PhD Studentship: Animal Welfare: Ensuring Humane Deaths for Laboratory Birds

Award Summary

100% of home fees covered and a minimum tax-free living allowance of £19,237 (2024-25 UKRI rate). Additional funding to cover research costs and travel (conferences and exchanges). 

Overview

Interested in improving the end-of-life experiences of laboratory birds? Thousands of birds are used for biomedical purposes each year. The aim of this PhD is to systematically evaluate the welfare implications of different methods of killing them when the scientific work is completed. The PhD student will collect and integrate behavioural, physiological, and pathological data to assess how each method impacts on welfare. Humane methods of killing laboratory animals are expected by society and are essential for maintaining public trust.  

The student will need to apply for a Personal Home Office Licence (PIL) in their first year and will be working directly with laboratory birds (e.g. chickens), R programming, telemetry implantation and analysing spontaneous animal behaviour and physiological outcomes.  

The successful candidate will be registered at Newcastle University, as part of its Animal Science Group and collaborate with the Comparative Biology Centre. Students are strongly encouraged to also take training and gain knowledge in a range of transferrable skills, e.g. outreach activities with schools, training in communication, and experimental design and analysis.  

Number Of Awards

1

Start Date

16th September 2024

Award Duration

3 years

Application Closing Date

26th August 2024

Sponsor

National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research

Supervisors

Jessica Martin, Dr Dorothy McKeegan, Prof Ian Dunn

Eligibility Criteria

You must have, or expect to gain, a minimum 2:1 Honours degree or international equivalent in a subject relevant to the proposed PhD project (e.g. life sciences, biology, animal science).   

Applicants whose first language is not English require an IELTS score of 8 overall with a minimum of 7.0 in all sub-skills. These requirements are higher than what is normally expected due to the project needs. 

The studentship covers fees at the Home rate (UK and EU applicants with pre-settled/settled status and meet the residency criteria). International applicants are welcome to apply but will be required to cover the difference between Home and International fees

How To Apply

You must apply through the University’s Apply to Newcastle Portal  

Once registered select ‘Create a Postgraduate Application’.   

Use ‘Course Search’ to identify your programme of study:   

• Search for the ‘Course Title’ using the programme code: 8010F 
• Research Area: Animal Science 
• Select ‘PhD Agriculture & Rural Development (full time) – Animal Science' as the programme of study  

You will then need to provide the following information in the ‘Further Details’ section:   

• A ‘Personal Statement’ (this is a mandatory field) - upload a document or write a statement directly in to the application form    
• The studentship code SNES295 in the ‘Studentship/Partnership Reference’ field   
• When prompted regarding your research proposal - select ‘Write Proposal’. You should then type in the title of the research project from this advert. You do not need to upload a research proposal.  

In the ‘Supporting Documentation’ section please upload:  

• your CV  

You must submit one application per studentship, you cannot apply for multiple studentships on one application.

Contact Details

jessica.martin@ncl.ac.uk 

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