PhD Overview and Structure

Residential 3-5 day immersion events allow students to gain insight into the work of HDR UK, and our academic, clinical and industry partners. Students undertake an intensive deep dive into an important area of health data science. Immersion topics include risk prediction, oncology, clinical trials, epidemiology and bioinformatics. Past immersion weeks have been hosted by the Universities of Birmingham, Manchester, Oxford and University College London and the European Bioinformatics Institute.

The immersion events encourage students to work together and stimulate new interactions:

• Axes of Prognosis
• The Different Facets of Data

Research areas

PhD research projects can be linked to The Institute’s:

• Research priorities
• Research hubs
• Partnerships

Team working

Students operate as a national cohort and work collaboratively with others, overcoming traditional institutional silos. Students are registered with a partner university but can draw on academic expertise from across the HDR UK network and are supported to formulate research activities that bring together experts from across the UK.

• You can contact us at phd@hdruk.ac.uk or phone (+44 (0)770 847 8846). 
• For details of how we process applicants’ data see PhD Applicant Privacy Notice.

Students have access to graduate-level courses and research project rotation in their university to introduce them to different areas of health data science and enable them to develop a bespoke research project under the guidance of our expert university leads.

Regular workshops and short courses introduce students to the work of HDR UK experts across our hubs, themes and priority areas and to external organisations. Past contributors have included NHSX, IQVIA and AstraZeneca.

Immersion and workshop events allow students to better understand the wider health and social care landscape and accelerate their potential to become sector leaders. They also enable students to develop more ambitious PhD research projects by stimulating collaboration with external academics, industry-based organisations, or by using national data infrastructure.

Training is provided by academic, industry and NHS experts to promote personal and professional development in leadership capability, cross-sector collaborative skills and inter-disciplinary working. In particular, HDR UK is committed to working with public and patients to build increased trust in health data research as well as designing solutions focused on improving patient outcomes and experience. Students will develop communication and collaborative skills to help put them at the forefront of this mission.

At the end of the Foundation Year students design a bespoke three-year research project and a multi-disciplinary supervision team based on their training experiences.

Research proposals will be rigorously reviewed by expert academics and public-patient representatives to ensure they are of the highest standards in terms of ambition, scientific methodology and impact on patient outcomes.

The research will be carried out at their home university and could be linked to HDR UK research priorities, research hubs or partnerships.

Alongside their research project, students participate in our flagship Leadership Programme which develops their all-round capabilities as future health data science leaders.