Health and Wellbeing of the Transgender Community

Background

The School of Health and Social Care is working in partnership with Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board (SNEE ICB) to support a PhD studentship.

Applications are invited for a fully funded PhD studentship from January 2025 for three years (full time study). The PhD studentships are aligned to the University Research Strategy and to the School of Health and Social Care Research Strategy.

The Studentship – Health and Wellbeing of the Transgender Community

This programme forms part of our research portfolio and partnership with SNEE ICB and this programme of research has particular focus on clinical links and exploring health services in the Suffolk and North East Essex area for transgender, non-binary and gender questioning (TNBGQ) groups.

The programme forms part of an initiative with SNEE ICB to assist their work with the transgender community and explore the inequalities that may exist accessing health services in the region for this group. The studentship will be based in the School of Health and Social Care at the University of Essex, Colchester campus.

The studentship will be offered to an outstanding early stage researcher to conduct applied research into aspects of health and social care ensuring innovative and effective public and community involvement. This studentship provides exciting career opportunities for an ambitious researcher to work in a team directly with clinical partners to develop health services in the local area.

Project details

PhD research question and proposed programme of work must align with the SNEE programme theme.

The proposed research focuses on the health and wellbeing of individuals who described themselves as TNBGQ looking at health across the lifespan. The proposed PhD opportunities will give successful candidates the chance to explore the following areas in partnership with SNEE:

1. Prevention and early intervention: This involves exploring existing services and programs on regular health screening and promoting healthy lifestyle choices.
2. Access to care: This involves exploring access to healthcare services, including reproductive health, mental health, and primary care services with focus on addressing health disparities and improving health outcomes among marginalized groups.
3. Disparities in Healthcare Access: Investigate the barriers transgender individuals face in accessing healthcare services, such as discrimination, lack of culturally competent care, and financial constraints.
4. Research and innovation: This partnership provides an opportunity to better understand the health needs and develop evidence-based interventions to improve their health outcomes.
5. Collaboration and partnerships: This provides an opportunity to explore and foster partnerships in the delivery of comprehensive and inclusive healthcare services. This PhD will adopt a participatory approach to the research methodology to hear the voice of the service user to better inform health care services and work with key stakeholders in this ICS.

Funding

The studentship comes with a yearly tax-free stipend at current UKRI rates (approx. £18,622) plus Home tuition fees, and £2,500 training bursary via Proficio funding, which may be used to cover the cost of advanced skills training including conference attendance and travel. To be eligible for this award you must be a Home student (i.e. UK national meeting residency requirements). 

The successful applicant will enrol at the University of Essex.

Criteria

We are looking for candidates who match the following criteria:

• Applicants should have a 2.1 or higher Honours degree in a relevant discipline, a good knowledge of health or social care, and an interest in primary or acute health care research relevant to issues of socio-economic inequality, access, and health and well-being.
• Applicants should be committed to public involvement in health and social care research.
• Applicants with a Master’s degree and/or experience of using large secondary datasets are especially welcome to apply.
• Applicants must demonstrate how they will add value to NHS/health, social care or other provider organisations.

How to apply

Please apply through our online portal.

You will need to provide the following information and documents:

• A personal statement (maximum 500 words) in support of your application.
• A research project proposal (maximum of 1000 words) that explicitly addresses the work you would like to carry out
• Please detail how it addresses the concerns detailed above.
• Contact details of two academic referees (one of these maybe clinical if in a clinical post).

Instruction to applicants

When you apply online you will be prompted to fill out several boxes in the form:

• For "Course title" please put; PhD Public Health (this can also be changed at a later date) with an January 2025 start date.
• For "Proposed research topic or area of research" please put the title of this studentship (Health and Wellbeing of the Transgender Community).

Please direct general inquiries to the PGR Administrator (hscpgradmin@essex.ac.uk), School of Health and Social Care at the University of Essex.

The closing date for applications is 9th September 2024. Applications received after this time will not be considered. Applications not including any of the above information will not be shortlisted.

The studentship will commence January 2025.