King’s PhD Programme in Mental Health Research for Health Professionals
WELLCOME TRUST PHD TRAINING PROGRAMME
About the Programme
Our programme will train the next generation of clinical academics in mental health research in a richly interdisciplinary training environment.
Training fellowships will be available to a wide range of health professionals including doctors, nurses, midwives, psychologists and professionals allied to healthcare across a diverse range of topics relevant to mental health science.
To enable mental health science to flourish, our PhD programme will encourage health professionals both from within and outside disciplines traditionally involved in mental health research to apply. Supervisory teams will combine clinical and non-clinical academics to ensure PhD fellows gain expertise in technical and scientific skills necessary for mental health science.
Three programmes of research will be available, representing emerging opportunities in mental health science:
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The revolution in neuroscience methods means that the brain, in health and disease, can be studied in novel ways, providing mechanistic insights from the level of genes to cellular systems and cognitive processes. These PhD fellowships will equip candidates to bridge the translational divide and bring insights from clinical studies to wet-lab research and vice versa, to develop novel treatments, biomarkers and diagnostics.
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The availability of diverse types of data, AI tools to interrogate them, and digital platforms for therapies is transforming mental health research. The programme will develop PhD fellows to navigate the challenges of innovation in digital mental health, including epidemiology and statistics, computer science, informatics and digital therapies. We emphasise excellent patient and public involvement and user experience for therapies.
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The increasing prevalence of mental health difficulties, particularly in young women, and the COVID pandemic have highlighted the unequal impacts of adversity on population mental health. The uneven distribution of some mental health difficulties and varying experiences of coercion across ethnic groups, mean that health practitioners need to be able to form a nuanced understanding of how discrimination and other forms of adversity may impact both incidence of mental health difficulties and access to and delivery of care. This PhD programme will develop clinical researchers able to better investigate these issues and inform policy and practice.
PhD Fellows will be trained in key topics to equip them to negotiate their future careers with an emphasis on generating impactful research. The training will enhance a culture which values diversity and inclusion, open and reproducible science and the critical importance of patient and public voices in research.
Leadership & Supervisors
The Programme Leadership Team (PLT) comprises a director and four co-directors, representing diverse professional and scientific disciplines including psychology (Professor R. Moss-Morris), nursing (Professor A. Simpson), psychiatry (Professor M. Hotopf, Director), social science (Professor S. Hatch) and neuroscience (Professor S. Thuret).
The PhD supervisors have also been selected from various departments across King’s campuses, for their expertise in core areas of relevance to mental health.
Collectively, the supervisor pool - comprised of health professionals and fundamental scientists - provides knowledge in translational neuroscience, digital mental health and social science and policy. Our supervisors are fully committed to fostering a positive research culture and have all signed the IoPPN Code of Conduct, which highlights our zero tolerance of bullying and harassment, and our commitment to fairness.
KCL Wellcome PhD announcement on the Mental Elf Podcast (September 2021).
Cohort 2025
The applications for October 2025 entry are now open.
Human hippocampal granule neurons by Thomas Berger, Thuret Lab.
Students of this programme will have access to King’s world class resources
Image by @Michael Crabtree
Students enrolled in this programme will join King's Health Partners (KHP), an Academic Health Science Centre where world-class research, education and clinical practice are brought together for the benefit of patients. KHP comprises King's College London and three of London’s largest hospital trusts, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.
Since its founding, KHP has recognised the importance of joining up mental and physical healthcare. We welcome healthcare professionals from outside of mental healthcare (e.g. physicians or general nurses) to conduct PhDs which integrate mental health and physical healthcare. The close relationship between the university and NHS partners means we understand the particular challenges faced by clinicians taking on research and we can provide opportunities to maintain clinical skills alongside PhD study.
The projects will be hosted by world-renowned scientists, including clinical academics, with access to a large range of resources including:
State-of-the-art laboratories and access to cutting-edge equipment supporting genetics, molecular and cellular biology, induced pluripotent stem cells, animal models of disease (access to the new King’s Genome Editing and Embryology Core (GEEC) Facility), advanced microscopy at both the Wohl Cellular Imaging Centre and the Nikon Imaging Centre, pre-clinical/rodent imaging, human PET and MRI imaging functional, EEG and pharmacological MRI at the NIHR-Wellcome King's Clinical Research Facility (CRF).
Experimental medicine and clinical translational facilities, supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at the Maudsley and including extensive human neuroimaging and electrophysiology, the NIHR-Wellcome King’s Clinical Research Facility; and the NIHR BioResource, and extensive clinical trials infrastructure.
Expertise and facilities in data science including computer science and AI, bio- and clinical-informatics, statistics, health economics, and epidemiology. Use of clinical data resources including electronic health records through the Clinical Record Interactive Search system (CRIS), and CogStack, and expertise in mobile health and remote sensing through our Centre for Translational Informatics.
Infrastructure to create digital therapies including laboratories (e.g eye tracking, virtual reality) to research mechanisms underlying various emotional states and psychiatric symptoms, support for co-design and patient and public involvement, regulatory and engineering support and industry partnerships.
Key interdisciplinary social science and policy infrastructures including the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health (CSMH), NIHR Mental Health Policy Research Unit (joint with UCL), NIHR Applied Research Centre (ARC) South London allowing for access to local and national quantitative datasets including the UK birth cohorts and the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey. Work in this area is supported by King’s Policy Institute which links researchers to policy makers and qualitative research support from the Qualitative Applied Health Research Centre (QUAHRC) etc.
Links to social media and our partners
King’s Clinical Academic Training Office
The King’s Clinical Academic Training Office (KCATO) will support Health Professionals engaged in research at King's.
View the Clinical Academic Training Office website and connect with KCATO on LinkedIn at follow @Kings_CATO on X to learn more.
King’s Health Sciences Doctoral Training Centre
The Health Sciences Doctoral Training Centre (HSDTC) supports postgraduate researchers in the four health faculties at King’s.
Follow the HSDTC on X: @Kings_HSDTC
King’s Centre for Doctoral Studies
The King’s Doctoral College (KDC) provides training and development opportunities across eight key themes, as well as on-demand training.