Job offer Applied Mathematics: Fully Funded PhD Studentship in Agent-Based Infection Modelling [...]

SWANSEA UNIVERSITY; Swansea; On-site; GBP 21,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading educational institution in Swansea is offering a PhD scholarship focused on HIV infection dynamics. This opportunity involves generating innovative tools and techniques for research, in collaboration with GSK. The scholarship covers full tuition fees and provides an annual stipend at UKRI rate, along with additional research expenses.

Benefits

Full tuition fee coverage

Annual stipend at UKRI rate

Research expenses up to £1,000 per year

Qualifications

• Applicants must hold an undergraduate degree at 2.1 level or a master’s degree with a minimum overall grade at ‘Merit’.
• Must have an IELTS score of 6.0 Overall, with no individual component below 5.5.

Responsibilities

• Generate tools and techniques to simulate HIV infection dynamics.
• Collaborate with GSK experts on the project.
• Conduct research within the Computational Foundry.

Education

PhD qualification or Master's degree with Merit

IELTS 6.0 Overall

Knowledge of HIV infection dynamics

Job description

Eligibility Criteria

• PhD: Applicants for PhD must hold an undergraduate degree at 2.1 level or a master’s degree with a minimum overall grade at ‘Merit’ (or a non‑UK equivalent as defined by Swansea University).
• Master’s Degree or equivalent, IELTS 6.0 Overall (with no individual component below 5.5) or a Swansea University recognised equivalent. Full details of our English Language policy, including certificate time validity, can be found here.

Selection Process

HIV remains one of the most persistent and challenging infections to cure due to its ability to lie dormant in reservoirs within the body: T-cells that are infected but no actively replicating virus. This allows the virus to evade standard treatment approaches. Despite years of antiretroviral therapy (ART), complete eradication of the virus is hindered by the presence of these reservoirs, which require continuous lifetime treatment. Recent efforts to cure HIV infection have focused on developing latency reversing agents as a first step to eradicate the latent reservoir and animal models are being studied to understand these dynamics.

This project proposes a novel pipeline of ideas to generate tools and techniques to simulate HIV infection dynamics using a multiscale agent‑based modelling technique (cells, viruses, drugs, antibodies, human lymph system, seconds, days, years).

This project is in collaboration with GSK and we will work closely with experts from GSK.

The Department of Mathematics is part of the Computational Foundry, a world‑class centre for computational research, part‑funded by the European Regional Development Fund through Welsh Government. The brand‑new building of the Computational Foundry provides an ideal environment for doing a PhD.

This scholarship covers the full cost of tuition fees and an annual stipend at UKRI rate (currently £20,780 for 2025/26).

Additional research expenses of up to £1,000 per year will also be available.