Vaccine hesitancy is a complex, time-varying problem leading to suboptimal vaccination coverage for individuals, groups and populations. In turn, this has serious consequences for individuals and populations – as seen with avoidable COVID-19 deaths among the unvaccinated, and with the reemergence of measles outbreaks. Yet most public health services do not adapt their vaccination programmes according to data on how people may behave in response to different approaches to outreach.

This PhD project will use state-of-the-art modelling approaches to understand public behaviours around vaccination and the epidemiological consequences. We will also consider how artificial intelligence (AI) – for example voice-based conversational agents for interacting with public services – might be harnessed to optimise vaccination outreach to individuals and communities. Using a mixture of real-world and realistic synthetic data, the student will develop new models that bridge infectious disease dynamics, epidemiology, and social science.

Example questions include:
• How can pathogen, epidemiological, behavioural and wider social (e.g. consumer) data be combined to target vaccination and how the offer is communicated to specific groups?
• Should the identified groups be targeted differently in preventive vs responsive vaccination programmes?
• How do interventions seeking to reduce vaccine hesitancy impact wider healthcare utilisation?
• How can AI increasingly used for marketing and access to public services be harnessed to improve vaccination uptake?

This is an exciting opportunity to work with a world leading team delivering research that is relevant to public health in the UK. This PhD opportunity is funded by the National Institute for Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections (EZI). The successful candidate will therefore join the NIHR HPRU-EZI, a partnership between the University of Liverpool, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), University of Oxford, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and UKHSA, in collaboration with University of Glasgow.

HPRU-EZI has been running since 2014, supporting and strengthening UKHSA in its role protecting England from emerging infections and zoonoses (i.e. those which spread from animals to humans). HPRU-EZI has played significant roles in UK response to Ebola, Zika, COVID-19 and mpox. For further details please see our brochure and our website: http://hpruezi.nihr.ac.uk/media/artlflhc/hpru-ezi-brochure.pdf; http://hpruezi.nihr.ac.uk/.

Qualifications: Applicants must hold, in a relevant STEM subject, either a first-class honours degree, a distinction at master level, or equivalent achievements. The project will suit students with an interest in developing and implementing quantitative modelling of real-word systems, performing data analysis and working as part of an interdisciplinary team. A background in programming (such as R, Python, Julia) would be advantageous, along with a keen desire to develop those skills.

Funding support: This PhD opportunity is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections (EZI). This studentship will be for a maximum of 3.5 years duration. The studentship includes tuition fees at the UK/home rate, stipend and research-related travel. The stipend amount is aligned with UK Research and Innovation rates . For the academic year 2025-2026, the rate of the UKRI Stipend is £20,780 per annum (tax free).

Start date: Between 01 October 2025 to 31 March 2026 (inclusive).

Application: Formal applications are to be made on the University of Liverpool Application Portal. For informal enquiries about the PhD project, prospective applicants are encouraged to contact the primary supervisor, Dr Edward Hill - Edward.Hill@liverpool.ac.uk, prior to preparation of an application to discuss the fit of the project with your background and qualifications.