The National Institute of Public Health at [xxxxx] ([xxxxx]) is looking for applicants for a P...

Declaration of interest regarding PhD project

The National Institute of Public Health at University of Southern Denmark (SDU) is looking for applicants for a PhD scholarship within biostatistics and data science and with applications in nutritional epidemiology.

Research environment

The candidate will join the research group on geographical and register-based epidemiology, which is part of the Research Department for Health and Morbidity in the Population at the National Institute of Public Health, SDU, Copenhagen, Denmark. The research group investigates social and geographical variations in health and disease and conducts population-wide studies using national and Nordic registers. The staff members have a diverse background within statistics, epidemiology, geoinformatics, public health sciences, dentistry and nutrition, and they also teach biostatistics and epidemiology at SDU.

Project description

Weight loss trials in children are often attempting to detect relatively small benefits in the presence of relatively large and often somewhat unpredictable between-child variation. Therefore, unsurprisingly, in some cases such trials will lead to non-significant overall results even though they were designed and indeed powered to be able to detect a significant effect. However, there would be an urgent need for more insights on how to target interventions among children.

The large heterogeneity present in such trials may also provide great opportunities, as evident in the emerging field of personalized nutrition. Heterogeneity may indicate that there could be some subgroups of children that would respond much better to an intervention than other children. The big question is often how to identify these promising subgroups in an exhaustive and systematic way.

Planning studies solely with the intent to carry out subgroup analyses is challenging as anticipated subgroup effects are hardly known in advance. Moreover, considering multiple subgroups would lead to sample size requirements that render such studies extremely costly. Therefore, such studies are rare and, usually, post hoc investigations based on existing data from studies that investigated main effects. Such investigations are far from always carried out and, if carried out, they are not always conducted in a very principled or systematic way.

This aim of the project is to comprehensively and cost-effectively re-analyze data from a number of already terminated trials that investigated effects of physical activity and/or nutrition interventions on weight loss in children and that overall mostly had null findings but, at the same time, provided indications that some subgroups would be more responsive. Re-analysis may require extending and implementing existing statistical methods to address specific data structures but it will still be a much faster way to generate novel insights as compared to running trials from scratch.

The project is funded by Novo Nordisk Foundation and it covers a fully funded three-year PhD position. The PhD candidate is, however, expected to apply for own funding to cover additional costs related to staying at another research institution and costs related to conference participation.

The outlined work for the PhD project will be carried out by the PhD candidate, in collaboration with co-supervisors (to be determined) and professor Christian Ritz (main supervisor).

Qualifications

Applicants should have obtained a MSc degree within a relevant field including, but not limited to, statistics, data science, engineering, applied mathematics, epidemiology, human nutrition, and public health.

Motivated candidates with interest in applying and ideally developing statistical methodology within the field of nutrition epidemiology are encouraged to apply. Candidates should ideally have documented experience in research as well as interest in and/or hands-on experience with programming in statistical software, preferably R.

The successful applicant will join a dynamic research environment at the National Institute of Public Health and will be introduced and included in relevant discussions, projects and collaborations.

Suitable candidates will be invited for an informal interview after the application deadline.

For further information about the project please contact:

Professor Christian Ritz
National Institute of Public Health
University of Southern Denmark (SDU)
Tel.: +45 65 50 96 96

E-mail: [email protected]

Applications must include:

• At letter stating the interest, motivation and qualifications for the project (max. 2 pages) - upload under “Application form”
• Detailed CV, including personal contact information
• Certified copy of diploma (Master’s degree in a relevant field)

Applications must be submitted electronically using the link "Apply online". Attached files must be in Adobe PDF or Word format. Each box can only contain a single file of max. 10 Mb.

Incomplete applications and applications received after the deadline will neither be considered nor evaluated. This also applies to reference letters.

Closing date: November 30 2022

The successful candidate will be asked to send an application to the PhD Secretariat, Faculty of Health Sciences, to be enrolled as PhD students.

The PhD programme will be carried out in accordance with Faculty regulations and the Danish Ministerial Order on the PhD Programme at the Universities (PhD order).

The terms of employment as a salaried PhD Research Fellow are stated in the Agreement between the Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC).

The University wishes our staff to reflect the diversity of society and thus welcomes applications from all qualified candidates regardless of personal background.