The Centre for International Public Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh is offering two fully funded PhD studentships, covering fees (either UK/EU or international) and an annual stipend (for current academic year of £12,940), to commence in September 2009.

The successful candidates will have demonstrable skills in research and an understanding of issues in global health policy. They will have a postgraduate qualification in a relevant subject, or equivalent research experience. It is anticipated that students will be offered funding for three years for MPhil and subsequent progression to PhD.

Opportunities will exist for students to contribute to teaching and to the development of teaching materials, especially for e-distance learning.

We welcome proposals from outstanding candidates for research projects into any area of international public health policy that fits with CIPHP’s research portfolio.

If you wish to apply, you should make a formal application to the University of Edinburgh’s PhD programme in international public health policy at

http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/finder/details.php?id=398

You should also send a covering letter and an outline proposal of no more than two pages to

James Lancaster,
james.lancaster@ed.ac.uk
+44 131 651 3963

Please contact him in the first instance if you have any enquiries or would like further information.

The deadline for applications is Monday 11 May 2009.

Interviews will be held shortly afterwards, if necessary by teleconference or videoconference.

The Centre for International Public Health Policy (CIPHP) offers an outstanding environment in which to study for a PhD. It was established at the University of Edinburgh to conduct and disseminate research of the highest standard, and to provide exceptional postgraduate teaching. Focusing on the principles of equity, access, and universality, Prof Allyson Pollock and her colleagues have gained an international reputation for the quality and policy significance of their research across the following areas:

• globalisation and health
• comparative health systems
• public private partnerships and marketisation
• the role of pharmaceuticals in health services and clinical research
• transnational corporations and international health policy
• long term care
• regulation, intellectual property, and freedom of information
• child injury surveillance

CIPHP staff play a leading role in debates around the impact of current policies on public health and social inequalities. They contribute to the world’s leading peer-reviewed journals, and to professional journals, newspapers and magazines, and radio and television programmes.

CIPHP’s research agenda is interdisciplinary and international, and its research activities directly inform its innovative postgraduate teaching.

Current and recent work in CIPHP includes

• Tracing pharmaceuticals in South Asia: regulation, distribution, and consumption – analysing how pharmaceuticals reach individual users in India and Nepal with respect to child and maternal health and mental illness.

• Transnational tobacco companies, globalisation, and public policy – uses secret industry documents to examine strategic reliance on smuggling across Asia, the erosion of health legislation in Kenya, Thailand, and Uzbekistan, and industry efforts to undermine the WHO’s first international public health treaty.

• Multilateral trade agreements – the impact of international economic law on health system administration.

• Public private partnerships in England and Scotland and beyond – evaluates the role of private banks, venture capitalists, and multinational corporations in the provision of public services, including health, education, and transport.

• The economic and social aspects of clinical trials – what are the implications of the expansion of clinical research for regulation, research ethics, patient welfare, intellectual property, the wider economy, and public engagement with medical science?

• Targeted child health surveillance in Scotland – what impact does this have on child health improvement and health inequalities?

• International experience of not-for-profit organisations – evaluating the implications for government control and the public interest of the increasing role of not-for-profit organisations.

For more information about CIPHP www.health.ed.ac.uk/ciphp