The CPH Summer Studentship Application Process for June-September 2022 is now closed

The Centre for Public Health (CPH) Summer Research Programme provides a unique opportunity for undergraduate students to participate in office and/or laboratory-based research during the summer months.  Each participant will be assigned to the research project of a Principal Investigator within CPH and will join an enthusiastic research team comprising academic staff, postdoctoral fellows, research assistants, PhD students, administrative and technical staff.  The projects will run for an eight-week period between June and September 2022.  Depending on COVID-19 restrictions, students will work on campus, or be in a position to work remotely from home.

Students currently enrolled for Biomedical Sciences, Medicine, Dentistry or a related discipline who have completed at least one year of full-time study from any UK Higher Education Institution are eligible to apply.  Each summer studentship pays a student stipend of £200 per week.  Graduates of UK universities who successfully complete the programme will be eligible for Degree Plus status upon graduation.

The application process is now open.  Please submit a current CV including your full academic profile (or transcript), your student number if you are a QUB student and a covering letter stating your reasons for applying to the Programme with the Centre for Public Health and the names and contact details of two referees.  Please email your application to the Centre Manager, Niamh McElherron – N.McElherron@qub.ac.uk by 5.00pm on Friday 11th March 2022 and feel free to state which project(s) you are particularly interested in.   

We will be listing our projects below as soon as they become available.  CPH Principal Investigators have been notified of the call and will provide their projects to me by 18th February 2022 - so keep watching this space as our project list grows!

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Health in the Reproductive Years: Exploring Preconception Health  - supervised by Dr Laura McGowan

The preconception or pre-pregnancy period is a crucial time for influencing not only pregnancy outcomes, but also future maternal and child health, and prevention of long-term medical conditions. This project will involve secondary analysis of data relating to the topic of preconception health and may involve analyses (including desk-based/grey literature searches, reviewing methods, statistical methods (e.g. SPSS) and writing narrative summaries) in order to help prepare publications/policy briefings. The student involved will be named on any arising publications.

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A study of dementia as a comorbidity in cancer patients - supervised by Professor Anna Gavin

This work will be of interest to a student with good analytical  and IT skills. It will involve examination of a large anonymised dataset of hospital discharge data to describe the occurrence of dementia as a co-morbidity in cancer patients, there will also be information on drugs prescribed for dementia in cancer patients.  The  analysis would examine, levels of dementia or stroke by age group, gender, cancer type, with survival estimates  also calculated.  There would be support from senior experts in the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry.  We would aim that the results would be submitted to conference proceedings and result in a paper for peer review.

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Evidence synthesis on how better urban natural environments for all can improve population health - supervised by Dr Leandro Garcia and Professor Ruth Hunter

The student will join a multidisciplinary and vibrant team carrying out a research project to investigate how the access, use and design of urban natural environments – particularly green and blue spaces, like urban parks and rivers – can be optimised to improve population health. This novel research works at the intersection of public health and planetary health. To learn more about the project, access https://ukprp.org/what-we-fund/groundswell/.

For 8 weeks, the student will have the opportunity to work closely with experienced researchers to help in the search and synthesis of scientific evidence on the societal, behavioural and health impacts of different aspects of access, use and design of urban green and blue spaces. These pieces of evidence will help us to map established and potential pathways that link urban green and blue spaces to population health, which will be disseminated to inform further research and the design of places that are more conducive to healthier lives for all.  Some skills that will be developed during this studentship include: search of academic articles in scientific databases, systematic approach to screening and identification of relevant articles, and reading of academic papers. There is also the possibility for students to explore the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence methods for evidence synthesis if of interest.

This is a desk-based project, with no bench/wet laboratory work involved. Full training will be provided in all aspects of the work by members of the research team.

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Evidence synthesis on supportive environments for physical and social activity, health ageing and cognitive health - supervised by Dr Leandro Garcia and Professor Ruth Hunter

The student will join a multidisciplinary and vibrant team carrying out a research project to understand how urban environments can be designed to promote healthy ageing, including promoting brain health. This novel research works at the intersection of public health and planetary health. To learn more about the project, access https://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/space/.

For 8 weeks, the student will have the opportunity to work closely with experienced researchers to help in the search and synthesis of scientific evidence on the relationship between different aspects of the built and social environment, lifestyle behaviours, and health. These pieces of evidence will help us to map established and potential pathways that link urban environments to healthy ageing and the health of our brains, which will be disseminated to inform further research and the design of places that are more conducive to healthier lives for all. Some skills that will be developed during this studentship include: search of academic articles in scientific databases, systematic approach to screening and identification of relevant articles, and reading of academic papers. There is also the possibility for students to explore the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence methods for evidence synthesis if of interest.

This is a desk-based project, with no bench/wet laboratory work involved. Full training will be provided in all aspects of the work by members of the research team.

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Creation of impactful multi-media resources for rare diseases - supervised by Professor A J McKnight and Dr Katie Kerr

More than 110,000 individuals in Northern Ireland are affected by rare diseases, conditions which are often debilitating and/or life threatening. People with rare diseases are faced with difficulties obtaining a diagnosis or even access to support services, often exacerbated by a lack of awareness amongst healthcare professionals and the public. This project aims to create impactful multi-media resources which will educate on and raise awareness of rare diseases across Northern Ireland.

