Are you holding Master’s degree and looking for fully funded PhD positions? Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland invites online application for multiple funded PhD Programs / fully funded PhD positions in various research areas.
Candidates interested in fully funded PhD positions can check the details and may apply as soon as possible. Interested and eligible applicants may submit their online application for PhD programs via the University’s Online Application Portal.
1. Fully Funded PhD Position in Dexamethasone-releasing cochlear implants to reduce foreign body response
Summary of PhD Program:
Cochlear implants are surgically implanted neuroprostheses designed to produce useful hearing sensations to persons with severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss by electrically stimulating the auditory nerve in the inner ear (or cochlea). These implants typically comprise two main components: (i) an externally worn microphone, sound processor and transmitter system; (ii) an implanted receiver and stimulator system, and an electrode array inserted into the cochlea; the implanted system contains electronic circuits that converts signals received from the external system into electrical impulses to stimulate the auditory nerve.
Application Deadline: 20 September 2024
2. Fully Funded PhD Position in Exploring the mental heath needs of patients living with Barrett’s Oesophagus
Summary of PhD Program:
The All-Ireland Cancer Research Network (AllCaN) programme represents a new, focused effort to implement advances in oesophageal cancer research as rapidly as possible through the creation of a collaborative, translational cancer research network and a series of coordinated work packages. The most talented and promising researchers across Irish institutions will be assembled into an All-Ireland Research Network forming an optimal configuration of expertise needed to solve key problems in Oesophageal Cancer research and positively impact patients in the near future. This network will span multiple disciplines and utilise their expertise to address research questions in a coordinated way.
Application Deadline: 30 September 2024
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3. Fully Funded PhD Position in DfE – A community choir intervention to improve well-being for adults with heart failure: A realist evaluation of a co-designed intervention
Summary of PhD Program:
There is a growing evidence base for the promising use of music as a non-pharmacological intervention for improved health and wellbeing outcomes. Beneficial outcomes have been shown for healthy populations, and also for those with chronic, life-limiting conditions such as heart failure. For example, a recent randomised controlled trial of the benefits of listening to classical music for those with heart failure showed significant improvements in heart failure specific and general quality of life, self-care, sleep quality, depression, anxiety and cognitive functioning1.
Application Deadline: 30 September 2024
4. Fully Funded PhD Position in The Role of the Specialist Mental Health Team in Supporting Mothers with Perinatal Mental Health Issues
Summary of PhD Program:
This research explores how health visitors can support the mother infant attachment relationship for mothers who have been diagnosed as having mental health issues during the perinatal period (from conception to 1 year). The study aims to identify how specialist mental health teams can effectively screen and measure mother-baby attachment relationships to promote secure mother-baby bonds and improve maternal and child mental health outcomes.
Application Deadline: 30 September 2024
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5. Fully Funded PhD Position in Metagenomics to guide precision medicine in ARDS
Summary of PhD Program:
Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) is a severe condition characterized by acute inflammation and diffuse alveolar damage, leading to respiratory failure. Despite advances in understanding its pathophysiology, the role of blood microbiome in ARDS has been largely overlooked. Only a small proportion of patients with ARDS have positive blood cultures by traditional culture methods, but recent retrospective data from a single small study suggest that bacterial taxa in blood of patients with ARDS may have prognostic significance, with higher E coli and Enterobacter burdens in those who are most highly inflamed and who have the worst outcomes.
Application Deadline: 28 October 2024
6. Fully Funded PhD Position in Nanocrystals-in-nanofibres as a promising strategy for the delivery of poorly soluble actives
Summary of PhD Program:
One of the most challenging issues that the pharmaceutical industry face is poor aqueous solubility of drugs. 90% of candidate molecules within the discovery pipelines face solubility issues, posing significant hurdles to their clinical translation. Moreover, 40% of drugs in the market are also poorly soluble and need to be administered in high doses to reach therapeutic plasma levels. The formulation of drug nanocrystals (NCs) has become one of the most preferred strategies to enhance the absorption of hydrophobic drugs. NCs are nanoparticles made of the pure drug with crystalline properties. Produced using various industrially-available methodologies, NCs have made a significant clinical impact, with >20 products on the market. Since NCs do not contain any carrier material, and are stabilised by a thin stabiliser layer, their drug loading approaches 100%.
Application Deadline: 11 October 2024
7. Fully Funded PhD Position in Novel investigation of innate airways defence in Severe Asthma and elucidation of potential therapeutic targets
Summary of PhD Program:
Join a distinguished translational experimental group that spans from lab work to delivery of specialist asthma clinical care, seeking to understand variation in airways immunity and how this results in varied responses to current asthma therapies. This project aims to use established lab techniques to undertake innovative investigation of the airways innate immune response in asthma patients, to see if differences in individual asthma patients’ innate immune system in the airways can explain variation in patient symptoms and differing responses to targeted biologic therapy. Further understanding in this area has the potential to identify novel therapeutic targets, and overall seeks to enable the delivery of better care for our asthma patients.
Application Deadline: 28 October 2024
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8. Fully Funded PhD Position in Understanding how high plasma soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) predicts poor outcome in patients with ARDS
Summary of PhD Program:
Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) is a common condition in critically ill patients requiring mechanical ventilation, and is often found in association with sepsis and other systemic illnesses. ARDS is associated with a high mortality, and there are no effective pharmacological interventions. This project will enhance the mechanistic understanding of the role of suPAR in ARDS with a view to identifying suPAR as a prognostic biomarker, and potentially a therapeutic target, in patients with ARDS. Plasma suPAR will be measured in stored samples from patients with ARDS recruited to the completed PHIND study. These results will be combined with clinical data from the PHIND study, to confirm whether plasma suPAR identifies a novel ARDS phenotype that is associated with worse clinical outcomes.
