PhD Studentships in Bayesian Modelling of Viral Dynamics and Digital Pandemic Response at University of Oxford Statistics University of Oxford in United Kingdom

The University of Oxford Department of Statistics is offering two fully funded DPhil (PhD) studentships for research starting in 2026. The first project focuses on Bayesian modelling and inference of viral dynamics, particularly for infections such as HIV and SARS-CoV-2. The research will develop scalable Bayesian methods to combine viral load trajectories and patient data, integrating mechanistic ODE models with flexible approaches to capture nonlinear, individual-specific effects and quantify uncertainty.

Sparse variable selection will be used to identify key covariates influencing viral kinetics. The methods developed will be applicable to other pathogens and complex biological systems. Supervision is provided by Prof Ben Lambert (Oxford) with collaborators at GSK, and there may be opportunities for short research visits to GSK. The second project investigates methods and digital tools for improving public health and social measures (PHSMs) in pandemic response, including measuring and optimising end-user acceptability, usability, and equity.

The project will leverage key learnings from the COVID-19 app, focusing on privacy protection, user perceptions, and the equity of PHSM impacts. It will also consider the social, ethical, and political implications of conducting PHSM trials and the timeliness of policy-relevant results. Supervision is provided by a team of professors from Oxford, UKHSA, and Liverpool. Both studentships are fully funded for UK/home students, with a limited number of places for international students.

The cohort benefits from training, mentorship, and career-development events through the Oxford Martin School Digital Pandemic Preparedness Programme and NIHR HPRU-EZI. Applicants must meet academic and residential eligibility criteria, and should submit a CV, research proposal, three references, and transcripts. For the PHSMs project, applicants must quote 26STAT02HPRU in their proposal.

Application deadlines are 21 November 2025 for the viral dynamics project and 8 January 2026 for the PHSMs project. Queries can be directed to the supervisors via the provided emails.