Child Health PhD

UCL (University College London)

The Double Degree in Child Health stems from a close academic partnership between UCL and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven). This Double PhD course gives UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (UCL GOS ICH) students the opportunity to spend up to one year at KU Leuven as an integrated part of their research. On successful completion of the course and assessments at UCL and KU Leuven, students will be awarded a PhD from both universities.Our close relationship with Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust (GOSH) means that much of our research and teaching is carried out jointly and is translationally relevant. You will benefit from excellent facilities in UCL GOS ICH and the adjacent Zayed Centre for Research, a world-leading centre of excellence dedicated to discovering new ways to treat and cure children with rare diseases. Your research will be hosted in one of the following academic research and teaching departments:Developmental Biology and Cancer: Researching stem cells and regenerative medicine, developmental biology of birth defects, and cancer biology aligned with paediatric tumours.Developmental Neurosciences: Researching molecular neurosciences including neurogenetics and translational myology, and clinical systems neuroscience.Genetics and Genomic Medicine: Researching the molecular basis of rare diseases, genome biology, precision medicine, cilia disorders and inborn errors of metabolism.Infection, Immunity and Inflammation: Researching infectious diseases, microbiome, inflammation and rheumatology, molecular and cellular immunology.Population, Policy and Practice: Researching lifecourse and clinical epidemiology, nutrition, biostatistics, childhood and adolescent mental health. Students will spend up to one year at KU Leuven as an integrated part of their research work.The UCL doctoral school values candidates with a desire to challenge the status quo openly and freely but rigorously; an openness to pushing frontiers of disciplinary knowledge within and beyond conventional disciplines; a desire to make impact with the fruits of research; to work with integrity; to be sensitive to diversity; and to engage with society beyond academia.