There will be a significant patient and public engagement component to this project, as the student will liaise with individuals affected by rare diseases in collaboration with the Northern Ireland Rare Disease Partnership, as well as healthcare professionals and researchers working in the field of rare diseases, to ensure the content is developed in an iterative, multi-disciplinary manner. Once the student has established the content to be delivered, they will work with an external graphic design and video animation service to develop engaging media for a social media awareness campaign. In addition, the project will involve the development informative leaflets and posters for distribution at GP surgeries across Northern Ireland.

The successful student will work as part of a team within the Molecular Epidemiology and Public Health research group. They will develop their creativity skills, written and verbal communication skills, as well as gaining an understanding into the importance of patient and public engagement for conducting effective research.

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Inclusion Health: Mapping Homeless Services in Northern Ireland - supervised by Professors Diarmuid O'Donovan and Nigel Hart

The Inclusion Health Research group was established in the Centre for Public Health in September 2020 and is focussing on homelessness, prison health and primary healthcare in areas of blanket deprivation within the context of Homeless and Inclusion Health Services in NI.

We hope to recruit a medical student to contribute to a mapping exercise of health and related services for people experiencing homelessness in NI. The student will work with a doctoral student and an academic GP trainee to identify existing statutory, community and voluntary services across Northern Ireland and to describe the reach and scope of these services.

This project will involve identifying service providers and contacting them to find out the precise nature of the services available. Depending on the public health restrictions there may be opportunities to meet with some service providers. This work will contribute to informing future service developments and research questions.

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Sustainable Healthcare in Northern Ireland - supervised by Professor Diarmuid O'Donovan and Dr Vivienne Crawford

There is growing attention to action on climate change and the inextricable health links. The health sector is estimated to contribute 5% of global carbon emissions. NHS England has launched Greener NHS with a target to be the world’s first Net Zero national health service. Northern Ireland has committed to Net Zero and a sustainable low carbon health system.

We hope to recruit a medical student to contribute to a mapping exercise of sustainable healthcare activities across the health sector in NI. The student will work with colleagues in the Public Health Agency and QUB to identify and describe existing actions and plans across Northern Ireland.

This project will involve identifying service providers and managers and contacting them to find out what actions they are taking and linking with organisations involved in climate action and sustainable healthcare. There may be opportunities to meet with relevant groups.

This work will contribute to informing future research questions and developments in sustainable healthcare.

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The PROMED-EX Trial: PROtein enriched MEiterranean Diet and EXercise intervention in older adults - supervised by Dr Claire McEvoy

PROMED-EX is an ongoing trial to determine the effect of a dietary intervention, with and without exercise, on nutritional and cognitive status in 105 older adults with memory decline. See this link for more information: https://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/promed-cog/PROMED-EX/PROMED-EXRecruitment/

The student will join an active team of PhD and Postdoctoral researchers working within the PROMED-EX Trial. The 8-week project will be desk-based and involve literature review and secondary data analysis to better understand dietary and exercise behaviours in older adults. The student will learn research techniques including dietary and nutrient assessment, data input, statistical analysis and academic report writing with training and support provided by the research team.

If COVID-19 restrictions permit students to work on campus, there will also be opportunities to gain experience in participant recruitment for PROMED-EX and laboratory processing of biological samples.

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Working together to reduce global cancer burden - supervised by Dr Charlene McShane and Dr Meenakshi Sharma

Non-communicable diseases, including cancer, are a leading global health and socioeconomic challenge; by 2030 they will be the leading cause of premature deaths, particularly within low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). Researchers within the Cancer Epidemiology Research Group are collaborating with colleagues in Mongolia, Vietnam and Uganda on a wide range of early detection and cancer prevention initiatives.

The successful student will work with Dr McShane and Dr Sharma, to review the epidemiology of multiple myeloma in India with further opportunities to become involved in analysing data from a hospital-based dataset from Northern India.  This studentship will be of particular interest to students who are interested in gaining insight into global health research or who are interested in cancer epidemiology. The student will receive full training before undertaking any tasks, and is expected to gain skills in research design, data management, analysis, scientific writing and communication. The student will also have an opportunity to be named on any arising publications.

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Performing an emulated clinical trial in observational audit data to test prostate cancer patient interventions - a feasibility study - supervised by Dr Finian Bannon

Using the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry observational audit dataset used for the report "Monitoring care of Prostate cancer patients in Northern Ireland diagnosed 2006"; a feasability study will be performed to see if an emulated clinical trial can be performed satisfactorily to test the effect of 3 interventions (curative radiotherapy, surgery and watchful waiting) on the long-term prostate specific survival. The project involves novel causal inference statistical methodology that the supervisor has expertise in.

The main tasks or the successful student will be cleaning and curating the dataset, liaising with the NICR data manager for additional information (e.g. follow-up of deaths), reviewing the literature around the topic (though not a systematic review), assisting the supervisor in the analysis, and preparing drafts of the feasibility report.

An aptitude in medical statistics/mathematics and an interest in clinical trials would make the methodological aspects of the project interesting for the student.