Social Medicine (PhD) – (Ph.D.)

The Department of Social Medicine is a leading centre for epidemiology, public health and health services research. Staff in the Department are leaders in their fields and have extensive national and international research collaborations, with several providing health policy advice for government organisations and international bodies. Within its subjects the Department is seen as one of the leading departments in the world. The skills of a variety of health care researchers including statisticians, epidemiologists, geneticists, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, health economists, and public health physicians, are all available and contribute to the excellent working environment in which to undertake interdisciplinary research and teaching. The Department is keen to attract graduates from all the above disciplines to carry out postgraduate research.

The Department houses the MRC Centre of Causal Analysis for Translational Epidemiology (CAiTE); the premier birth cohort study; ALSPAC (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children); an NHS Research and Development Academic Support Unit; and (jointly with Primary Care) the Bristol Randomised Trials Collaboration, a UKCRC/NCRI-accredited trials unit. Also in the Department are the MRC ConDuCT (Collaboration and Innovation in Difficult and Complex Randomised Controlled Trials) methodology hub and the UK DECIPHer (Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement) Centre. Through the Wellcome Trust, we have established a four-year PhD programme in Molecular, Genetic and Lifecourse Epidemiology; four year PhDs are also available through the MRC CAiTE Centre, specifically focusing on causal analyses and translational epidemiology. The Department hosts a four-year PhD programme through the MRC applying computational mathematical and statistical approaches to biomedical questions.