Precision Medicine Doctoral Degree Training Programme at the MRC
Description:
The Precision Medicine Doctoral Training Programme is a fully funded Ph.D. with integrated study supported by the Medical Research Council, the Universities of Edinburgh, and Glasgow.
This acclaimed curriculum, hosted by the University of Edinburgh in cooperation with the University of Glasgow and the Karolinska Institute, offers Ph.D. research training alongside taught courses throughout four years of study and welcomed its inaugural cohort of students in September 2016.
This Doctoral Training Programme focuses on training Ph.D. students in quantitative skills (mathematics, statistics, computation, and digital excellence) identified as key by the MRC (Medical Research Council) skills priorities, as well as their application to a variety of data sources (from the wet bench ‘omics’ to health records), implying that students receive interdisciplinary training in the skills required to deliver the precision medicine vision.
Students who successfully complete the program are awarded a Doctor of Philosophy with Integrated Study from the University of Edinburgh’s College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine or the University of Glasgow’s College of Medical, Veterinary, and Life Sciences, depending on where the research is primarily based.
What exactly is Precision Medicine?
Precision Medicine identifies disease endotypes that are diagnostically, prognostically, or mechanistically significant, with the goal of improving patient stratification and informing the development of novel therapies – in other words, it is committed to providing the right therapy/prevention to the right patient at the right time. This involves addressing healthcare disparities. To speed discovery and research effect, the scientific strategy blends evidence from advanced datasets produced from clinical samples with individual genomes, e-record, imaging, and other data-rich -omic characteristics.
Degree Level:
- Ph.D. level degree
Available Subjects:
The following subject is available to study under this scholarship program.
- Precision Medicine
Scholarship Benefits:
Precision Medicine was started in 2016/17, giving 26 studentships per year for six academic years, and was successful in its request to the MRC to extend funding this year. Studentships will be given across the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow during the following three academic years, commencing in 2022/23 and lasting until session 2024/5. These studentship scholarships cover the entire tuition cost and stipend for qualified UK, EU, and international candidates. The studentship you receive will be determined by the project you perform. Successful applicants who fulfill all qualifying standards will be awarded a fully financed studentship that includes:
- Annual tuition costs must be paid.
- Stipend for each of the Ph.D.’s four years (based on UKRI minimum doctoral rate).
- A research training support grant of $5,000 per year is available.
- A £300 annual travel grant is available.
Eligible Nationalities:
All Nationalities.
Eligibility Criteria:
Applicants for an MRC DTP in Precision Medicine studentship must have a first or upper-second-class UK honors degree, or comparable credentials earned outside the UK, in an acceptable field of science or technology.
We are thrilled that, as a result of a recent amendment in UKRI advice, we will now be allowed to accept applications from overseas students, who will be able to form up to 30% of our cohort each year.
Candidates must fulfill the following requirements to be classified as home students:
• Be a British citizen (meet residence criteria) or
• Be a permanent resident, or
• Be pre-settled (meet residence criteria), or
• Have indefinite permission to stay or enter
All other applicants will be classified as international students.
All selected candidates (domestic or international) will be provided with full tuition and stipend assistance.
Application Procedure:
- Please contact the principal supervisor to discuss the project before submitting an application.
- All project applications must be submitted through the University of Edinburgh’s Degree Finder.
- Following the application deadline for a University of Glasgow project, your submission, along with any supporting materials, will be shared with the University of Glasgow.
- A CV is necessary and should be uploaded to your application’s document upload area.
- Applicants must submit an application for a specific project. Please add information about the project for which you are applying in the Programme part of your application.
- Both the Research Topic and Research Project fields should contain the project title.
- The recommended supervisor field should contain all of the supervisors indicated in the advertising.
- You may apply for up to three projects. Please submit an application for each project separately. The application form will ask you to rank the projects; however, we demand that you submit a new application for each project to which you choose to apply.