NIHR SPHR PhD studentships in Public Health

We are delighted to announce the launch of our PhD studentship competition 2023, offering a flexible opportunity to start in October 2023 for full-time and part-time applicants.

Established in April 2012 and renewed 2022–2027, the NIHR School for Public Health Research (SPHR) is a partnership between nine leading centres of academic public health research excellence across England. Members of the School for 2022–2027 are the Universities of Bristol, Cambridge, Exeter and Sheffield; Imperial College London; The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM); the LiLaC collaboration between the Universities of Liverpool and Lancaster; Fuse, The Centre for Translational Research in Public Health, a collaboration between Newcastle, Durham, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside Universities; and PHRESH, a collaboration between the Universities of Birmingham, Warwick and Keele.

We aim to build the evidence base for effective public health practice by bringing together England’s leading public health research expertise in one virtual organisation. The School conducts applied public health research to increase the volume and quality evidence on cost-effective interventions and supports local public health practitioners and policy makers to engage with research and seek out research evidence to inform their decisions.

Today, we have launched our PhD studentship competition, which offers a flexible opportunity to start a PhD in October 2023 (studentships up to 5 years part-time and 3 years full-time). Applications are invited from individuals who wish to develop a career in public health research. Our goal is to recruit outstanding and diverse candidates across the full range of studentships. We are committed to a supportive, inclusive, caring and positive community and welcome applications from disabled people and those of different cultures, genders, ages, ethnicities and beliefs.

Applicants must have an undergraduate degree in a discipline relevant to public health research and will be expected to complete a PhD during the award period.

This award will fund tuition fees (2023/24 £4,682) and an annual tax-free stipend at UKRI rates (2023/24 £18,022) and a contribution towards research and training costs. Overseas students are welcome to apply but will need to fund the remainder of their fees and any visa requirements from alternative sources.

We are advertising a total of 18 projects of which we expect to fund up to 10 studentships. Find out more about the projects on offer and read the guidance document. If you would prefer to view the guidance document as a webpage, please click here

The application has three stages, firstly complete the application form, upload the required documents and submit by 5pm Thursday 30th March 2023. You can select up to maximum of two projects in your application.

Find out more about NIHR SPHR Training by visiting our training pages, hearing from our current trainees and via our animation: