Wessex One Health BBSRC scholarship: How does norovirus spread within care homes and what are the transmission links between care and acute healthcare settings?

This project is offered as part of a doctoral programme funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council (BBSRC) which will train postgraduate researchers in interdisciplinary approaches to Infection Biosciences across all classes of pathogens, to combat existing and future disease threats to human and animal health, including emerging infections, vector-borne diseases, antimicrobial resistance and food insecurity. The PhD studentship covers four years of UK or International PhD fees and a tax-free maintenance allowance plus some research and travel costs. The specific project focuses on norovirus transmission in care homes and healthcare settings, using wastewater sampling and clinical data to enhance surveillance and preparedness. The research will measure norovirus levels in environmental, stool and wastewater samples, compare temporal variations to explore representativeness of wastewater for clinical infection, compare care-home and local clinical norovirus isolates to identify transmission between settings, and describe associations of norovirus detections with infection outcomes through data linkage to routine health data.