The School of Medicine offers postgraduate degrees including Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) (both traditional and structured).

For informal discussions regarding opportunities please contact:

Professor Colum Dunne
Director of Research
colum.dunne@ul.ie
Telephone: 061-234703/086 0430739

Traditional PhD model:
The thesis is capped at a maximum of 270 ECTS (European credit transfer system) credits (90 credits =1 year), however long the research takes. The programme is in the form of a master-apprentice model, with research being the only focus.

Details can be found on the Faculty of Education & Health Science website

University of Limerick School of Medicine requires that all potential PhD/MD or Masters candidates submit a concise proposal for review by the Research Committee of the school. Once approved by the School of Medicine, a fuller formal submission may be made using the official university application form.

Please note that this application must include:

  1. Full CV of applicant and supervisors (to be attached separately).
  2. Affiliation of supervisors – both clinical and/or academic.
  3. Estimated costings and source of funding for the project.
  4. The proposed timeframe for the project, including proposed start and completion dates.
  5. A description of the proposed project (no more than 3 A4 pages in Times Font, size 10) that
    • Clearly defines the research objectives and rationale;
    • Includes a concise critical literature review of the subject area(s); and
    • Demonstrates the originality of the proposed research work, by referring to published material;
    • Contains an outline work-plan showing the main steps required to complete the research objectives including methodologies. If relevant, this work-plan should be accompanied by letters of support from any involved clinical sites.
    • This does not need to be detailed, but should demonstrate that the candidate understands the steps and risks involved in working towards the research objectives.

Note:

Please forward applications to Medicine Research, School of Medicine, University of Limerick, Limerick Tel: 353 (0)61 234756 E-mail: medicineresearch@ul.ie

Current PhD Opportunities

Project Area Project Title Supervisor Co-Supervisor
1. Lung Cancer Metabolism Manipulating cell-intrinsic metabolic rewiring to enhance immunotherapy response Catríona Dowling Evelyn Murphy
2. Lung cancer Discovery of effective drug combination regimens for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. Catríona Dowling Pat Kiely
3. Breast Cancer: New Laboratory Models Development of 3-Dimensional models to examine how the tumour-microenvironment regulates metabolic crosstalk in breast cancer Pat Kiely Catriona Dowling
4. Breast Cancer: Cell Signalling Understanding how the tumour microenvironment regulates the breast cancer response to therapy Pat Kiely Evelyn Murphy
5. Tumour micro-environment Targeting nuclear orphan receptors to control stromal cells and the tumour micro-environment Evelyn Murphy Pat Kiely
6. Inflammation Molecular processes that promote or preclude resolution of inflammation   Evelyn Murphy Catriona Dowling
7. GP/PH Medication Safety & Communication Dervla Kelly Liam Glynn/Khalifa Elmusharaf
8. General Practice Cardiovascular Disease Liam Glynn  
9. General Practice Health in Vulnerable Populations Liam Glynn  
10. Chronic Kidney Disease Burden and clinical impact of Kidney Disease-associated Anaemia in the Irish Health System   Austin Stack Leonard Browne
11. Chronic Kidney Disease Surveillance of Metabolic Disease Indicators for Chronic Kidney Disease in the Irish Health System: Testing, Trajectories, and Impact on Clinical Outcomes   Austin Stack Leonard Browne
12. Chronic Kidney Disease Disparities in Cardiovascular Disease Incidence and Outcomes between Men and Women with CKD in the Irish Health System   Austin Stack Leonard Browne & Tom Kiernan
13. Public Health   Khalifa Elmusharaf & LBBs  
14. Public Health  
15. Public Health  
16. Health Professions Education Social Accountability Mohammed Elhassan Elsayed, Sarah Harney and Deirdre McGrath
17. Health Professions Education COVID19 Impact
18. Health Professions Education Workplace Learning & Supervision
19. Paediatrics Childhood Obesity/Diabetes Clodagh O’Gorman & SL/Adjunct Faculty
20. Paediatrics Childhood Obesity/Diabetes
21. Anatomy Morphology/Development/Neuroscience Kieran McDermott  
22. PPI Migrant Health Anne McFarlane, Ailish Hannigan, Jon Salsberg
23. PPI Participatory Research
24. Cancer Genomics Patient-Drug Matchmaker (swipe right for clinical Trials , swipe left for Adverse effects) will Aedin Culhane
25. Cancer Genomics Connecting OMOP-CDM to genomics data to develop predictors immunotherapy response Aedin Culhane

Potential candidates should access potential supervisors at: School of Medicine faculty