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Dear colleagues, Please find below a vacancy for a funded PhD studentship for improving road safety in Low-Middle Income Countries in the Transportation Research Group (TRG) within the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment at the University of Southampton. ======================================================= Location: Boldrewood Innovation Campus Closing Date: Friday 15 December 2017 Interview Date: To be confirmed Reference: 919217AT Job description: ----------------------- According to the 2015 Global Status Report on Road Safety by the World Health Organization (WHO), crashes are a major pandemic that affect the safety and efficiency of road networks worldwide with 1.25 million deaths each year. In particular, Low- and Middle-Income Countries had more than two times higher road traffic fatality rates compared to high-income countries. Though introducing and enforcing conventional road safety laws have prevented a further increase of road traffic fatalities in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), the World Health Organization report suggests that changing country-specific road user behaviour remains of paramount importance when addressing the integrated "Safe Systems" approach. To address this rising global health issue, the University of Southampton's Transportation Research Group (TRG), in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine, has been funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to form a Research Group on Global Road Safety to implement the Socio-Technical systems Approach to Road Safety (STARS) project (see http://www.nihr.ac.uk/globalhealth). The PhD student will develop a Decision Support System (DSS) measuring the level of road safety and identifying the emergence of unsafe road conditions before a high number of fatal accidents will occur. In collaboration with our partners in four LMICs (Bangladesh, Kenya, China and Vietnam), the student will study existing road safety programs, their targets, their impacts and forecast the impact of future policy decisions on road safety. This will be achieved by: 1. Classifying the number, frequency, severity and type of accidents or injuries on roads in the four LMICs. 2. Identifying unsafe operational conditions of road traffic (pre-crash related, crash-related, post-crash related) that might have led to the occurrence of unsafe traffic situations. 3. Identifying road safety interventions that had positive/negative impact on accidents or injuries in the past. 4. Developing a methodology to assess the impact of various parameters (e.g., network description, road classification, traffic, and economics) on road safety performance. 5. Designing and developing a user friendly simulation-based DSS. 6. Proposing a number of new Road Safety Performance Indicators (RSPIs) based on a socio-technical systems-based perspective. 7. Integrating the new RSPIs into the simulation-based DSS. 8. Predicting the impact of the new RSPIs. 9. Generating a set of decision rules for best practice based on the collective knowledge of our LMIC partners. 10. Disseminating our developed DSS at local and national levels to show its capabilities in forecasting the outcomes of various policy and standards on road crashes and associated public health trauma. The post will be in the Transportation Research Group (TRG) in the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment at its new Boldrewood Innovation Campus in Southampton. The TRG is a multi-disciplinary group founded in 1967 and recognised worldwide as a leading University centre for engineering-related transportation research. The successful candidate will have access to world-class experimental facilities and data-sets provided by the project partners and work with a team of engineers with diverse expertise and skills. The Transportation Research Group provides a strong environment for personal and career development. If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Dr Bani Anvari, Transportation Research Group, Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> ,Tel: +44 (0) 2380 59 2175. About the University: ----------------------------- You will join one of the UK's most dynamic centres for engineering and environmental research and education rated number one for research power in REF2014. We have an excellent record of collaborative research with industry and academic institutions in the UK and abroad. The Faculty has nearly 200 academic staff working in a number of research themes (http://www.southampton.ac.uk/engineering/research/themes.page). We have exceptional research facilities particularly in our state-of-the-art facilities at our new Boldrewood Innovation Campus (fluids and structures/infrastructure) which includes a 138m towing tank. In recognition of our continued commitment to improving equality for women in science and engineering we were awarded an Athena SWAN bronze award in September 2013 and intend to submit an application for Silver in Spring 2016. The Faculty will give due consideration to applicants that wish to work flexibly including part-time and due consideration will be given to applicants who have taken a career break. The University has a generous maternity policy, onsite childcare facilities and employees are able to participate in the childcare vouchers scheme. The University of Southampton is the top one percent of world universities and in the top 10 of the UK's research-intensive universities The University of Southampton is committed to sustainability and being a globally responsible university and has recently been awarded the Platinum EcoAward. Our vision is to embed the principles of sustainability into all aspects of our individual and collective work, integrating sustainable development into our business planning, policy-making, and professional activities. This commits all of our staff and students to take responsibility for managing their activities to minimise harm to the environment, whether this through switching off non-essential electrical equipment or using the recycling facilities. Application Procedure: -------------------------------- To apply, please use the following website: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/engineering/postgraduate/research_degrees/apply.page .