PhD Population Health Sciences

The Department of Population Health Sciences is part of the Bristol Medical School. Staff in the department participate in extensive national and international research collaborations, and provide health policy advice for government organisations and international bodies. Staff and students in the department are also members of the cross-faculty Bristol Population Health Science Institute.

The department is multi-disciplinary and includes statisticians, epidemiologists, geneticists, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, health economists, public health physicians, medical ethicists, data scientists, neuroscientists, and various community-based physicians and nurses. We are keen to attract graduates from all these disciplines to carry out postgraduate research. In the 2018 Postgraduate Research Experience Survey, 87% of the schools students were satisfied with their postgraduate experience. Ratings for quality of supervision, resources, research skills training and professional development met or exceeded sector averages.

A selection of fully funded PhD opportunities are available within the department. We host a Wellcome Trust PhD programme in Molecular, Genetic and Lifecourse Epidemiology which offers fully-funded four year PhD studentships. Cross-institutional PhD studentships are available through the GW4 PhD Biomedical and Clinical programmes, enabling students to benefit from the diversity of expertise and resources across the GW4 network of universities. The MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit provides four-year PhD opportunities on cross-disciplinary projects exploring the causal effects of potentially modifiable exposures on health. The department also hosts cross-disciplinary studentships funded through the BHF Integrative Cardiovascular Science PhD programme and health data science studentships funded through EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training. Other funded studentships are available for projects in many research areas within the school.

Students who have already secured funding, or are looking to secure personal funding, must contact potential supervisors to discuss research topics before applying. Please visit the school website to see current opportunities.