PhD scholarship: Evaluating and improving drug checking services in Australia

Drug checking (a.k.a. pill testing) services (DCS) provide members of the public the opportunity to submit substances of concern for chemical analysis and get the results back alongside a tailored health intervention. While new in Australia, DCS have been established for 50+ years in 30+ countries. But there is still much we don't know. Knowledge gaps include: (1) their medium-to-long-term effectiveness, (2) the effects of the public outputs of DCS, (3) how best to leverage community experiences of toxic drug outbreaks, and (4) how best to reach diverse groups. A PhD candidate is sought to lead a research project to address one or more of these knowledge gaps, supervised by Dr Monica Barratt, who leads a research program focused on emerging drug market trends. Dr Barratt is partnered with The Loop Australia, offering access to service-level data and internship possibilities. The candidate may have an academic background in qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods approaches to research. People with living or lived experience of substance use and/or who have worked with people who use drugs are encouraged to apply.