Postgraduate Research

To develop novel methods in the modelling and prediction of percutaneous absorption of exogenous chemicals for drug delivery, cosmetic application and toxicity / risk assessment applications.

Available from April 2013.

Apply online here

Applications are invited for studentships in the following areas:

• English and Creative Writing
• History
• Music and Music Technology
• American Studies
• Media, Communications and Culture

Keele University is offering AHRC awards in Music and History, plus a number of internally funded studentships, bursaries, fee waivers and Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTAs).  Applicants for GTAs should refer to the Supplementary Information below.

Please note that your application can only be considered on the basis of the information we have received.  It is your responsibility to ensure that your application has arrived before the deadline and includes ALL of the following:

• The relevant application form
• Two academic references
• A full proposal for your PhD project (maximum four sides of A4 - this should set out research questions to be addressed, proposed methodology, a summary of current literature etc)
• A sample of your previous academic work (maximum 5,000 words)
• HumSS 2013-14 Case for Support

We recommend that you liaise with possible supervisors before submitting your application. Please contact Helen Farrell for advice.

Please refer to the AHRC Guide for details of eligibility for funding. New Starters may apply for all schemes, continuing students are eligible for AHRC awards only. 

For details of funding levels, please click here.

Apply online here

Applications are invited for studentships within any of the 5 Centres of the Research Institute.  These Centres are:

• Economics and Management
• Law, Ethics and Society
• Politics, International Relations and Environment
• Psychological Research
• Social Policy

Keele University is offering a number of internally funded studentships, bursaries, fee waivers and Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTAs).  Applicants for GTAs should refer to the Supplementary Information below.

Please note that your application can only be considered on the basis of the information we have received.  It is your responsibility to ensure that your application has arrived before the deadline and includes ALL of the following:

• The relevant application form
• Two academic references
• A full proposal for your PhD project (maximum four sides of A4.  This should set out research questions to be addressed, proposed methodology, a summary of current literature etc)
• A sample of your previous academic work (maximum 5,000 words)
• HumSS 2013-14 Case for Support

We recommend that you liaise with possible supervisors before submitting your application. Please contact Helen Farrell for advice.

For details of funding levels, please click here.

Apply online here

Applications are invited for studentships in the following areas:

• AHRC Masters in Music

Please note that your application can only be considered on the basis of the information we have received.  It is your responsibility to ensure that your application has arrived before the deadline and includes ALL of the following:

• The relevant application form
• Two academic references
• A sample of your previous academic work (maximum 5,000 words)‌
• HumSS 2013-14 Case for Support

We recommend that you contact possible supervisors before submitting your application. Please contact Elizabeth Cameron for advice.

Please refer to the AHRC Guide for details of eligibility for funding.

Apply online here

NERC-funded studentship available from September 2013 (UK students only).  

For project details see Advert and Details (below).

Apply online here

STFC-funded studentships are available from September 2013.  Projects include:

• Transiting extra-solar planets with WASP-South
• Star formation in the Magellanic Clouds
• Structure and dynamics of the interstellar medium with GASKAP
• Observational studies of Stripped red giant cores
• Laboratory astrophysics at the Diamond Light Source

For information on all projects see Advert and Details (below).

Apply online here

Platelets play a critical role in clotting the blood upon vascular damage. Currently the best way to study platelet activation under similar conditions to that found within the human body is to observe the events that occur within damaged blood vessels in mouse models using intravital microscopy. However the applicability of these studies to the human condition is uncertain due to differences between the experimental mouse model and the conditions found inside a typical human. 

The objective of this project is to further develop and validate our prototype 3D blood vessel model, such that we can use it to accurately recreate the chemical and physical environments found within the human body.  We hope to use this to examine whether the results obtained from previous studies in mouse models can be replicated inside our human blood vessel. We hope that the use of a 3-dimensional human blood vessel model will provide us with a new experimental system in which we can more realistically study the processes of blood clotting and haemostasis.

Apply online here

Dr Hirschi has been awarded a European Research Council starting grant, worth 1.4M EUROS that will fund a 5-year multi-disciplinary project entitled SHYNE (Stellar HYdrodynamics, Nucleosynthesis and Evolution). The grant will enable Dr Hirschi to build a team of two post-doctoral researchers and two PhD students, and to acquire a dedicated  1000-CPU computer cluster. The SHYNE team will collaborate with the Norwegian company Numascale, adding an inter-sectoral component to the project. More details on the SHYNE project are given here: http://www.astro.keele.ac.uk/shyne/ .

One PhD project will focus on convection in stars (this advert; the other PhD project is advertised as: “Live and death of stars".  The successful candidate will analyse results of 3D simulations using both numerical and theoretical frameworks in order to establish new prescriptions for convective boundary mixing to be used in 1D models. She/he will learn key computing skills and be exposed to the industry, which will give her/him a strong skills set for both an academic and an industrial career.

