NERC PhD studentship: Jumping the species barrier: understanding how pathogens switch hosts

About the award

The University of Exeter is inviting applications for this NERC-funded PhD studentship to commence as soon as possible. For eligible students the studentship will cover UK/EU tuition fees plus an annual tax free stipend of at least £13,863pa for three and a half years. The student would be based in the Centre for Ecology and Conservation in the College of Life and Environmental Sciences at the Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

Project Description:

Emerging infectious outbreaks are a major threat to humans, domestic animals and wildlife. A better understanding of how pathogens switch hosts and subsequently adapt to their novel host represents an exciting field in evolutionary biology with significant ramifications for epidemiology, conservation and medicine. In this project, the student will have access to natural populations of an emerging bacterial pathogen which has recently switched from poultry into a wild passerine, as well as established lab host-pathogen systems (e.g., bacteria-phage) to gain deeper insights into the processes facilitating host switching and pathogen adaptation to their novel hosts.

Entry requirements:

Applicants for this studentship must have obtained, or be about to obtain, a First or Upper Second Class UK Honours degree, or the equivalent qualifications gained outside the UK, in an appropriate area of science or technology.

This studentship will be funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and is only available to UK and EU nationals. You must have resided in the UK for three years prior to starting the studentship to receive funding for tuition fees and a stipend. If you are an EU national and have not resided in the UK for the three years prior to the start of the studentship you would not be eligible for a stipend, so you would need to have an alternative source of funding for your living costs. Candidates from outside the EU are not eligible for this studentship.

For detailed guidance about eligibility please refer to the Research Councils UK (RCUK) Terms and Conditions for Training Grants: TGC 6 Student eligibility.

How to apply

Please be aware you will be asked to upload the following documents:
• CV
• Letter of application (outlining your academic interests, prior research experience and reasons for wishing to undertake the project).
• Transcript(s) giving full details of subjects studied and grades/marks obtained (this should be an interim transcript if you are still studying)
• 2 references from referees familiar with your academic work (if your referees prefer, they can email the reference direct to [Email Address Removed]. If we don’t receive your references, we will not request them unless you have been shortlisted)
• If you are not a national of a majority English-speaking country you will need to submit evidence of your proficiency in English (for further details of the University’s English language requirements please see http://www.exeter.ac.uk/postgraduate/englishrequirements/research/)

The closing date for applications is midnight on 26 May 2015. Interviews will be held on the University of Exeter Penryn Campus the week commencing June 8th.

If you have any general enquiries about the application process please email [Email Address Removed] or phone +44 (0)1392 725150/723706/723310. Project specific queries should be directed to the supervisor.