Video: Miguel Vasconcelos Da Silva (PhD student) - Identifying genetic markers in apathy in people with dementia.
Video: PhD student, Sue Dyson, describes her research into vascular dementia.
PhD training
To tackle the global challenge of dementia, high-quality PhD training is an urgent priority to ensure the next generation of researchers is equipped with the skills to make a real impact worldwide.
At the University of Exeter, we invest in outstanding skills, facilities and support to ensure our PhD students gain first-class experience to equip them to excel in their careers.
At Exeter we have strengths across a range of research, from state-of-the-art laboratory research discovering how and why dementia develops to working in the community on how to ensure the best quality of life for people with dementia.
Our PhD students are supervised by world-leaders in their field. Many work on cutting-edge equipment and across large cohorts, and others are working directly with people in dementia and carers to improve lives. As they develop their skills, they are contributing to knowledge about dementia worldwide.
Training Centres
The Alzheimer’s Society Exeter Doctoral Training Centre brings together psychologists, geneticists, mathematicians, cell biologists and neuroscientists to investigate how dysfunctional brain networks develop and contribute to the symptoms and progressive functional decline in dementia.
The Centre supports eight PhD students to investigate the effect of dementia on the brain’s neural networks.
The NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care South West Peninsula (PenCLAHRC) supports a programme of work on the topic of dementia and dementia care. This programme aims to enhance the experience of care, to improve health outcomes, and to reduce unnecessary costs for patients with dementia and their carers.
Additional NIHR funding supports another four PhD fellows exclusively from nursing and allied healthcare backgrounds, under the NIHR Research Capacity in Dementia Care Pilot Programme (RCDCP). Visit the PenCLAHRC website for full details.
Our Centre for Research in Ageing and Cognitive Health (REACH) offers doctoral research training (subject to funding) across the themes of maintaining cognitive health in later life, living well with cognitive impairment and dementia, and supporting family care. Visit the REACH website for details.
Exeter is a key partner in the GW4 alliance of research-intensive universities, alongside Cardiff, Bristol and Bath.
GW4 hosts 30 externally-funded Doctoral Training Centres and partnerships, in which Exeter plays a major role. They include the Wellcome Trust GW4 Clinical Academic Training Programme and the MRC GW4 BioMed Doctoral Training Partnership. Both these partnerships bring together combined expertise and facilities to offer world-class PhD training in dementia in the South West of England.
Video: Olga Borejko (PhD student) - links between Alzheimer's disease pathology and Lewy Body dementia.