The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Inequalities Challenge: Maternity Disparities Consortium (MDC) is proud to announce its PhD Studentship competition. We are seeking the next generation of researchers to help us tackle persistent inequalities in maternity.
The MDC brings together a UK wide collaboration of universities, NHS trusts, councils, charities, and industry partners. You can find information about our consortium members here. Our goal is to improve outcomes for women and babies before, during, and after pregnancy through inclusive, evidence-based research.
Capacity Development
The MDC capacity development programme aims to build the next generation of maternity disparities research leaders, strengthen the workforce to deliver and sustain impact across the UK and deliver on the government priorities including the Women’s Health Strategy for England and 10 Year Health Plan for England.
The Consortium focuses on growing long-term research capacity and expertise, especially within underrepresented disciplines, professions and underserved communities; inspiring and supporting the next generation of researchers with the right skills mix to work across clinical, practice and research sectors.
The Opportunity
We are offering up to 13 funded PhD studentships across a range of potential projects at universities across our Consortium. We are specifically looking to grow research capacity in methodological areas, including but not limited to, health economics, statistics, trial design, digital research, data science, implementation science and co-production methods where expertise is currently limited.
Start: January 2027
Duration: Up to 3 years (Full-Time) or 4 years at 0.8WTE (Part-Time)
Funding:
- Full home tuition fees covered (at 2026/27 UK rates).
- Tax-free annual stipend at UKRI rates (£21,805/£23,805 outside London/ inside London from 1st October 2026).
- £5,000 (per award) contribution towards research, travel, training and consumables.
- International students are welcome to apply but must secure alternative funding for the difference between UK and Overseas tuition fees.
The Project
Rationale: Current pregnancy, intrapartum, and early postnatal pathways are fragmented across cardiometabolic health indicators (e.g. obesity, diabetes, hypertension). This can result in inequalities in risk assessments, access to care, and missed opportunities for intervention to improve maternal cardiometabolic health related outcomes. Increasing use of NHS digital systems offers opportunities to address fragmented care pathways. Implementation of new processes and systems in the NHS has multiple challenges, including technical, legal, workforce, data security and digital exclusion. In maternity, this will require a multi-sector approach spanning pregnancy, intrapartum, and early postnatal contexts. Implementation science offers frameworks to support the integration of digital systems in the NHS to support routine clinical practice and transitions of care across reproductive health stages and sectors.
Impact: This PhD research will address fragmented cardiometabolic pathways, using implementation science approaches to optimise and integrate systems. The PhD will focus on existing cardiometabolic care pathways that are fragmented and inform requirements for new cardiometabolic care pathways under development. The research will use existing implementation science frameworks, systems thinking, and co-production approaches to identify key challenges to addressing fragmented pathways and explore how digital and other approaches could be embedded in strategies to overcome these.
Capacity Development: The project will apply implementation science theory and frameworks to work across multiple sectors (e.g. maternity, primary care, commissioning, and digital service providers) in the development of strategies to improve fragmented care transitions across pregnancy, intrapartum, and early postnatal periods. The PhD student will develop skills in implementation sciences and systems thinking approaches to addressing inequalities in care and maternal health across these periods. The PhD will contribute to building a community of practice of implementation science expertise in addressing maternity disparities.
Ethical considerations: Key ethical considerations for this research include ensuring data protection when planning how systems can be integrated across sectors, particularly relating to digital components and ensuring digital inclusion. This is particularly relevant for vulnerable populations and those known to be at highest risk of digital exclusion (e.g. asylum seekers, non-English speaking/reading, pregnant women experiencing domestic violence) and to ensure that digital strategies related to risk communication do not harm (e.g. cause anxiety).
Supervisory team: Nicola Heslehurst (Newcastle University), Gina Nguyen (Newcastle University) Baslam Ahmad (NUTH), Sarah Damery (University of Birmingham).
Contact – Gina Nguyen: Giang.Nguyen@newcastle.ac.uk
Who is a MDC PhD studentship for?
We welcome applications from individuals passionate about maternal health equity with particular methodology knowledge and experience. We are committed to building a supportive, inclusive, and caring research community. We particularly encourage applications from:
- People from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds.
- People with disabilities, neurodivergent conditions, and long-term health requirements
- Candidates of all genders, ages, and beliefs.
- We encourage applicants with experience of a wide range of methodologies to apply if they believe they can bring valuable skills to research on maternity inequalities. If it is not immediately obvious, please use your cover letter to explain how your disciplinary background will allow you to carry out your research.
Eligibility Criteria
Essential
- First/Upper Second-Class Honours degree (2:1 or above) in a relevant subject.
- A Master’s degree or equivalent in a relevant field.
- Understanding of and commitment to tackling maternity inequalities.
- Relevant previous research experience – this experience may be relevant to either the research or methodological area.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Highly motivated.
- Able to work both independently and as part of a team.
- Able to plan and manage own work.
- International applicants are welcome to apply for studentships, but applicants who are selected for interview must be able to provide proof of funding for international fees and immigration costs prior to their interview.
- English language requirement which can be found on individual university postgraduate admission web pages.
Desirable
- Experience of digital health systems, implementation science, systems change, or complex interventions.
*All students will be expected to be based at their host university and meet the individual university PhD studentship regulations. Please check individual university postgraduate admissions.
Accessibility and Support
We want you to perform at your best. You may contact individual supervisors when asking for more details about the projects and your suitability for the project. General enquiries about the recruitment process and MDC, including if you require any reasonable adjustments for the application process or the interview (such as alternative formats, extra time, or specific technological needs), please contact: nihr.mdc.capacitydevelopment@newcastle.ac.uk.
NIHR and DHSC have a duty as a public body to promote equality of opportunity. We will contact all applicants throughout the application period with an Equality Monitoring Form. Monitoring ensures that all applications to NIHR MDC Programmes are treated equally in terms of gender, ethnicity and/or disability. Information will be anonymised and stored separately from your application, only be used for the purpose of monitoring equal opportunities and be kept securely and in confidence.
