FULLY FUNNDED PhD - Development and Scale-Up of a Co-Designed Integrated Rehabilitation Framework for Addressing Multimorbidity in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

About the Project

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Applications are now open for a unique studentship opportunity based in Bangladesh. ACROSS (Affordable Cardiac Rehabilitation: An Outreach Inter-disciplinary Strategic Study) aims to develop a culturally adapted and affordable home-based rehabilitation programme for people with multiple long term health conditions including heart disease and anxiety/depression. We aim to evaluate the acceptability, clinical effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of the programme’s implementation in Bangladesh and Pakistan to determine its scalability and sustainability.

We are looking to recruit an outstanding student to undertake a fully funded, full-time 3-year PhD project focussed on rehabilitation interventions supporting patients with multimorbidity. Applicants should be fluent English speakers who have either completed or are close to completing a Masters degree and must either already be resident in Bangladesh or prepared to live there for the duration of the project.

Three primary goals are intended to be achieved by this PhD project. First, it will scaleup the integrated rehabilitation services framework that was created especially for low-resource environments to involve patients and health care professionals, medical experts and or researchers in collaboration to find areas for improvement and then a feasibility randomised clinical trial (RCT) of these integrated rehabilitation services. This research project will be based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a city with a mix of high and extremely low resource settings but a dearth of comprehensive rehabilitation services. Three linked studies will be involved in this project. The first will be a systematic review of RCTs that examine integrated or standalone rehabilitation therapies for patients with noncommunicable diseases in low-resource settings. Second, to determine whether integrated NCD rehabilitation is feasible and acceptable, and lastly, to perform feasibility RCT.

The successful student will become a member of the Global ACROSS programme and also NIHR faculty, offering a broad spectrum of training activities and networking opportunities. In addition to academic supervision and host University support, you will be supported by training materials available through the ACROSS training hub and the research consortium. This virtual hub will include an online space for PhD students to regularly interact and to engage in training webinars provided by ACROSS team members and other topic experts.

You will be encouraged to join relevant ACROSS working groups, where you will have the opportunity to work with early career and senior academic staff from relevant and complementary research and clinical fields. We will also provide a series of grant writing workshops to further prepare students for their future academic careers. Furthermore, you will have the opportunity to collaborate with relevant research initiatives including the MRC-NIHR Trials Methodology Research Partnership.

Matriculation will be with the University of Glasgow however the successful applicant will be based at our host institution, Bangladesh University of Health Sciences (BUHS). The studentships are fully funded, university registration fees are covered, and stipend payments will be provided at the applicable local rate.

For more information, please contact global-across@glasgow.ac.uk.

Additional documents to upload:

• Personal statement outlining why you feel you would be a suitable candidate for the ACROSS PhD programme (maximum 4000 characters including spaces)
• Evidence of the highest-level English language qualification you have achieved (only required if you are not a native English speaker)
• List of any academic publications
• Details of 2 personal references we can contact

Funding Notes

Open to all students, but students need to be based in Bangladesh for duration of the project. International tuition fees covered. Stipends will be paid by our partner university in Bangladesh. £3,800 per year (approximately 227,258 Bangladeshi Taka). Project start: January 2027.