London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Introduction: A bit about me

I’m currently a first year PhD student on the MRC-LID programme. MRC-LID is the London Intercollegiate Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP), funded by the Medical Research Council.

The MRC-LID is a joint programme between LSHTM in Bloomsbury, and City St George’s University of London which has 2 campuses: one in Tooting and one in Clerkenwell. You can find out more about the MRC-LID through their website.

My PhD is focusing on estimating the impact of urban environmental exposures on mental health in children and adolescents.

Why should I do a PhD?

Everyone who does a PhD will have a unique topic, and therefore will have their own reasons for doing one! It involves 3-4 years of full-time independent research in a novel field, so you do have to be committed to the programme.

Some common reasons for pursuing a PhD include usefulness for long-term career progression, to get into industry or specialist roles, or just a strong interest in their thesis topic/doing research. For me personally, I chose to do one because I’d like to work towards a career in academia, I’m really interested in my field (environmental and mental health and epidemiology) and the concept of creating new knowledge is really exciting to me.

How do I get onto doing a PhD?

There are many different routes to apply to do a PhD, and a funded DTP programme like mine is just one of many options.

Proposing your own topic

If you propose your own topic, there are a few steps required as part of the application. You will need to:

• Identify a suitable supervisor – for example, this can be someone you have worked with previously through a paid employment role or as your MSc supervisor. You must ensure that they are willing to take on this commitment alongside you, and they have the capacity to do this alongside any other work responsibilities they may have!
• Organise funding – you can apply for grants from different organisations, such as charities or research bodies, or you can choose to self-fund your PhD. If you are funded, the organisation will usually cover your tuition fees and provide you with a stipend which is around the London living wage.

You would then apply directly to the School with a personal statement, research proposal, evidence of how you will fund your PhD and your supervisor details.

Doctoral Training Programmes

There are many available around the UK and internationally. Some examples of DTPs that will be relevant to courses at LSHTM include:

• MRC London Intercollegiate Doctoral (LID) Training Partnership
• London Interdisciplinary Doctoral Programme (LIDo)
• Oxford Interdisciplinary Bioscience DTP
• Cambridge Biosciences BBSRC DTP
• Manchester BBSRC DTP.

These tend to have less steps as part of the application process, however they also tend to be more competitive to get onto. The topics and supervisors tend to already be proposed – you may have to pick an existing topic that suits your interests and skills and write a research proposal with the provided information. Additionally, funding is provided as part of the DTP programme, so this does not need to be additionally sourced.

Application Tips

• Get in contact with your supervisors early! They can give you advice for application and interview, and it’s important to build a rapport with them too.
• Personal statement:
  • Make sure you show your commitment and passion for doing a PhD. It’s not an easy path and you’ll need to be resilient throughout your journey – if you’re applying for a funded PhD, your funders will want to be assured that you will see the PhD to completion.
  • Show evidence of existing research skills or transferrable skills that match up to what you will need in your PhD. This could be through projects you have worked on in previous employment/research opportunities, dissertations, training courses or modules. You’ll build on these throughout your PhD of course, but it’s important that you have an appropriate background.
• Interview:
  • Most DTPs will have an interview as part of the admissions process. They won’t expect you to know everything as you haven’t started the actual research yet – but you should do a background literature search so you know enough about your topic.
  • The main points you need to cover are why is the PhD needed (what evidence gap does it fill) and how do you plan to do your research (what methods will you use etc.)

Insights about going from MSc to PhD

Aside from the thesis, an MSc is delivered as a structured taught programme. However, doing a PhD is an independent research role where you will have to take the initiative on your work. You can take various MSc modules if they’re open to you through your programme though, for example if you need to upskill in a type of methodology that you haven’t used before. It is a completely different mode of working but I am embracing the independence!

My MSc summer project wasn’t directly related to my PhD research. They both incorporate the topic of global mental health, however my MSc thesis was a primary research project where I collected qualitative data, and my PhD thesis will be a secondary data analysis using quantitative methods.

As long as your research experiences are relevant to each other in some way and you have the appropriate skills, you can transition between disciplines. For example, I have knowledge of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, so I was able to apply my existing research skills to my new project. However, I have no wet lab skills so working on a project in the lab using cell cultures (for example) would not be applicable to me!

Thank you for reading my blog – best of luck with your application if you are thinking about doing a PhD. Please contact me if you have any questions!

• Discover more about the MRC LID PhD studentship and projects.
• Contact Shereen via our contact student ambassador page.
• See full application guidance for research degrees.
• Learn more about research degree programmes as LSHTM.