Fully Funded KESS II PhD Scholarship: Smart patches for pregnancy determination- development of a cost-effective microneedle (MN) based smart skin patch for determining pregnancy and estimating the pregnancy week

*This scholarships is part funded by the Welsh Government’s European Social Fund (ESF) convergence programme for West Wales and the Valleys.*

PhD Scholarship for UK or EU applicants in the field of: Medical Engineering/ Physical Sciences/ Analytical Sciences

The proposed PhD studentship on development of a cost-effective microneedle (MN) based smart skin patch for determining pregnancy and estimating the pregnancy week. Pregnancy tests are available in the market but suffer from issues such as high costs and reliability. Whilst a reliable pregnancy test kit is expensive, the low-cost ones are unreliable. MN based smart patches that determine pregnancy in a reliable manner will disrupt the laminar flow device-based pregnancy test kit approaches and offer a cheaper and reliable route to determining and estimating the pregnancy.

Scholarships are collaborative awards with external partners including SME’s and micro companies, as well as public and third sector organisations. The scholarship provides 3 years of funding with a 6 month period to complete the thesis. The achievement of a postgraduate skills development award, PSDA, is compulsory for each KESS II scholar and is based on a 60 credit award.

Eligibility

Candidates should have a 2.1 or above in their undergraduate degree or a Master’s in Medical /Biomedical/Bioengineering or a Physical/ Analytical Sciences related subject. They should also be eligible for UK/EU Fees.

We would normally expect the academic and English Language requirements to be met by point of application. For details on the University’s English Language entry requirements, please visit – http://www.swansea.ac.uk/admissions/englishlanguagerequirements/