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A 3 year PhD studentship is available with the CHICAS <http://www.lancs.ac.uk/shm/med/chicas> research group in the Faculty of Health and Medicine at Lancaster University as part of the ongoing activities of the Health e-Research Centre <http://www.herc.ac.uk>, a joint initiative between the universities of Manchester, Liverpool, Lancaster and York. The project will be supervised by Ben Taylor <http://www.lancs.ac.uk/staff/taylorb1>, Barry Rowlingson <http://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/people/barry-rowlingson> and Peter Diggle <http://www.lancs.ac.uk/%7Ediggle/>. The deadline for applications is: 30th April 2014. The overarching theme of the project will be missed opportunities detection <http://www.herc.ac.uk/research-development/#Research%20Theme%20%E2%80%94%20MOD>; the main aim will be to assimilate and exploit open and routinely collected health and demographic data to help learn about the epidemiology of disease. An example project could be as follows: The GP prescribing data <http://www.hscic.gov.uk> constitutes a rich time series covering drugs prescribed by all general practitioners across England, but as yet the full potential of these data has not been exploited. For example, one can investigate spatiotemporal trends in prescribing rates; and by linking the prescribing data to other data sources, such as census information <http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons>, there is scope to investigate socioeconomic and environmental risk factors for disease. The linking of datasets introduces statistical challenges because information is often recorded at different spatial and temporal scales. The studentship will pay UK/EU/Overseas tuition fees and a starting stipend of approx £13,700 per annum. The student will receive advanced training at the statistics/epidemiology interface including (but not limited to): stochastic modelling of spatial and spatiotemporal phenomena, Bayesian statistics, Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods, statistical programming, data management and data visualisation. Overseas students must have achieved and provide evidence that they meet the University's English language requirements (see HERE <http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/study/international-students/english-requirements/pg-english-language-requirements/>) *by the deadline for applications*, the 30th April 2014. The Lancaster University campus is situated in a beautiful 360 acre parkland site at Bailrigg, just 3 miles from Lancaster City Centre. Lancaster University is one of Britain's top universities, with over 12,000 students and 2,500 employees within the Bailrigg campus that is now almost a small town in its own right. For those applicants who enjoy the outdoors, living in Lancaster offers easy access to the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales. The successful candidate will have a first class Bachelor's degree or a Masters degree in statistics, or in a related discipline with substantial statistical content. They will be highly motivated and capable of independent work. Applicants must have an interest in computationally intensive statistical methods and applications in the Health Sciences together with good interpersonal and communications skills. The project will start on 1st October 2014, or after by arrangement. For an October start or an informal discussion of the post, please contact Ben Taylor <mailto:[log in to unmask]> before 29th April 2014. -- Benjamin Taylor, MSci MSc PhD Lecturer in Biostatistics Faculty of Health and Medicine B27 Furness Building Lancaster University Lancaster LA1 4YF UK Telephone: +44 (0)1524 593499 Email:[log in to unmask] Website:http://www.lancs.ac.uk/staff/taylorb1/ You may leave the list at any time by sending the command SIGNOFF allstat to [log in to unmask], leaving the subject line blank.