PhD Studentship - The Health and Wellbeing of Iraq and Afghanistan era Service Personnel and Veterans: Mixed Methods Investigations from an Epidemiological Cohort Study

To start: 1st June 2022

Award(s): 1 fully funded 3-year IoPPN studentship in Psychological Medicine with the King’s Centre of Military Health (KCMHR) funded through a grant from the Office for Veterans’ Affairs

Project

KCMHR is seeking a PhD candidate to co-create a PhD project to contribute to an ongoing epidemiological cohort study of the mental health and wellbeing of serving and ex-serving UK Armed Forces personnel. The cohort study has been running since 2003 and is now in the fourth phase of data collection. The current phase is funded by the Office for Veterans Affairs; previous phases were funded by the UK Ministry of Defence. Phase 4 will involve following up approximately 8,000 serving personnel and veterans, inviting them to complete an online or paper questionnaire.

The PhD will likely utilise both quantitative methods in epidemiological analysis of phase 4 data and qualitative methods of in-depth interviews/focus groups – however the methodological approach will depend on the needs of the final project created. The precise direction of the project will be developed by the student in partnership with the supervisors, but possible areas could include:

For more information on these topic areas, please see the additional material here . The candidate will be asked to submit a short project proposal based on one of these four areas or a different proposal of their choosing alongside their main application.

This final project must have impact and application to improve understanding of Armed Forces health and wellbeing outcomes and risk factors, improve service provision or formulation of government/stakeholder’s policy to support service and ex-service personnel.

The PhD student would be joining the KCMHR team, based in the Psychological Medicine department at the IoPPN, KCL. The PhD project would be tied to and supported by the main KCMHR cohort study team leading the work on 4th wave of the cohort data collection. The student would have development opportunities in ethics applications, for data collection from the main cohort study, and would have access to data from the previous three phases of the cohort study in 2004-2006, 2007-2009 and 2014-2016. The student may also have the opportunity for data linkage between the cohort data and NHS records or census data. The student would have full access to all of King’s research methods and academic skills training, as well as have opportunities to teach as a Graduate Teaching Assistant on the BSc Psychology course or the MSc in War and Psychiatry at the IoPPN who our team has links with.

Supervisors

A supervisory team would be comprised of up to three supervisors of a combination of Professor Nicola Fear, Dr Marie-Louise Sharp, Dr Howard Burdett, Dr Sharon Stevelink and Dr Laura Palmer depending on the nature of the project developed.

Entry requirements

Standard PhD entry requirements: Applicants should have a Bachelors degree with 2:1 honours (or Overseas equivalent). A 2:2 degree may be considered only where applicants also offer a Masters with Merit.

Students should have a Master’s Degree in a relevant subject or can demonstrate equivalent experience in a professional setting. We welcome applicants from a wide range of disciplines including epidemiology, psychology, psychiatric research and social sciences.

Award types and eligibility

The award pays tuition fees up to the value of the full-time home UKRI rate for PhD degrees. Please note both home and international students are welcome to apply, however international students will need to prove they are able to self-fund their international fees above the UKRI home rate and are able to self-fund any appropriate visas needed.

The award pays maintenance for all home/international students. The National Minimum Doctoral Stipend for 2021/22 is £15,609, plus a London Weighting of £2000/year (figure amounts for 2022/23 will be updated when possible). Some research and travel costs will be covered separately.

The project is to be undertaken on a full-time basis.

We want to encourage the widest range of potential students to study for an IoPPN studentship and are committed to welcoming students from different backgrounds to apply. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian, Minority, Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds as they are currently underrepresented at this level in this area. We also welcome applications from ex-service personnel or individuals with knowledge and understanding of Armed Forces health and service life.

Applicants should ideally have or expect to receive a relevant Masters-level qualification or be able to demonstrate equivalent experience in a professional setting. Suitable disciplines are flexible, but might include epidemiology, psychology, psychiatric research, and social sciences.

Applicants must be able to demonstrate an interest in the health and wellbeing of the UK Armed Forces community and be motivated by research impact and translation of research into service and policy improvement.

Students will be expected to be based at KCMHR on the King’s College London Denmark Hill campus.

Further information

KCMHR website: https://kcmhr.org/

About the IoPPN: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/about/index.aspx )

Research degrees at the IoPPN: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/study/postgraduate-research-programmes

How to apply

Applicants must complete and submit an online admissions application, via the admissions portal  by midnight (23:59 GMT), Sunday 28th November 2021. 

On the ‘Choosing a programme’ page, please select Psychological Medicine Research MPhil/PhD (Full-time).

In your application, you will be asked to include:

• Research proposal – including sections Research Title, Background and Rational, Research Questions, Methods and Analysis, Potential Impact

(max. two pages in attachment)

• Transcripts of undergraduate and Masters qualifications (or evidence of equivalent)
• Curriculum vitae (max. two pages)
• A personal statement outlining your suitability for the project (max. two page). Please include this as an attachment rather than using the text box.
• Details of two academic referees. Please note, we are not requesting that applicants provide written statements from referees at the time of application. However, please ensure your referees have been informed of your application in case we wish to contact them prior to interview.

In the Funding section, please tick box 5 and include the following reference: MLS-KCMHR-HWB-21

You are welcome to email [email protected] for more information regarding the project and studentship. Please see the additional document ‘Project topics ’ for more information to guide research proposals.

If you have any queries regarding the application process, please contact the Education support team at [email protected] .

Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

Please note: The studentship start date is 1st June 2022. The successful candidate will be asked to submit a formal application and project approval form (with support from HEI supervisors) to the IoPPN for a 1st February 2022 deadline to meet the studentship start date.

Closing Date: Midnight (23:59 GMT), Sunday 28th November 2021. 

Interviews: In person or virtually via MS Teams 14/15th December 2021