Fully funded 3-year PhD: Modelling fluctuating cognitive and mental health states in psychiatric disorders

Application Deadline:  1^st April 2025 (23:59 GMT)

Award(s) information: 1 fully funded 3-year PhD, funded by Boehringer Ingelheim

Supervisor(s):

1^st supervisor: Professor Adam Hampshire (adam.hampshire@kcl.ac.uk)

2^nd supervisor: Dr Elizabeth Mary Gillott (Elizabeth_mary.gillott@boehringer-ingelheim.com)

Interview dates:  17th April 2025

Project details:

Applications are invited for a fully funded PhD studentship at King’s College London focusing on the development and application of computational approaches to model fluctuating cognitive and mood states in psychiatric disorders. This project, funded by Boehringer Ingelheim, will leverage uniquely rich online cognitive assessment datasets that we are collecting in order to understand the dynamic nature of psychological states in major depressive disorder, schizophrenia and other conditions. The start date will be June or October 2025.

The successful candidate will work within the Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, under the joint supervision of Professors Adam Hampshire and Steve Williams from King’s College London, and Dr Elizabeth Gillott from Boehringer Ingelheim. The project will make use of high-frequency cognitive and behavioural data, integrating multiple assessment modalities—including cognitive tasks, self-report measures, and actigraphy. There is also the opportunity to work with other data types including brain imaging, speech and virtual reality behavioural data. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to further develop the project with the supervisors.

This studentship provides an excellent opportunity for a candidate interested in the intersection of cognitive neuroscience, computational psychiatry, and data science. The successful applicant will receive training in:

• Statistical and machine learning techniques for analysing high-dimensional cognitive and behavioural data.
• Psychiatric research methodologies, with access to large-scale online cognitive assessment datasets.
• Translational applications relevant to academic, clinical and industry contexts.

The candidate will have the opportunity to spend time at Boehringer Ingelheim, engaging directly with computational scientists and clinical researchers in an industry setting.

Applicants should have:

• A strong academic background in a relevant discipline (e.g., cognitive neuroscience, computational modelling, psychology, psychiatry, statistics, or a related field).
• Experience with data analysis and programming (e.g., Python, MATLAB).
• An interest in applying computational methods in mental health research.
• The ability to work independently while contributing to a multidisciplinary research environment.

For informal inquiries, please contact Professor Adam Hampshire (adam.hampshire@kcl.ac.uk).

Funding applies to:

Home candidates

To be treated as a Home student, candidates must meet one of the following criteria:

• A UK national (meeting residency requirements)
• Settled status
• Pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements)
• Indefinite leave to remain or enter