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BHF Studentships

British Heart Foundation – National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI)

BHF CRE4 PhD Studentships

We are pleased to announce two full-time 3-year PhD studentships starting October 2026.

One studentship will be offered jointly with the National Institute of Health and Research (NIHR) Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) cardiovascular section. Candidates applying for this position should have a basic knowledge of vascular and lung biology.

Another studentship will be offer jointly with Imperial School of Public Health (SPH). Successful student will work on cardiovascular molecular epidemiology and experience in quantitative data analysis, and managing large datasets is required.

The successful students will have the opportunity to work in state-of-the-art facilities within a highly developed research environment where our ambition is to translate research findings to help those with cardiovascular diseases. Students will join a well-established doctoral training program with bespoke teaching activities, seminars, mentors, workshops and social activities. The quality of training in research and transferable skills offered by our Graduate School has been recognised several times at the Times Higher Education (THE) Awards.

The studentships will cover:

Home fees only. Overseas students need to cover the fee difference themselves or from a different source.
Stipend will be on a BHF rate
Consumables and a small travel allowance

Applicant Requirements

Applicants must:

For BRC co-funded studentship: hold a first or upper second-class UK Bachelor’s degree (or overseas equivalent) in an appropriate subject from a recognised academic institution or a recognised Master’s degree in a relevant subject.
For SPH co-funded studentship: hold a first or upper second-class UK Bachelor’s degree (or overseas equivalent) or Master’s degree in epidemiology, public health, health data analytics, health geography, biostatistics, biomedical sciences or similar subject from a recognised academic institution.
Satisfy Imperial College and English language requirements.
Strong communication and interpersonal skills
Ability to conduct a detailed review of recent literature
Willingness to undertake any necessary training for the role

How to Apply

To apply, please email Dr Magdalena Zak (m.zak1@imperial.ac.uk) with the following documents:

Your CV
The names and addresses of at least two academic referees.
A personal statement of no more than 1,000 words explaining your interest in pursuing PhD in cardiovascular research and what makes you a good candidate.
Please ensure that you specify your degree classification for your undergraduate and postgraduate degrees (and attach scanned copies of your certificates if possible).

Selected candidates will be invited for an interview. Please assume that your application has not been successful if you have not heard from us within a month of the closing date.

Closing date for all applications: 31 March 2026

Interviews will be held mid-April.

Upon successful interview, the student will be offered a choice of available projects, allowing alignment with both the candidate’s interests and the strategic objectives of the programme.

BHF-Doctoral Training Programme (DTP) at National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI)

The BHF-Doctoral Training Programme (DTP) at National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI) has been extremely successful and is now on its 5^th Scheme. The Programme is led by Professor Jane Mitchell, Professor Allan Lawrie, Professor Peter Weinberg and a committee of Principal Investigators (PIs) as well as being supported by the BHF Centre Manager, Mrs Jaya Rajamanie.

The majority of the committee are current BHF Programme/Chair holders and/or have a track-record of major BHF or UKRI support. Professor Mitchell has an outstanding, award-winning background in Postgraduate Studies and has been Director for Postgraduate Studies (DPS) at NHLI. Professor Mitchell heads NHLI’s Cardiovascular Division. Professor Weinberg (Faculty of Engineering) brings supervisory experience from the cross-disciplinary PhD scheme embedded within the BHF Centres of Excellence from 2008-2018.

The programme retains the best elements of our current BHF-DTP and benefits from a number of significant new innovations around multidisciplinary project selection and student supervision/experience. The programme includes projects that addresses only the timeliest of research questions and only those with strong translational potential. Projects will be selected across all cardiovascular areas and embrace the partnering of crosscutting technologies and approaches, including Bioengineering, Chemistry and Data Sciences. This together with our core elements will equip our students with a world-class training in research and a breadth of transferable skills.

Benefits of the programme

In taking advantage of all areas of science and technology, this programme benefits Imperial by providing a dynamic platform for translation of research and innovation generated within the University. Additional benefits include provision of highly prestigious, well-funded PhD packages attracting the brightest of students, with realistic consumable budgets allowing for achievable and novel research outcomes. Finally, the programme benefits Imperial because it will operate within a framework of best practice in postgraduate teaching: where innovations in cohort building and research culture are established and shared, with other DTPs within the College.

Our programme benefits the BHF because it will align directly to their mission statement by focusing projects on current, pioneering, and translatable research programmes with interdisciplinary approaches. The programme will also build capacity within other major BHF investments within NHLI and deliver new insights, treatments, therapeutic targets and/or devices for the benefit of those with cardiovascular disease.

Supervision

Supervisors will come together from different groups/disciplines to form, applications judged according to criterial in line with the BHF’s mission statement. Top scoring projects will be awarded. Click here to see a list of current BHF Approved list of Supervisors, Imperial

Projects

A breath of projects which have been offered through the Programme:

2021

Therapeutic potential of targeting the Rgl1 pathway, a novel transducer of vascular inflammation and atherogenesis - supervised by Dr Nick Kirkby, Professor Jane Mitchell

Synthesis and Efficacy of a New Class of Hydrophobic Haemostatic Medical Devices - supervised by Dr Choon H Yap, Dr Mike Emerson

2022

Minimally invasive delivery of cardiac cells via heart-adhesive and injectable shape-memory patches – supervised by Professor Molly Stevens & Professor Cesare Terracciano

Investigation of the role of alterations in zinc homeostasis in the pathogenesis and treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension – supervised by Professor Lan Zhao, Professor Julia Gorelik and Professor Martin Wilkins

Investigating blood brain vascular dysfunction in dementia - supervised by Dr Dave Carling & Dr William Scott

Development and optimization of 3D SRUS for myocardial imaging through the development of non-rigid registration, localization and tracking techniques - Professor Mengxing Tang & Professor Fu Siong Ng

2023

Flexible polymeric pacemaker leads - Professor Rylie Green, Dr Fu Siong Ng, Dr Joseph Goding

Oxidised LDL antibodies and their humanised fragments for the treatment of atherosclerosis: From in vitro mechanistic studies to in vivo functional molecular imaging - Professor Ramzi Khamis, Professor Jane Mitchell, Professor Dorian Haskard

The contribution of ERG noncoding variants to primary lymphoedema - Dr Graeme Birdsey, Dr Ines Cebola

Epicardial adipose tissue as a mediator of cardiac arrhythmias - Dr Fu Siong Ng, Dr William Scott, Professor Prakash Punjabi

2024

Developing a modRNA approach to endothelial dysfunction by restoring levels and function of the master transcription factor ERG - Professor Anna Randi, Dr Asha Patel, Dr Graeme Birdsey

Novel platform for the detection of circulating biomarkers of heart failure - Professor Julia Gorelik, Professor Joshua Edel, Dr Fu Siong Ng

Defining genotype-specific and shared druggable targets in dilated cardiomyopathies -Dr Michela Noseda, Professor Julia Gorelik, Dr T Rashid

The Virtual Female Heart - Professor Steve Niederer, Professor Declan O’Regan

BHF Student Annual Symposium

Students in their MRes/First year of the programme organize the annual symposium and usually tend to attract exceptionally good speakers covering timely and current topics.

In 2022, the student’s symposium title was ‘MiS(S)DIAGNOSED - Why Sex Matters in Cardiovascular Diseases, 27 September 2022’.

The title of the Student Symposium in 2023 was: HEART OF ETHICS - Tracing Cardiovascular Ethics through Time and Innovation, Thursday 28 September 2023.

In 2024, the student symposium focussed on - A Journey into Patient Engagement in Cardiovascular Disease and was held on Thursday 26 September 2024.

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