This 4-year studentship is available from September 2013 (start date flexible) for UK/EU students only.   Candidates must hold at least a first-class Bachelors degree or an appropriate Masters qualification in a physics related subject or its equivalent. In order to be considered for a studentship you must complete an application form for PhD study, please indicate ERC-SHYNE studentship ref EPSAM 2012-2.

Details of the application procedure for study are on the Keele website http://www.keele.ac.uk/pgresearch/howtoapply/ .   For enquiries about the project, contact epsam.enquiries@keele.ac.uk, or for informal enquiries contact Dr Hirschi by email: r.hirschi@keele.ac.uk.

Apply online here

Dr Hirschi has been awarded a European Research Council starting grant, worth 1.4M EUROS that will fund a 5-year multi-disciplinary project entitled SHYNE (Stellar HYdrodynamics, Nucleosynthesis and Evolution). The grant will enable Dr Hirschi to build a team of two post-doctoral researchers and two PhD students, and to acquire a dedicated  1000-CPU computer cluster. The SHYNE team will collaborate with the Norwegian company Numascale, adding an inter-sectoral component to the project. More details on the SHYNE project are given here: http://www.astro.keele.ac.uk/shyne/ .

This PhD project will focus on calculating grids of stellar evolution models in order to determine the properties and fate of massive and intermediate-mass stars. The successful candidate will model the evolution of massive stars from birth till death using state-of-the-art 1D stellar evolution codes while studying the effects of rotation, magnetic fields and improved treatment of convective boundary mixing. In particular, the candidate will calculate progenitor models of core-collapse supernovae and more exotic explosions (gamma-ray bursts, electron-capture supernovae and pair-creation supernovae). She/he will learn key computing skills and be exposed to the industry, which will give her/him a strong skills set for both an academic and an industrial career.

This 4-year studentship is available to UK/EU students only.  Candidates must hold at least a first-class Bachelors degree or an appropriate Masters qualification in a physics related subject or its equivalent. In order to be considered for a studentship you must complete an application form for PhD study, please indicate ERC-SHYNE studentship ref EPSAM 2012-3

Details of the application procedure for study are on the Keele website http://www.keele.ac.uk/pgresearch/howtoapply/ .   For enquiries about the project, contact epsam.enquiries@keele.ac.uk.  For informal enquiries, contact Dr Hirschi by email: r.hirschi@epsam.keele.ac.uk.

Apply online here

Long term health problems such as asthma, COPD and cardiac disease place a substantive socio-economic burden on an individual, society and the state. This project will primarily focus on identifying and modelling the risk factors that lead to adult COPD. The primary objectives are:

1. Conduct a comprehensive literature review (of current medical databases and clinical trial registers) to identify factors (e.g. gender, childhood asthma, family history of smoking, socio-demographic factors, biomarkers) that lead to a reduction in lung function.
2. Develop a model to identify the contribution of individual factors to the reduction in lung function.
3. Use the model to study the interactions between individual factors.
4. Formulate a proposal to prospectively test the validity of the model

Apply online here

Advancement in knowledge of cell-materials interaction has led to development of novel materials for use in implant technology, in vitro expansion of cells for regenerative medicine and medical diagnostics. Scaffold materials provide the architecture to support 3D tissue growth, although often such materials cause problems for long-term regeneration. Biodegradable scaffolds that collapse after a fixed time period, either naturally or after external stimulus, are therefore advantageous. Addition of nanoparticles into the intrinsic structure of a scaffold can enhance functionality and lead to exciting new properties including ability to remotely trigger structural collapse and drug release. Here we are interested in the incorporation of such nanoparticles into a thermo-responsive biocompatible scaffold. This sophisticated system will result in remotely triggered scaffolds for controlled degradation and release of pharmaceuticals.

Apply online here

Magnetic nanoparticles have become widely studied for biomedical applications in recent years including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nerve regeneration, drug and gene therapy. Coating the MNPs with gold results in a rigid coat shielding the external environment from the iron oxide. This results in safer particles with increased applications. Colloidal gold possess’ unique surface plasmon resonance (SPR) properties. When nanoparticles are irradiated with light of appropriate wavelength, particles undergo absorption and scattering of the photons. This absorption of Au nanoparticles is followed by rapid conversion of light into heat. In biomedicine this unique property can be exploited for applications such as photo thermal ablation and thermo responsive drug delivery. Pancreatic cancer is the 4^th main cancer in the western world with only 5% of patients surviving up to 5 years after treatment. There is a huge clinical need for more efficient treatments for this disease. This group is interested in the application of gold coated magnetic nanoparticles for image guided stimuli responsive drug delivery for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Apply online here