Applications are invited for a PhD studentship, jointly sponsored by the EPSRC and British Telecommunications plc (BT), and supervised by Dr Ben Anderson. The studentship provides an opportunity to carry out research and industrial training in a three-year programme leading to a PhD in the use of personal and lifestyle data for health service provision and social research.

One of the greatest challenges facing governments and society today is improving the health of the population while reducing the costs and burden on health sector resources. Empowering people (and organisations) to take greater ownership of their health, wellbeing and lifestyle is an essential precursor to achieving that goal. Today’s emerging telecare technologies are early enablers for such empowerment and over the coming years assistive technologies will become commonplace as society grows more conscious of long-term health and lifestyle.

Implicit in the growing use of assistive technology is the wide scale deployment of technologies that capture data on relevant human activities and behaviours, ostensibly for the purposes of the health and lifestyle related services. However, that behavioural data contains an information richness that has value in a diversity of sectors in addition to health. The objective of this research programme is to explore the potential academic, commercial and policy value of analysis of this data for purposes other than pure healthcare. Attention will be given to issues of confidentiality, security, data protection and ethics as well as potentially experimenting with new analytic and data visualisation techniques. Part of the research will also assess the potential value of such analyses to a range of market sectors and carry out investigative fieldwork with appropriate households using mixed-method approaches. It is anticipated that behavioural data collected in the University’s innovative i-Dorm facility (please see: http://digital-lifestyles.essex.ac.uk/) and through a number of innovative BT trials will also be available for experimental analysis.

Whilst the successful candidate will be based at Chimera at Adastral Park, Suffolk, time will also be spent working within the BT 2010 research activity (who are also located at Adastral Park) gaining industrial experience and access to unique datasets and technologies. Chimera also supports full interaction with departments and research activities on the main University campus at Colchester.

Applications are invited from graduates with a first or upper second class degree (or equivalent) in Sociology, Human and Health Sciences, Management, Law, Computer Science or other demonstrably relevant course. Candidates with an additional Masters level qualification, in a relevant area, are encouraged to apply.

Desirable experience, skills and attributes of the post holder would also include one or more of the following:

• Socio-technical, legal or ethical issues of information and communication technologies
• Experience of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis
• An interest in behavioural data visualisation

The position offers funding for a period of three years for research towards a PhD starting as soon as possible up to, but no later than, 1 October 2007.

The studentship covers fees and a tax-free stipend of around £17,300 in the first year, rising in future years. (Please note that qualification for this form of EPSRC award is dependent on the candidate being a UK national or a non-UK EU national having been resident in the UK for three or more years prior to appointment).

For more information on Chimera, please visit: www.essex.ac.uk/chimera/

For informal enquires, please contact Dr Ben Anderson, e-mail: benander@essex.ac.uk

Administrative contact and how to apply:
Formal applications should be made in writing to:
Mrs A Lealman
Chimera, University of Essex
pp1 Ross Building
Adastral Park
Ipswich
Suffolk

Applicants should supply a full CV, a covering letter which should explain their suitability for the studentship and a 1 page statement of their proposed research in response to the above information. References should be provided by academic staff who have known you recently and are familiar with your work. If you are completing/have completed a Masters degree please ensure that at least one of your references is from a member of staff who is teaching/has taught you during this programme.

Closing date for applications: Friday 30 March 2007