Warwick International Doctoral Training Scholarships (iDTS)

We are looking to recruit Indian graduates for prestigious scholarships.

The successful candidates will have high quality inter-disciplinary PhD training and a fantastic opportunity to work within an internationally active and established research team based at University of Warwick. The program Director, Professor Ponnusamy Saravanan, conducts studies in the UK, India, Kenya, Malaysia and Thailand. University of Warwick is consistently among the top 10 universities in the UK and the 3rd most targeted university by UK's top 100 graduate employers.

This specific programme is developed in collaboration with Novo Nordisk, one of the main Pharmaceutical industry in the field of Diabetes. It aims to address the rapidly increasing burden of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in India by focusing on how Diabetes in Pregnancy affects the future health of the mothers and their offspring.

Context

NCDs are projected to contribute to 75% of all global deaths by the end of the next decade, of which 80% will happen in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Type 2 diabetes (T2D), and cardiovascular disorders (CVD) are the biggest contributors of NCDs. India has become both the T2D and CVD capital of the world. Similar to T2D, Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM; Diabetes in Pregnancy) is rapidly increasing across the world. More than 90% of GDM pregnancies happen in LMICs and most of this happen in South and South East Asia. The current prevalence of GDM in our ongoing Medical Research Council (MRC) funded STRiDE study is 25-30%, even in the low socioeconomic strata of the population. GDM women have 7-12 times higher risk of developing T2D and their offspring are at 2-6 fold higher risk of developing obesity and T2D in their early adulthood.

Understanding the pathophysiology of this ‘intergenerational' programming of these metabolic disorders will enable better prediction and individualized prevention of T2D and CVD. India have >80 million people with T2D and 50% of adults >50 years of age have T2D. However, India does not have enough intellectual capital to deal with this burden despite its rapidly increasing literacy rates. Specifically, it has very little research skills to understand the barriers in the nutritional, cultural and socioeconomic aspects and identify the best route to deliver the translational science.

Examples of the projects that the successful candidates will do are outlined on our website. However, there will be plenty of opportunity for the candidates to develop their own ideas.

Scientific themes

1. Maternal and Child health: Screening, prediction and prevention of GDM
2. Prediction and prevention of T2D post-GDM: Epidemiology, clinical trials, public health, pharmacogenomics, nutritional and lifestyle aspects
3. Holistic approach in reducing the metabolic burden of mothers and children: Statistics, health economics, developing cultural-specific sustainable interventions, big-data approach to enable individualised as well as population level interventions.

Programme structure

All PhDs will be registered at University of Warwick for 3.5 to 4 years.

Split site PhD: Up to 2.5 years of field study in India; Up to 1 year of training and mandatory courses in the UK.

Stipend: 8.4 Lakhs INR per year for the period in India (matched to the Prime Minister's fellowship); £15,072 tax free stipend per year for the period in the UK (matched to the UK Research Council) (total of 3.5 years).

Tuition fees and consumables cost: All international tuition fees (currently £22,858 per year for 3 years) and all project related consumables will be covered by the scholarship.

Annual PhD symposium: The PhD candidates will attend the annual PhD symposium at Warwick Medical School, UK and STAR PhD symposium at Novo Nordisk Headquarters in Copenhagen.

Industry placement: During the last 6-12 months of the writing-up period, students may have an opportunity to spend 6 months with Novo Nordisk (either at Novo Nordisk headquarters in Copenhagen or Novo Nordisk in India).

Application closing date: 24 Jan 2019, 6pm IST.

Interviews: These will take place in India (likely to be in Chennai) w/b 4 Feb 2019.

For further information visit: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/med/study/idts/