Application Deadline: 28 October 2024
9. Fully Funded PhD Position in The potential value of risk based pricing for promoting innovation in biopharmaceuticals
Summary of PhD Program:
The prices of new pharmaceuticals have increased by orders of magnitude over the last two decades, and emerging gene therapies are expected to be priced a magnitude higher than the cellular therapies such as monoclonal antibodies. This study will develop, apply and test the risk based pricing framework described by Kirwin and colleagues, and characterise its impact on the incentives for innovation in the context of (a) a new therapy for a rare genetic disorder with very high unmet need, and (b) a more prevalent oncology indication with a substantial portfolio of effective current therapies.
Application Deadline: 28 October 2024
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10. Fully Funded PhD Position in Finding INnovative Diagnostics for BACTerial infections in children
Summary of PhD Program:
Detecting bacterial infection in children is very challenging, particularly in previously well children presenting to the Emergency department (ED) with fever as well as in children with chronic illnesses, such as those with cystic fibrosis (CF). Often this can mean clinicians prescribe antibiotics to children “just in case” because missing a bacterial infection in a child is very serious. This results in potential antibiotic overuse with the risk of antimicrobial resistance developing. New ways of detecting bacterial infection and type in children are therefore urgently needed. The team at Queen’s University Belfast have completed a large discovery project, called the Febrile Infants Diagnostic assessment and Outcome (FIDO) study. FIDO identified several novel biomarkers to predict bacterial infection in children.
Application Deadline: 28 October 2024
11. Fully Funded PhD Position in Giving ‘Voice’ to Patients’ Voices in Simulation
Summary of PhD Program:
Queen’s University Belfast is offering an innovative PhD opportunity to advance healthcare education through enhanced simulation training. This project, under the guidance of esteemed academics at the Centre for Medical Education, seeks to develop simulation-based education (SBE) that integrates the ‘lived experiences’ of individuals who have experienced illness and healthcare. The PhD candidate will explore what aspects of lived experiences can enhance the realism and effectiveness of simulations, co-produce guidelines for their inclusion, and refine these guidelines through practical methodologies. This approach will bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application, fostering empathy and a deeper understanding among learners, resulting in better-prepared healthcare professionals capable of delivering high-quality, person-centred care.
Application Deadline: 28 October 2024
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12. Fully Funded PhD Position in Investigating the impact of commonly occurring blood cancer mutations on innate immune signalling
Summary of PhD Program:
Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) are clonal haematological malignancies that can disrupt normal haematopoiesis of multiple myeloid lineages. MDS/AML are frequently diagnosed in the older population (onset ~65 years). They are characterised by molecular and/or cytogenetic abnormalities accompanied by peripheral blood cytopenias. Due to the age group affected, treatment can be difficult due to the fitness of the patient and the toxicity associated with therapies currently used. The successes of graft-vs-leukaemia observed following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) supports the value immunotherapy could have for MDS and AML patients. It has previously been reported that DNA damage response deficiencies (DDRD), result in the activation of the cGAS/STING-dependent innate immune response through cytosolic DNA sensing, thereby linking DDRD with modulation of the adaptive immune response. More biological pathways mediating immune activation in cancer are becoming apparent.
Application Deadline: 28 October 2024
13. Fully Funded PhD Position in Investigating the role of novel and established plasma biomarkers in the evaluation of heart failure in children with heart disease
Summary of PhD Program:
This project will use plasma samples of children with congenital heart disease to evaluate the role of novel and established cardiac biomarkers in identifying and monitoring paediatric heart failure. It will include stored patient samples including those with single ventricle physiology, cardiomyopathy and other congenital heart disease aged 0-16 years. It will also involve the processing and analysis of new longitudinal samples on these same patients at a later time point. These children all have extensive clinical data recorded which will allow the comparison between plasma biomarkers and clinical assessment to establish if plasma biomarkers can be used to identify cardiac dysfunction in paediatric patients with congenital heart disease before evident on traditional methods of clinical and echocardiogram assessment.
Application Deadline: 28 October 2024
14. Fully Funded PhD Position in Nanophotonic Interfaces for Solid-State Qubits
Summary of PhD Program:
This PhD project aims to harness the capabilities of nanophotonic interfaces and optomechanical resonators to enhance spin-optic coupling and resist decoherence, with the potential to significantly advance quantum device performance. This work could profoundly impact quantum technology by improving spin qubit coherence, which is crucial for enhancing quantum communication networks and enabling more precise quantum sensing. The research’s interdisciplinary approach—integrating quantum optics, nanophotonics, and materials science—ensures a comprehensive exploration of spin qubit stability and photon-matter interactions at the nanoscale, positioning the project to overcome key challenges.
Application Deadline: 31 October 2024
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15. Fully Funded PhD Position in A comparison of implementation in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa
Summary of PhD Program:
Engaging adolescent boys in comprehensive sex education and the promotion of gender equality by early adolescence is a vital but neglected part of achieving the sustainable developmental goals of better health and gender equality. This study will investigate lessons learned from an implementation project of comprehensive sexuality education in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa in order to inform broader implementation globally.
Application Deadline: 1 November 2024
16. Fully Funded PhD Position in Using AI to Promote Healthier and Sustainable Food Choices for Consumers and Farmers
Summary of PhD Program:
In a world increasingly aware of the importance of sustainability and health, this research project aims to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to foster healthier and more sustainable food choices among consumers and farmers. The project focuses on two primary objectives: promoting public health by encouraging the consumption of nutritious, sustainable food options and supporting farmers in adopting practices that are both health-conscious and economically viable. By integrating AI with advanced research methods, the project seeks to develop data-driven strategies that can effectively influence food choices, benefiting both individuals and the environment.
