PhD Studentship: Dementia prevention through large-scale policies: Using natural experiments to evaluate the role of retirement on cognitive ageing and dementia risk

Principal supervisors:  

Martin Orrell, School of Medicine, Professor – M.Orrell@nottingham.ac.uk

Magdalena Opazo B., School of Medicine, Senior Research Fellow – Magdalena.Opazo@nottingham.ac.uk 

Tricia McKeever, School of Medicine, Professor - Tricia.Mckeever@nottingham.ac.uk 

Funded by the University of Nottingham through one of its PhD Studentship Awards, this fully funded (stipend at UKRI rates, PhD fees (for UK home students only), and research costs) three-year full-time PhD is available to start on the 01/02/2026. Please check you meet UK home student requirements before applying. 

The overall theme of this PhD programme is investigating how population-level public health policies in the UK may contribute to declines in dementia incidence. This PhD studentship is embedded within an NIHR Advanced Fellowship (NIHR304370: Studying the impact of public health policies on dementia risk reduction in the UK using the latest developments in causal inference and a health inequalities approach). The successful candidate will expand the policies studied by adding retirement to the existing policies being evaluated on alcohol, smoking, nutrition, and immunisation.

Programme description: Dementia is a growing global public health concern, with substantial social and economic consequences. Although the number of people living with dementia continues to rise due to population ageing, evidence from high-income countries such as the UK shows that age-specific incidence has declined in recent decades. This suggests that prevention is possible and may partly reflect the influence of population-level policies targeting health behaviours and social conditions. Retirement policies are among the most consequential and widespread social policies affecting older adults and can impact health, cognition, lifestyle, and social engagement. Studying its link to cognitive function and dementia risk provides a unique opportunity to understand how large-scale social policies shape healthy ageing and to generate evidence to support population-level prevention strategies.

Further information: Applicants should have either a minimum 2.1 undergraduate degree in a relevant area (public health, epidemiology, economics, statistics, data science, or a related quantitative field), or a minimum 2.2 undergraduate degree with a Masters degree (or expected to gain a Masters within 6 months).

Informal enquiries may be addressed to the project Principal Investigator and supervisor for this PhD: Dr Magdalena Opazo Breton (Magdalena.Opazo@nottingham.ac.uk).

To apply, candidates should send their CV and a short cover letter (Magdalena.Opazo@nottingham.ac.uk. The email subject line should be: “[FULL NAME] PHD APPLICATION”. Candidates should also provide the contact details for 2 referees, one of whom should be their most recent academic supervisor (or line manager in relevant employment, if applicable). Please note, offers of study will be subject to 2 satisfactory references being received. 

Closing Date for Applications: 09/01/2026

Provisional Interview Date: 22/01/2026

If you will not be able to attend an interview at the University of Nottingham on this date, please make this known when you email your application to Dr Magdalena Opazo Breton, so alternative arrangements can be considered if possible. 

PhD Start Date: 01/02/2026, or as soon as possible thereafter. 

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