Digital Healthcare: Fully Funded DHCW PhD: Innovation in the NHS: A Longitudinal Study of Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (EPMA) Introduction in Wales

The funding provider: Health Data Research UK

Subject areas: Wider Data Science Field, Maths and Computer Science

Project start dates: 1st October 2025 ** (Please see the note below regarding potential later start dates.)

Supervisors: Professor Gwyneth Davies, Professor Rich Fry (Swansea University) and Professor Jenni Quint (Imperial College, London)  

Aligned programme of study: PhD in Population and Health Data Science 

Mode of study: Full or Part-time study is possible

Project Description:

The successful candidate will work in a highly interdisciplinary environment as part of a vibrant cohort of HDR UK-funded PhD students, with outstanding networking opportunities with fellow students and colleagues located across the 4 nations of the UK. HDR UK’s mission is to unite the UK’s health data to enable discoveries that improve people’s lives. Its 20-year vision is for large-scale data and advanced analytics to benefit every patient interaction, clinical trial, and biomedical discovery and to enhance public health. 

This PhD is funded as part of the HDR UK Inflammation and Immunity Driver Programme, which seeks to transform the UK’s capabilities to improve understanding of mechanisms and health outcomes, using respiratory and allergic disorders as exemplar domains. We seek to enrol the most exceptional candidates and nurture them to become the next generation of leaders in health data science. The successful candidate will have opportunities to access, and contribute to, training activities organised by HDR UK, including via HDRUK Futures as well as within their own institution and as part of the Driver Programme team. 

This Driver Programme will explore inflammation and immunity as general underpinning mechanisms, using highly prevalent respiratory and allergic diseases in the first instance. These illnesses can be exacerbated by acute inflammatory episodes due to infections (i.e., rhinovirus, coronaviruses, influenza, pneumonia, RSV) as well as pollution, tobacco, pollen, weather, drugs, foods and stinging insects. The long-term plan for the Driver Programme is to extend the data science capabilities and capacity created, to other inflammatory mediated diseases.  

Scholarship Open to UK fee-eligible applicants only

Due to funding restrictions, this scholarship is open to applicants eligible to pay tuition fees at the UK rate only, as defined by UKCISA (Full list of categories for HE in Wales) 

PhD: Applicants for PhD must hold an undergraduate degree at 2.1 level and a master’s degree. Alternatively, applicants with a UK first class honours degree (or non-UK equivalent as defined by Swansea University) not holding a master’s degree, will be considered on an individual basis. Note for international and European applicants: details of how your qualification compares to the published academic entry requirements can be found on our Country Specific Entry Requirements page.  

Candidates with qualifications in mathematics / computer science & a health-related discipline are particularly encouraged to apply, but it would be possible for those with mathematics, physics or other computational training to learn the healthcare context 

Experience in one or more of the following would be desirable: 

• Programming in MATLAB/Python/R etc 
• Previous research experience with healthcare datasets or electronic health records 

English Language 

IELTS 6.5 Overall (with no individual component below 6.5) or Swansea University recognised equivalent. Full details of our English Language policy, including certificate time validity, can be found here.  

Funding Comment

This scholarship covers the full cost of tuition fees & an annual stipend at UKRI rate (currently £20,780 for 2025/26).

Additional research expenses of up to £1,000 per year will also be available.

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