Innovation and its Governance: Novel Diagnostic Tools to Address Antimicrobial Resistance in Animal and Human Health

This project is offered as part of the Medical Research Foundation National PhD Training Programme in AMR: https://www.findaphd.com/search/PhDDetails.aspx?CAID=3755

The PhD researcher will investigate the design, testing, development and marketing of diagnostic technologies for more targeted use of antimicrobial (AM) medicines in human and animal health care. Accurate diagnosis of the infectious agent and its susceptibility to specific AM drugs will be central to the development of sustainable strategies and policies for the responsible use of AM drugs in humans and animals and for preventing the cross-species spread of AM resistance. The project will explore (i) the innovation opportunities arising from scientific research, particularly but not exclusively based on the platform technologies synthetic biology and gene editing; (ii) the design of future business models and value chains tailored to the future markets they will expect to serve (in both human and animal diseases); and (iii) the policy and regulatory initiatives that will be needed to enable successful, sustainable strategies to be developed for the management of AM resistance based on these diagnostic tools. The Innogen Institute has developed qualitative analytical and modelling methods for this type of research and the researcher will be expected to adapt and tailor these methods to suit the particular context and to engage with scientists, companies, regulators and users of the technology to ensure effective technology transfer for future diagnostic devices in veterinary and human medicine. The successful candidate will work closely with other ongoing research in the Innogen Institute in the fields of innovative technologies relevant to human and animal health and their governance and will be enrolled in the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership which will provide additional training opportunities and local student cohort activities.

Apply here: https://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/degrees/index.php?r=site/view&id=322

There are two application processes that you must complete at the same time. These are the ‘studentship application’ and the ‘PhD application’, which must be completed by anyone wanting to pursue a PhD at the University of Edinburgh.

1) PhD application See here for information on our application requirements, following the procedures described. This will require a CV, two academic references, and a PhD proposal. For the PhD proposal please explain how you would go about developing the project described above in 1,000-1,500 words. See here for further information about our PhD programme. For further guidance on the PhD application process please write to the STIS Postgraduate Admissions Advisor [Email Address Removed] . 2) Studentship application to be sent to Geoffrey Banda ([Email Address Removed]). This should include the information in your PhD application. If you have any questions about this studentship, please contact Dr Banda directly.