LIGHT consortium PhD studentships
The LIGHT Consortium: (Leaving no-one behInd: transforming Gendered pathways to Health for TB) is a UK Aid-funded programme that will deliver transformative, cross-disciplinary research across a consortium of partners based in Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda and the UK to reduce the number of people affected by tuberculosis (TB) in sub- Saharan Africa being left behind. This will enable rapid deployment of new tools for TB control (vaccines, new drugs and shorter drug regimens, diagnostics) that are expected to come online in 2025.
Our approach is to direct our efforts towards formative research with TB priority groups in key settings for interventions, development and testing of those interventions, building capacity and skills, and policy engagement. We will work in densely populated urban settings, with young adults in youth forums, and through men-centred health services, aiming to reduce general transmission among the wider population of women and children.
The LIGHT PhD Programme
PhD students will be integral to the conduct of our research and we will host five PhD studentships, one within each of our four African partner countries (Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Uganda) and one within our Research Uptake team based at AFIDEP in Nairobi, Kenya or Lilongwe, Malawi.
We will offer five, full-time, four-year studentships. Available funding will include programme fees at the off-site student rate, contribution to research support costs and stipend.
Available funding will include programme fees at the off-site student rate, contribution to research support costs and stipend. Stipends will be in alignment with the standard allocation made by each host institute.
For further information, please contact the Primary Investigator at the institution to which you’re applying (Eliya Zulu/AFIDEP; Bruce Kirenga/MLI ; Peter MacPherson/MLW ;Jeremiah Chakaya/ReSok; John Bimba/ZRC ).
PhD applicants will be required to have at least a basic right to work in the host country and will need to provide evidence of this prior to commencement of the studentship.
The call for applications for the LIGHT consortium PhD studentships is now OPEN
Recruitment timeline:
Closing date: 10th December 2020
Shortlisting: Week commencing 11th January 2021
Interviews: Week commencing 25th January 2021
Notification date: Week commencing 1st February 2021
Start date: May 2021
Link to the Online Application process and guidance notes
This studentship will be in collaboration with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine who will be the awarding body of the PhD. All applications must be submitted on the LSTM online system via MyLSTM. These notes are intended to assist you in completing your LIGHT Consortium PhD application form online as efficiently as possible.
Please read through these notes carefully before beginning your application and ensure that you complete all relevant sections of the application form in full.
There are 5 PhD opportunities. Each studentship will work on one of the following themes:
- Research Uptake to maximise research impact at the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) in Nairobi, Kenya or Lilongwe, Malawi.
- Theory driven development of a contextualised and targeted active TB case finding for the youth in Kenya based at the Respiratory Society of Kenya (ReSoK) in Nairobi
- Modelling interventions to improve engagement of young adults and men in tuberculosis active case finding in high HIV prevalence settings based at the Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust (MLW) in Blantyre, Malawi
- Development of gender sensitive TB screening interventions for community settings in Uganda and Nigeria based at the Zankli Research Centre (ZRC) in Abuja, Nigeria
- Evaluation of the feasibility, affordability, acceptability and effectiveness of a gender transformative TB screening interventions in formal health systems in Uganda and Nigeria based at the Makerere Lung Institute (MLI) in Kampala, Uganda.
Follow the links to find out more about the research and the appliction process.