Can Natural Language Processing techniques predict health risks from chemical exposures?

Get paid to do a PhD with the Centre for Global Eco-Innovation (http://www.globalecoinnovation.org/) at Lancaster University (https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/)

Funded PhD linked with Yordas Limited Ref. No. LU004
• Get paid £1,455 per month tax-free till June 2023.
• Your UK/EU tuition fees are paid (international candidates will need to pay remaining fees).
• Be part of the multi award winning Centre for Global Eco-Innovation (http://www.globalecoinnovation.org/graduate-opportunities-2/) within a cohort of talented graduates working on exciting business-led research. The Centre was declared “The outstanding knowledge exchange and commercialisation initiative in the UK”.
• This project is based at Lancaster University (https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/), so you will gain your PhD from a Top Ten University, recognised as The Times and Sunday Times University of the Year 2018 and International University of the Year 2020. You will also work alongside colleagues at partner institutions across the North West.
• Finish in a strong position to enter a competitive job market in the UK and overseas.

Yordas Ltd is a leading international provider of scientific and technical services, regulatory advice, sustainability services and training to industry in the fields of chemicals management and risk assessment.

Society has invested billions of pounds in researching the health effects of exposure to chemical substances, generating a vast scientific literature of millions of documents. The problem is, this has become too much information for scientists to manually process when evaluating whether a chemical is safe for a given use. This project aims to create an AI-based horizon-scanning tool which automatically analyses scientific studies to identify potential health risks from chemical substances, potentially revolutionising chemical risk assessment and ultimately reducing the carbon footprint of chemical risk assessment by replacing physical chemical testing with digital analysis.

The successful candidate will have a 2:1 or first degree in computer science or relevant physical sciences degree and a willingness to integrate with an internationally-distributed group of researchers. They will have a general interest in the environment, human health, open science, and the science-policy interface.

This PhD will be supervised by two experts in Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence, Dr Scott Piao and Dr Mahmoud El-Haj at Lancaster University’s School of Computing and Communications (https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/scc/)

This project is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and is subject to funding confirmation.

APPLY TODAY - http://www.globalecoinnovation.org/graduate-opportunities-2/research-post-lu004/