Transforming Lives PhD Scholarship, Sheffield Hallam University: Predicting and preventing intervention-generated inequalities from new digital health technologies

Applications are invited for a Transforming Lives PhD Scholarship in Health and Social Care commencing 1 October 2024 (negotiable depending on circumstances)

The scholarship is for three and a half years full-time study and covers home PhD fees, currently £4712, and pays an annual stipend at the living wage foundation rate of £19,772 per year in the academic year 2023/24 This stipend payment will increase annually based on the rate set by the Living Wage Foundation for the duration of the scholarship.

About the Programme

This PhD scholarship is linked to the South Yorkshire Digital Health Hub – a £4 million cross-sectoral, cross-disciplinary initiative to support the development of new digital health technologies, led by Professor Tim Chico (University of Sheffield) and Professor Steve Haake (Sheffield Hallam University), and funded by the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Centre (EPSRC).

You will have the opportunity to co-locate between the newly-established Centre for Applied Health & Social Care Research (CARe: Director – Professor George Peat) and the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC: Director: Professor Rob Copeland). Both Centres are part of the Health Research Institute (HRI), one of four Institutes set up to support growth in Research and Innovation as part of the University Creating Knowledge Implementation Plan. The Health Research Institute acts as a nucleus for health and care research across Sheffield Hallam, providing support to research centres, groups, clusters and individuals engaged in (or wanting to engage in) health and care research and innovation activity. The Health Research Institute also provides an opportunity to link health and care researchers with research and innovation activity in the other Institutes and across the University. 

About the PhD

Project Title: Predicting and preventing intervention-generated inequalities from new digital health technologies

Aim: To design, conduct, execute, and disseminate a research project that contributes important new knowledge on how best to anticipate, prevent, and mitigate the risk of intervention-generated inequalities for new digital health technologies

Intervention-generated inequalities (IGI) are unfair, avoidable health inequalities that are produced or exacerbated when interventions are more beneficial to advantaged groups and individuals than to disadvantaged people. Interventions that rely on personal agency, on the conscious deployment of cognitive, social, and material resources, appear most likely to unintentionally produce IGIs. IGIs may be due to any combination of differential provision, uptake, or efficacy. With significant investment and rapid expansion of digital health technologies, the promise of these new interventions exists alongside a widely recognised concern over the potential to worsen rather than reduce existing health inequalities. New conceptual frameworks and health equity impact assessment tools may guide actions to better predict and prevent IGIs when developing and evaluating new digital health technologies, but practical processes are still emerging. Of particular interest to the current project is how the involvement of appropriately diverse groups of patients, members of the public, and service users might contribute to improved anticipation, mitigation, and evaluation of IGIs related to new digital health technologies.

For your project you will be encouraged to choose a defined subset of digital health technologies and dimension of disadvantage on which to focus your research. The research plan will be developed with your supervisory team but may include a combination of equity-focussed evidence synthesis, secondary data analysis, and new data collection with teams, groups, and individuals linked to the South Yorkshire Digital Health Hub as appropriate. An ambitious research training programme will be supported with Sheffield Hallam University’s Researcher & Innovator Development Academy (RIDA). 

Who should apply?

Applicants should hold a BSc (1st or 2:1) honours degree (or equivalent) in a health-related, healthcare, social science or other relevant discipline. An MSc qualification in a related area is desirable, as would experience of working with clients or patients from marginalised or under-served groups with lived experience of health conditions. We are offering this as a full-time PhD scholarship. We welcome applications from all members of our community and are particularly encouraging those from diverse groups, such as members of the LGBTQIA+, BAME and disabled communities.

Information for EU / International applicants – Please see the funding section for important information on tuition fees.

Sheffield Hallam also has a mandatory English language requirement of IELTS 7, or equivalent language qualification, for all applicants to whom English is not their first language. This qualification should have been taken within the last two-years, with a score of at least 7 in all test areas.  This qualification must be submitted as part of the GTA application.  

How to apply 

We strongly advise all applicants to contact the project lead prior to application, to discuss the PhD 

To apply, please complete and submit an application form here: PHD Health and Social Care Full-time 2024 Sheffield Hallam University (shu.ac.uk) and provide a detailed 1,500-word research proposal addressing the project title. 

Please add the project title within the Personal Statement field of the application and ensure that all attachments have been uploaded to the application system. We cannot consider applications where a detailed 1,500-word research proposal has not been submitted.  

For general enquires please contact the Health Research Institute Postgraduate Research Team via email at Health-PGR-admissions@shu.ac.uk 

The closing date for applications is Monday 3 June 2024 at 12:00 GMT. Late applications will not be accepted 

Interviews will be held: Wednesday 19 June