Fully Funded PhD Studentship in Medical Biostatistics, Causal Inference and Statistical Machine Learning University of Limerick in Ireland

[Fully funded 4-year Structured PhD; €25,000 annual tax-free stipend; EU tuition fee waiver; conference, workshop and specialist training support; computing resources and laptop provided.]

Applications are invited for a fully funded PhD studentship at the University of Limerick in the School of Medicine, focused on Medical Biostatistics, Causal Inference and Statistical Machine Learning. This is a methodologically driven project for students who want to develop new statistical methods rather than simply apply existing tools.

The research will address important challenges in causal effect estimation using large-scale longitudinal electronic health records and other linked observational healthcare datasets. Topics may include dynamic treatment strategies, time-varying confounding, treatment-effect heterogeneity, missing data, competing risks, and high-dimensional covariates. The project sits at the intersection of medical biostatistics, causal inference, semiparametric statistics, and statistical machine learning, with opportunities to contribute to target trial emulation, doubly robust and debiased machine learning, propensity score methods, survival analysis, and reproducible statistical computing.

The studentship is fully funded for 4 years and includes an annual tax-free stipend of €25,000, an EU tuition fee waiver, conference/workshop/specialist training support, and computing resources including a laptop. The project is scheduled to start in September 2026.

Applicants should have, or expect to obtain, a First Class or Upper Second Class Honours degree (or equivalent) in Statistics, Biostatistics, Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Data Science, Computer Science, Econometrics, Epidemiology, or a closely related quantitative field. Strong mathematical and statistical ability, programming experience preferably in R, interest in statistical methodology and machine learning, and good communication and problem-solving skills are expected. An MSc and prior experience in causal inference, longitudinal data analysis, or survival analysis are desirable but not required.

The successful candidate will join an interdisciplinary research environment with opportunities to publish in leading journals, present at international conferences, attend specialist workshops, and develop open-source statistical software. The primary supervisor is Dr Maurice O'Connell, Associate Professor in Medical Biostatistics.

Application deadline: 24 August 2026. Applications should include a cover letter, CV, academic transcripts, and contact details for two academic referees. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Informal enquiries can be sent to [email protected].