5 Fully Funded PhD Opportunities at Queen’s University Belfast, UK — 2026
Queen’s University Belfast is offering several fully funded PhD opportunities covering data science, complex-system certification, artificial intelligence, supply-chain resilience, and biological reasoning.
Data-Driven Decisions: Transforming Urgent Care Patient Outcomes and Resource Allocation for the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service
This PhD project focuses on improving urgent-care outcomes and resource allocation for the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS), which serves a diverse region of approximately 1.9 million people through 46 stations covering 5,345 square miles.
The project will address the increasing demand for ambulance services, with two main objectives: developing a model to predict patient outcomes and deterioration rates from 999 calls, and determining an optimal deployment strategy for a new Advanced Paramedic (APUC) service.
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Frameworks & Governance for the Certification by Analysis of Complex Systems
This interdisciplinary PhD project examines how Certification by Analysis (CbA) can be used to improve the certification of complex systems.
The research will begin with a review of current standards, industrial practices, certification approaches, technologies, and frameworks. The student will then conduct a gap analysis and develop requirements for implementing and assessing a CbA approach.
The project will include at least two potential case studies in which modelling and simulation approaches will be benchmarked against physical testing. Key research issues include Trust, Verification and Validation (V&V), and Uncertainty Quantification (UQ).
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Certification by Analysis of Complex Systems: Modelling and Simulation Approach
Traditional certification of complex systems often relies on physical testing of finished products. Although effective, physical testing can be expensive and time-consuming.
This PhD project investigates whether advances in modelling and simulation (M&S) can support Certification by Analysis as an alternative or complement to physical testing.
The ultimate goal is to explore whether simulation-based certification can provide higher confidence while potentially reducing costs and shortening certification lead times without compromising safety and quality.
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AI Enabled Supply Chain Resilience in Food Manufacturing
This PhD offers the opportunity to address a real-world industrial challenge involving supply-chain resilience in food manufacturing.
The student will work with complex industrial datasets and collaborate with supply-chain and technical specialists while developing advanced skills in AI, data science, and risk modelling.
The project is part of a BBSRC-Food Consortium Collaborative Training Partnership (CTP) involving Campden BRI. In addition to doctoral research, the programme includes cohort-based training, an industry placement, innovation and entrepreneurship training, and opportunities to develop commercialisation skills.
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Learning Explicit, Evidence-Aware Knowledge Models from Large Language Models for Biological Reasoning and Discovery
This PhD project investigates how knowledge recovered from a trained Large Language Model (LLM) can be transformed into an explicit, structured, and scientifically grounded biological knowledge model.
The research will develop methods for representing biological concepts, relationships, mechanisms, and application-specific information such as sequence motifs, protein domains, structural characteristics, genomic context, pathways, and clinical observations.
Building on this knowledge model, the project will investigate explanatory hypothesis discovery using deductive, abductive, similarity-based, and analogical reasoning. Generated hypotheses will include their rationale, supporting and conflicting evidence, uncertainty, epistemic status, and testable implications.
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