PhD scholarship in Mathematical Modeling for Health Policy

Are you interested in research in cutting edge modeling techniques addressing urgent questions in health? Are you interested in quantitative methods that can be applied to relevant policy questions?

This position involves a unique opportunity to work at the intersection of policy relevant questions and mathematical modeling methods to answer some of the following questions: How can we develop multi-disease models to quantify overall health outcomes? What interventions in and out of the healthcare system improve outcomes for multiple diseases?

The Department of Technology, Management and Economics at Technical University of Denmark invites applications for a 3-year PhD position in disease modeling and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis starting in February 2027 or as soon as possible thereafter. The PhD student will be part of the Management Science Division and affiliated with the Operations & Supply Chain Management Section.

The project will include:

• Developing multiple models for cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, and stroke and integrating them into one model
• Estimating the health effects and costs of non-healthcare interventions that prevent metabolic disease over the next 20 years in Denmark
• Conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis
• Develop methods to improve modeling of multiple diseases

Copenhagen — ranked the world's most livable city — offers a safe, sustainable urban environment, a rich cultural scene, and an enviable work-life balance. As part of DTU Management, you'll combine this quality of life with a dynamic, interdisciplinary research setting at one of Europe's leading technical universities.

Responsibilities and qualifications

You will work with academics and healthcare professionals to develop modelling methods to improve health policy modeling and assessment. As a PhD student, you will:

• Be responsible for conducting your own research project
• Contribute to new knowledge about health policy modeling
• Strive to publish your work worldwide in recognised journals
• Collaborate with researchers from the Management Science Division
• Present your work at international conferences and seminars
• Assist in teaching and co-supervise engineering students with their thesis work
• Take classes equivalent to 30 ECTS over the PhD project period

All interested candidates irrespective of age, gender, disability, race, religion or ethnic background are encouraged to apply. As DTU works with research in critical technology, which is subject to special rules for security and export control, open-source background checks may be conducted on qualified candidates for the position.

The PhD scholarship is a full-time position allowing you to become a research scientist and benefit from the academic activities at the department. The yearly salary is internationally highly competitive. Department duty work (teaching) is very limited, allowing you to focus on your PhD project.

The PhD project will be supervised by Assistant Professor Anneke Claypool and co-supervised by Professor Martin Utley and the candidates for the PhD position will be assessed on the following criteria:

• Profound knowledge in Operations Research and Management Science and/or disease modeling
• Knowledge in and practical experiences with programming (e.g., Python, Java, Julia, R, etc.)
• Knowledge in healthcare operations management, health policy modeling, cost-effectiveness analysis, health economic assessment, and related fields

We seek to recruit a PhD student with experience in simulation modeling, an interest in health policy, and a background in management science, operations research, computer science, applied mathematics, quantitative health policy, epidemiology, or a related field.

You must have a two-year master's degree (120 ECTS points) or a similar degree with an academic level equivalent to a two-year master's degree.

Approval and Enrolment

The scholarship for the PhD degree is subject to academic approval, and the candidate will be enrolled in one of the general degree programmes at DTU. For information about our enrolment requirements and the general planning of the PhD study programme, please see DTU's rules for the PhD education.

We offer

DTU is a leading technical university globally recognized for the excellence of its research, education, innovation and scientific advice. We offer a rewarding and challenging job in an international environment. We strive for academic excellence in an environment characterized by collegial respect and academic freedom tempered by responsibility.

Salary and appointment terms

The appointment will be based on the collective agreement with the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations. Please see DTU’s salary structur