Eligibility criteria

Candidates should hold, or achieve by the start of the programme, a Master's degree in addition to a Bachelor's degree with a UK First- or Upper Second-Class honours grade or equivalent in a relevant life science or quantitative science subject. Candidates must have strong statistical/computational skills.

Candidates MUST start the PhD as soon as possible and no later than 1st October 2024 at the latest.

Applications from unsuccessful candidates in previous recruitment rounds for MRC-CEH studentships will not be considered.

Studentship include funding for Home tuition fees and a stipend of £20,622 per annum.

PLEASE NOTE! This studentship is only available to candidates who are eligible for home tuition fee status. Applicants from overseas will be considered to be part of our group if they are able to cover the studentship costs by either self-funding, other fellowship and/or through Government funding.

Course specific information

The studentship will be based with one of the PIs in these units:

- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics (EBS) at Imperial College

- Environmental Research Group (ERG) at Imperial College

Our researchers are uniquely placed to lead collaborative projects nationally and internationally, producing high quality research in selected areas (see below) and working in collaboration with academic partners, health and environmental agencies (e.g., US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization, the Environmental Agency, Transport for London) and industry (e.g. Bosch, Dyson Ltd, JCB) to translate this knowledge into policy and improve population health.

A key focus of our mission and strategy is to train and develop the next generation of academic and policy leaders in the field of environment and health research. Successful PhD candidates will be supported by a leading bespoke training programme to ensure that they are equipped with the appropriate skills and experience to become first class researchers.

Research ideas

We are looking for outstanding candidates with an interest in environment and health research in the UK and beyond, and with experience in at least one of the following areas:

- Environmental exposure assessment and epidemiology (incl. air pollution, noise, ionizing and non-ionising radiation, waste management, water, climate change and health) e.g. WellHome, Breathe London, HipTox, or a range of other projects

- Molecular signatures of exposures and disease pathways (incl. biomarkers, metabolic profiling, exposome, multi-'omics' analyses and modelling)

Urban environments and health (incl. social, economic, behavioural and technological processes, inequalities)

- Biostatistics, data science and computational biology (incl. spatial epidemiology and small area studies, artificial intelligence, Bayesian nonparametric modelling)

- Cohorts and Data Resources (incl. cohorts of children and adolescents, e.g. CHILL, SCAMP, CLUE, NFBC; occupational cohorts, e.g. AIRWAVE; cohorts of mobile phone users, e.g. COSMOS; other large cohorts, e.g. ALEC, INTERMAP, LIFEPATH)

For more information on our research programmes, examples of potential projects and instructions on how to apply please visit the MRC Centre for Environment and Health website - https://environment-health.ac.uk/

Application process

The application form can be found in our website. It should be completed electronically and e-mailed to Ami Bhavsar a.bhavsar@imperial.ac.uk . For any queries contact a.bhavsar@imperial.ac.uk Applicants with relevant knowledge, skills and ambition outside the scope of the projects listed are encouraged to apply (relevant projects will be identified following successful interview). Incomplete applications will not be considered. The closing date for applications is extended till 5th February 2024. The MRC Centre and the NIHR HPRUs are committed to equality of opportunity, to eliminating discrimination and to creating an inclusive working environment.

Contact

If you have any additional questions, please contact us at a.bhavsar@imperial.ac.uk.