Stirling Management School, Behavioural Science Centre

As part of the development of a new Behavioural Science Centre at Stirling Management School, University of Stirling, there are outstanding opportunities for exceptional candidates to undertake a PhD in cutting edge research areas at the interface between economics, psychology, and public health.

• The centre conducts interdisciplinary research to address key questions for society, such as: why income relates to well-being and health,
• what determines financial decision making,
• how an individual's psychological characteristics interact with the environment to determine functioning, and
• whether behavioural economics approaches such as "nudge" type interventions can encourage responsible behaviour.

The centre has a variety of experienced supervisors, from economics, psychology (particularly health, clinical, social, and personality), and public health, and we will help students develop their own ideas. Methodologies include large dataset analysis, experimental designs, and health care interventions. Being based in a School of Management, there are ready opportunities to interact with industry and local government, including on financial and health care policy relevant areas. Our ethos of PhD supervision centres around enabling the student to publish their work in high level peer-reviewed journals from early on during their PhD training, which entails providing extensive skills training and a culture of PhD students being an equal part of the centre working alongside supervisors and staff.

This approach provides graduates with very strong employability and naturally leads to jobs in academia, industry, and political arenas. Candidates join the centre from a variety of backgrounds including economics, psychology, social sciences, and health care, as well as other areas.

All potentially interested candidates are encouraged to contact Dr David Comerford on 01786 467317 or at david.comerford@stir.ac.uk

Opportunities currently include a three-year PhD studentship, funded by the Doctoral Training Centre in Economics and the Scottish Government. The project involves forecasting the Scottish economy using survey responses. For this particular position, candidates should have an MSc in economics (or otherwise demonstrate a very strong background in econometrics). This successful candidate will receive world-class training from the Scottish Graduate School Doctoral Training Centre in Economics and work experience from the Scottish Government. The deadline for applications for this post is 3rd May.

How to apply:
To apply please complete an online web form http://www.stir.ac.uk/postgraduate/research-degrees/

The University of Stirling lies on a large private campus which is widely considered one of the most beautiful in the world. The campus has a wide range of amenities, including very extensive sports facilities (housing the Scottish Institute for Sport), an active student union, a cinema and theatre. The campus is close to the historically rich city of Stirling, the former capital of Scotland and location of the first battle fought by William Wallace (popularised in the movie "Braveheart"). Stirling benefits from strong transport links, with trains up to four times an hour to Edinburgh and Glasgow (with journeys taking 25 minutes to an hour), ready airport access and onward rail travel to other parts of Scotland and down to England, including a direct overnight sleeper service to London.