Health Data Science: Fully Funded HCRW-NIHR PhD studentship in Statistical Modelling in Multiple Long-Term Conditions for Healthcare Policy (RS820)

Funding providers: HCRW-NIHR 

The subject area: Health Data Science 

Project start date: 1 October 2025 

Supervisors: Professor Rhiannon Owen, Dr James Rafferty, Professor Keith Abrams (University of Warwick) 

Aligned programme of study: PhD Population Data Science 

Mode of study: Full-time 

Project description:

Healthcare decision-making has previously focused on developing recommendations for single conditions. However, standardised care for each chronic condition in isolation can be inappropriate for individuals living with multiple long-term conditions known as multimorbidity, and may lead to unnecessary polypharmacy. This PhD studentship aims to develop a Bayesian modelling framework to identify clusters of multiple long-term conditions resulting in increased risk of hospitalisations, polypharmacy and/or mortality using population-scale, linked, electronic health records from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank Wales Multimorbidity e-Cohort (Lyons et al, 2021). This approach will be extended to explore potential genetic, environmental, or demographic risk factors associated with cluster membership and/or the outcomes of interest. 

This PhD studentship is funded as part of the Re-thinking Health Policy in Multimorbidity (REMIT) project. The REMIT project aims to develop new methods to assess emerging treatments for people living with multiple long-term conditions. This project will utilise the SAIL Databank’s (https://saildatabank.com/) rich anonymised population-scale, individual-level, linked data sources to answer important population-level questions that will inform health technology assessment, policy, and practice. The successful PhD student will be embedded within an interdisciplinary team across academia and healthcare policy.  

Facilities 

The PhD student will be based in Population Data Science at Swansea University with visiting PhD Student Status at the Department of Statistics at the University of Warwick, benefiting from the stimulating and supportive environment and bespoke training programmes. The successful candidate will receive training to develop their knowledge and expertise in statistical modelling, epidemiology, causal inference, and population data science, with the opportunity for their research to directly inform healthcare policy and practice. The successful student will have the opportunity to present their work at national and international conferences and workshops.  

Due to funding restrictions, this scholarship is open to applicants eligible to pay tuition fees at the UK rate only, as defined by UKCISA regulations 

Applicants will need a 2:1 at Bachelor degree level, as well as an MSc in Statistics/Biostatistics or Epidemiology/Health Data Science (with a strong analytical component) plus programming and data analysis skills/experience in R and/or Python. 

Experience of analysing large-scale linked electronic health record data and/or SQL, and knowledge of Bayesian methods would be an advantage. 

English Language: IELTS 6.5 Overall (with no individual component below 6.5) or Swansea University recognised equivalent. For further information, please see the Swansea University English Language Entry Policy. 
If you have any questions regarding your academic or fee eligibility based on the above, please email pgrscholarships@swansea.ac.uk with the web-link to the scholarship(s) you are interested in. 

Scholarship open to UK fee eligible applicants only. 

This scholarship covers the full cost of tuition fees and an annual stipend at UKRI rate (Currently £20,780 25/26) 

To apply, please complete your application online with the following information 

1. Course choice – please select:

(Full Time) Population and Health Data Science / PhD / Full-time / 3 Years / October 

In the event you have already applied for the above programme previously, the application system may issue a warning notice and prevent application, in this event, please email pgrscholarships@swansea.ac.uk where staff will be happy to assist you in submitting your application. 

     2. Start year – please select 2025 

     3. Funding (page 8 on the application process) – 

• ‘Are you funding your studies yourself?’ – please select No 

• ‘Name of Individual or organisation providing funds for study’ – please enter  ‘RS820 - REMIT’ 

*It is the responsibility of the applicant to list the above information accurately when applying, please note that applications received without the above information listed will not be considered for the scholarship award. 

One application is required per individual Swansea University led research scholarship award; applications cannot be considered listing multiple Swansea University led research scholarship awards. 

NOTE: Applicants for PhD/EngD/ProfD/EdD - to support our commitment to providing an environment free of discrimination and celebrating diversity at Swansea University you are required to complete an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Monitoring Form in addition to your programme application form.    

Please note that completion of the EDI Monitoring Form is mandatory; your application may not progress if this information is not submitted. 

As part of your online application, you MUST upload the following documents (please do not send these via email): 

• CV 

• Degree certificates and transcripts (if you are currently studying for a degree, screenshots of your grades to date are sufficient) 

• A cover letter including a ‘Supplementary Personal Statement’ to explain why the position particularly matches your skills and experience and how you choose to develop the project. 

• One reference (academic or previous employer) on headed paper or using the Swansea University reference form. Please note that we are not able to accept references received citing private email accounts, e.g. Hotmail. Referees should cite their employment email address for verification of reference. 

• Evidence of meeting English Language requirement (if applicable). 

• Copy of UK resident visa (if applicable) 

• Confirmation of EDI form submission 

Informal enquiries are welcome; please contact Professor Rhiannon Owen: r.k.owen@swansea.ac.uk   

*External Partner Application Data Sharing – Please note that as part of the scholarship application selection process, application data sharing may occur with external partners outside of the University, when joint/co- funding of a scholarship project is applicable.