Fully Funded PhD studentship at UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL

 



UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL Economic and Social Research Council Geographic Data Science Lab

Fully Funded PhD studentship

Safeguarding urban communities: Using data science to determine the impact of the spatial structure of urban activities and residential segregation on the spreading of infectious diseases

Project Description

This project aims to determine the role of the spatial structure of urban activities and spatial socioeconomic segregation on the speed and geography of infectious disease spreading across socioeconomic groups. The research involves a partnership with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), and will seek to learn lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic for future health crises, drawing on Second Generation Surveillance System and Respiratory DataMart data. Specifically, the project seeks to:

⚫ Determine the extent to which differences in the spatial structure of urban activities shape the rate of disease transmission;

⚫ Assess how different configurations of the spatial structure of urban activities relate to variations in local levels of socioeconomic segregation;

⚫ Evaluate differences in the effects of nonphamaceuthical interventions on contagion expo- sure across different socioeconomic groups as a function of the spatial structure of urban activities and socioeconomic segregation.

Skill requirements:

The project requires the following essential quantitative data science skills, including the capac- ity to analyse spatial data and / or infections data, GIS, and coding skills in R and / or Python. Desirable skills include knowledge and experience using machine learning, network analysis and simulation methods; the use of GPS mobile phone data; and, experience in writing research aca- demic articles.