Research excellence at the University of Aberdeen has been acknowledged with the decision to award the institution four postgraduate studentships which together are worth £200,000.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) has granted the University more studentships than it has given to any other Scottish university, and to many other English institutions too, in this latest funding round of Capacity Building Studentships in the areas of Infections and Health Economics.
Professor Jennifer Mordue, Director of the University’s Graduate School for the College of Life Sciences and Medicine, is delighted at the decision which is part of the MRC’s mission to provide excellent, trained minds capable of producing advances in biomedical, public health and health services research.
Professor Mordue said: “It is tremendous that the quality of research which we have here at the University of Aberdeen is being recognised by the Medical Research Council. These studentships will pay for four top class postgraduate students to carry out key research into a number of important areas of health.”
One postgraduate will join the University’s Aberdeen Fungal Team – a widely acclaimed group of scientists who are carrying out leading research into potentially deadly fungal infections – and will be involved in studies into Candida.
Two postgraduates will join the University’s Health Economics Research Unit (HERU) which has a national remit within Scotland to research the best ways to provide health care, and to train those working in the health services in health economics.
One of those recruits will investigate the relationship between income, employment, gender and health in the wider population. The other will examine the use of different methods to value the time of individuals who provide care to older people.
The final postgraduate will also investigate serious infectious disease and undertake specialised training in molecular microbial physiology applied to the study of pathogenic bacteria and how they survive in the host and cause disease.