PhD Studentship: Data-Driven Approaches to Understanding Heterogeneity in Type 1 Diabetes: Towards Better Prediction and Personalised Care

Overview

This PhD project at the University of Exeter, based in Clinical and Biomedical Sciences, looks at why type 1 diabetes varies so much between people. More than 400,000 people in the UK live with the condition, and they differ widely in age at diagnosis, how the disease progresses, how they respond to treatment and their risk of long-term complications. As disease-modifying therapies appear and precision medicine becomes more achievable, understanding this variation matters.

The student will work with large routinely collected healthcare datasets and advanced statistical methods to describe disease trajectories, build risk prediction models and identify factors linked to different treatment outcomes. The results are intended to improve understanding of long-term outcomes and provide evidence for risk stratification and personalised clinical care.

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.