PhD Studentship - AI Scientists for Understanding Dementia Modifiable Risk Factors

Overview

This PhD project at the University of Exeter, hosted by the Department of Computer Science, uses artificial intelligence to study modifiable risk factors for dementia. Predicting dementia early is an urgent problem for improving the clinical pathway of people at risk because of well-established factors such as cognitive decline, lifestyle, medical history or genetics.

The project aims to design an AI system that brings scientific knowledge into early dementia modelling, built on large language models and causal inference. It has two stages. First, a causal knowledge graph is constructed from scientific papers and cognitive test questionnaire data. Second, the graph is combined with transformer-based large language models and causal learning, which should give an explainable picture of personalised risk factors.

What you get

The project is one of up to 18 MRC-funded studentships offered through the GW4 BioMed3 Doctoral Landscape Programme, with a start date of October 2027. The studentships last four years. Funding covers UK tuition fees and a doctoral stipend matching the UK Research Council national minimum, which is 21,805 pounds per year for 2026/27 and is updated annually. Up to 5,000 pounds per year is also available for research training and support costs.

Who can apply

The studentships are open to UK and international students. This project competes for a place with projects across the whole MRC GW4 BioMed3 Doctoral Landscape Award, in which 18 studentships are available across the partnership.

Key dates

The closing date is 21 October 2026, and the studentship begins in October 2027.