EPSRC DLA Studentship in the Interaction between AI Technology Innovation and AI Regulation in the Healthcare Sector

We are offering an EPSRC DLA studentship with the Department of Computer Science, focusing on the regulation of AI as a medical device.

The research project aims to address critical regulatory challenges posed by the rapid advancement of AI technologies in healthcare.

We invite interested candidates to apply by 12pm (UK time) on Friday, 7 March 2025.

Project description

AI as a Medical Device regulation must keep up with technical innovation. There are already many questions that need to be answered about existing AI approaches including:

  • How updating models impacts regulatory approval
  • What are the requirements for trustworthy explanation in medical decision-making by AI
  • How can confidence in decisions be reliably reported

This project aims to tackle these issues through a combination of empirical computational analyses, along with human / AI interaction methods.

Eligibility

Essential:

  • Solid background in computing and in particular data science, machine learning and AI.
  • Experience in working with medical datasets
  • Understanding of challenging of integrating and adopting AI solution in the NHS

Desirable:

  • Some exposure to regulation of AI

The studentship will be for a period of 42 months , starting 1 April 2025. You will receive an annual stipend of £21237, which includes an inner London weighting allowance, plus payment of your full-time home or EU tuition fee. You must be eligible for Home/EU tuition fees either through nationality, residency or other connection to the UK.

How to apply

Please email the documents listed below to cedps-pgr-office@brunel.ac.uk by 12pm on Friday 7th March.

  1. Your up-to-date CV
  2. A 300 to 500-word personal statement setting out why you are a suitable candidate, i.e. your skills and experience
  3. Your degree certificates and transcripts (translated into English, if appropriate)
  4. Evidence of English language skills to an overall score of IELTS 6.5 (or equivalent), if appropriate
  5. Name and contact details for two referees, one of which must be an academic referee

Meet the Supervisor(s)

Allan Tucker - Allan Tucker is Professor of Artificial Intelligence in the Department of Computer Science where he heads the Intelligent Data Analysis Group consisting of 17 academic staff, 15 PhD students and 4 post-docs. He has been researching Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics for 21 years and has published 120 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers on data modelling and analysis. His research work includes long-term projects with Moorfields Eye Hospital where he has been developing pseudo-time models of eye disease (EPSRC - £320k) and with DEFRA on modelling fish population dynamics using state space and Bayesian techniques (NERC - £80k). Currently, he has projects with Google, the University of Pavia Italy, the Royal Free Hospital, UCL, Zoological Society of London and the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. He was academic lead on an Innovate UK, Regulators’ Pioneer Fund (£740k) with the Medical and Health Regulatory Authority on benchmarking AI apps for the NHS, and another on detecting significant changes in Adaptive AI Models of Healthcare (£195k). He is currently academic lead on two Pioneer Funds on Explainability of AI (£168k) and In-Silico Trials (£750k). He serves regularly on the PC of the top AI conferences (including IJCAI, AAAI, and ECML) and is on the editorial board for the Journal of Biomedical Informatics. He hosted a special track on "Explainable AI" at the IEEE conference on Computer Based Medical Systems in 2019 and was general chair for AI in Medicine 2021. He has been widely consulted on the ethical and practical implications of AI in health and medical research by the NHS, and the use of machine learning for modelling fisheries data by numerous government thinktanks and academia.
Gabriella Spinelli - Dr Spinelli researches and explores resilience as the outcome of the interplay between technology, health and wellbeing, and communities. With a background in Computer Science and Information Systems, she analyses, evaluates, and redesigns complex systems and products from technology platforms enabling civic participation and community development to medical products to improve care outcomes, patients’ experience, and sustainable healthcare. Through a socio-technical approach Dr Spinelli focuses on the development of innovative technology and products that are intuitive and effective by supporting people in representing, and processing information, to make decisions and execute tasks. She is an international expert in participatory design engineering methods that enable consensus creation early in the innovation cycle, leading to design interventions that are understood, supported by shared values and more likely to be adopted. She has delivered against large multidisciplinary projects funded by several UK and international research councils, adopting a people-centred ethos to ensure research integrity and inclusion. In 2016, together with late Professor Heinz Wolff, she funded Give and Take Care, a Community Interest Company that received in excess of £1M funds to rethink social care models in communities.  Dr Spinelli teaches Human Factors, and she leads a collaborative design engineering programme, Design for Health and Wellbeing, with the NHS. This programme has generated more than 60 new clinical products that have attracted awards, grants and investments. Dr Spinelli has several responsibilities outside the University. She is a member of Home Office Scientific Advisory Council (HOSAC), a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine ( FRSM) and of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA), and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).