including physical-, chemical-, biological-, biogeochemical-, and coupled human-Earth systems processes, and/or their interactions. In this context, coupled human-Earth system dynamics encompass the mechanisms by which biogeophysical feedbacks and extreme events constrain decarbonization trajectories, institutional decision-making frameworks, and pathways toward climate-resilient, sustainable, and equitable societies. Applications may focus on one discipline or be interdisciplinary, integrating across disciplines.

C&GC Fellows are UCAR employees and receive a fixed annual salary, plus UCAR’s benefits and allowances for relocation, travel, and publications. 
 

How to Apply

Applications will open on July 21, 2026 and close on October 16, 2026. Thank you.

C&GC Question and Answer Session

We will be scheduling a Question and Answer session in the August | September timeframe to answer any application questions people may have. Information on this will be posted here. 

Additional information can be found on:

How Postdocs Apply

  • Applicants must have a PhD degree in an area related to climate change research and have completed their defense of the degree before starting the Fellowship. Preference is given to new graduates who are seeking their first postdoctoral position and who have held a PhD for no more than three years from the application deadline.

How Hosts Apply

  • Potential host scientists are required to submit a letter of intent to host, curriculum vitae, mentoring plan, and a list of current and pending research support as part of the selection process.
  • Co-hosting a Postdoctoral Fellow is allowed. In this case, the Letter of Intent to host should be co-written by both Hosts. We require separate documents from the Co-Hosts for the remaining material (Resumes, Mentoring Plans, and Current and Pending Research Support).
  • Hosts are expected to mentor the Fellow, provide a reasonable office environment, including a computer workstation, and cover any other unique research costs. Open to proposed U.S. Universities, Research Institutions, and Federal Agencies.
  • Hosts are encouraged to register on our UCAR host website or Database of Potential Hosts site, but this is not a requirement. 

Program History

Mike Hall

Dr J. Michael Hall, former director of the NOAA Climate Program Office, founded the NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship Program in 1990. Anticipating the large amounts of data gathered from NOAA efforts, such as the TOGA and TOGA COARE field programs, the research community required the attention of an expanded workforce here and abroad. In a larger context, it was necessary to attract new PhD’s to the community in order to establish the seeds of scientific leadership needed in the field of climate and global change research.

CPAESS (formerly UCAR Visiting Scientist Programs) has managed the program since its inception. The program has been highly successful. The program has also celebrated a 10th anniversary, a 100th postdoctoral appointment anniversary, and a 20th anniversary, which brought together alumni, current appointees, current and past hosts, and many scientists and administrators who have supported the program over the years.  See Current Awardees & Alumni for information on every appointment made through this program.

C&GC History & Progress Report [1991-2018]

During this time, 230 C&GC Postdocs have been hosted all over the United States. To date, there have been 275 Fellows.