MRC PhD student recruitment
2017
MRC are moving away from supporting
individual students in individual HEIs and
towards creating cohorts of students,
supported by their supervisors and their
institutional support teams across HEIs.
LSHTM has formed a partnership with SGUL
for MRC funded PhD training
The LSHTM – SGUL
partnership
Shared research priorities
• Global infectious diseases
• Causal inference from large data sets
• Evaluating complex interventions
Collaborative research
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Antimicrobial resistance
Genomic medicine
Understanding asthma
Cardiovascular disease
Built environment, lifestyle and health
Complementary training
• Genomic Medicine
• Quantitative skills
• Interdisciplinary skills
Enhanced training for future research
leaders
Academically excellent
Highly motivated
Outward looking
Who is eligible to join the cohort?
Individual training fellows
– Population health scientist fellows
– Strategic skills training fellows
– CASE students
 Doctoral training programme students
 MRC Unit students registered at LSHTM/SGUL
- MRC Gambia, MRC Uganda, Clinical Trials Unit
Х Staff funded on MRC research projects
The current MRC cohort at
LSHTM/SGUL
2016-2017 academic year: 35 students
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11 Vaccine DTP
9 MRC LID
5 MRC CTU
3 CASE/MRC tech
2 MRC Gambia
2 Population Health fellows
1 MRC Uganda
1 MRC Farr Institute
1 Strategic skills fellow
MRC London Intercollegiate DTP
(MRC LID)
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Up to 12* new students per year for at least 3 years
Each funded for 3.5 years
Includes a fully funded 3 month internship
Collaboration/co-supervision between SGUL and
LSHTM strongly encouraged
• Strategic skills:
– Quantitative skills; Interdisciplinary skills; whole
organism biology
• Three themes:
– Global infectious disease, quantitative skills for big
data; complex interventions
Governance
Student Representation
Research Degrees Committee
(LSHTM)
Research Degrees Committee
(SGUL)
Registration, performance
monitoring, progression and
regulation
Registration, performance
monitoring, progression,
regulation
Progress monitoring
reports
Student Council
Annual report
Board
Strategic direction, programme management
Supervisor and project selection
Student recruitment and support
Board Membership
Academic Leads (Chair/Deputy Chair)
Pro-director of Teaching & Learning, LSHTM
Head of Graduate School, SGUL
Theme leads
Student representatives
Secretariat:
PGR admin lead, SGUL and LSHTM
Progress monitoring
reports
Student Council
Management Board Members:
Eleanor Riley, ITD
Mark Fisher, SGUL
Suzanne Filteau, EPH
Rachel Allen, SGUL
John Edmunds, EPH
Julian Ma, SGUL
David Strachan, SGUL
Neil Pearce, EPH
Steve Cummins, PHP
Jenny Thompson, LSHTM
Jade Bearham, SGUL
Academic Lead/Chair
Deputy Chair
For Pro-director Teaching & Learning, LSHTM
Head of Graduate School, SGUL
Theme leads, Global Infectious Diseases
Theme Leads, Quantitative Skills forBig Data
Theme Lead, Complex Interventions
Student representatives
What does the studentship
provide?
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Fees paid at UK/EU rate
Stipend for UK resident students for 3.5 yrs
Research support grant of £5,300 per year
Access to a pot of flexible funds to pay for
additional research costs, networking
activities, additional training, field work,
internships, visits etc
Recruitment Timetable 2017
Submitting potential projects
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Forms will be sent out to all staff on September 30th
Forms to be returned by November 1st
No more than one project per person as primary supervisor
You may be named as a co-supervisor on one additional project
You may not be named as a primary supervisor if you were the primary
supervisor for a successful candidate in the previous round.
• Collaborative projects (i.e. LSHTM/SGUL joint supervision) are particularly
encouraged but single institution projects are also eligible.
• Projects and supervisors will be vetted by the DTP management board and
supervisors will be informed whether their project has been selected or not
• Accepted projects will be advertised (wb November 21st)
Criteria for assessing project
and supervisor suitability
• Does the project address an important issue in
– Global infectious disease?
– Quantitative analysis of big data?
– Complex interventions?
• Does the project provide high quality training in one or more
strategic skills areas?
– Quantitative skills
– Interdisciplinary skills
– Whole organism biology
• Does the supervisory team have a good track record in
research and in student supervision?
• Can the project be carried out within the student’s £5,000 pa
research budget or
• Do the supervisors have access to sufficient additional research
funds to fund the project?
Student shortlisting: 1
• Potential students may apply for only one project
• Primary supervisors will receive copies of all applications for
their project, wb 16th January
• In discussion with the co-supervisor, they should indicate for
each application whether they would be willing to supervise
this student or not
• Supervisors are encouraged to make contact with strong
candidates at this stage
• Applicants that they are prepared to supervise should be
ranked in order of preference (1st to last)
• Supervisors should resist the temptation to rank only students
who they know (e.g. current or prior BSc/MSc students or RAs)
• Ranked list returned to [email protected] by 5th Feb.
Student shortlisting: 2
• The DTP Management Board will review all
the applications.
• Those ranked as suitable by supervisors will
looked at in detail and the very best
candidates will be shortlisted for interview.
• Any apparently high quality candidates that
have not been ranked by the supervisors will
be looked at in particular detail and, if
necessary, we may revert to supervisors for an
explanation/reconsideration.
Interviewing
• Interviews will take place over two days.
• Day One:
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A briefing of the programme,
Guided tours of LSHTM and SGUL
Meeting with their potential supervisor
Social event with current MRC cohort
• Day Two:
– Interviews by DTP board
– Two panels: lab /non-lab
– Two panels meet together to decide on final allocation