2026-27 Project (Giorgakoudi & Moore)

Economic evaluation and global health – the case of small countries

SUPERVISORY TEAM

Supervisor

Dr Kyriaki Giorgakoudi at City St George’s
School of Health & Medical Sciences, Department of Population Health & Policy
Email: k.giorgakoudi@citystgeorges.ac.uk

Co-Supervisor

Dr Catrin Moore at City St George’s
School of Health & Medical Sciences, Department of Medicine
Email: camoore@citystgeorges.ac.uk

PROJECT SUMMARY

Project Summary

This PhD project offers a unique opportunity to train in economic evaluation methods and build connections with policymakers across different countries. Throughout the project you will develop both quantitative and qualitative research skills. Depending on your interests, we will select suitable health interventions or programmes from the supervisors’ portfolio of work and use economic evaluation analysis to investigate their potential introduction in small country settings. Current areas of focus within the supervisory teams include infectious diseases, vaccines, antimicrobial resistance and cancer. This project has strong potential to influence policy decisions on specific health interventions and shape how evidence is generated and applied by decision-makers across the world.

Project Key Words

Economic evaluation, Small countries, Health policy

MRC LID Themes

  1. Translational and Implementation Research
  2. Health Data Science
  3. Global Health
  4. Infectious Disease

Skills

MRC Core Skills

  1. Interdisciplinary skills
  2. Quantitative skills

Skills we expect a student to develop/acquire whilst pursuing this project:

  • Economic evaluation skills (e.g. cost-effectiveness analysis) 
  • Quantitative skills (e.g. mathematical modelling, computational model implementation)
  • Qualitative skills (e.g. qualitative interviews) Survey design 
  • Systematic review skills

Routes

Which route/s are available with this project?

  • 1+4 = Yes
  • +4 = Yes

Possible Master’s programme options identified by supervisory team for 1+4 applicants:

  • City St George’s – MSc Economic Evaluation in Health Care
  • City St George’s – MSc Health Economics and Policy
  • LSHTM – MSc Control of Infectious Diseases
  • LSHTM – MSc Health Data Science
  • LSHTM – MSc Health Policy, Planning & Financing

Full-time/Part-time Study

Is this project available for full-time study? Yes
Is this project available for part-time study? Yes

Location & Travel

Students funded through MRC LID are expected to work on site at their primary institution. At a minimum, all students must meet the institutional research degree regulations and expectations about onsite working and under this scheme they may be expected to work onsite (in-person) more frequently. Students may also be required to travel for conferences (up to 3 over the duration of the studentship), and for any required training for research degree study and training. Other travel expectations and opportunities highlighted by the supervisory team are noted below.

Day-to-day work (primary location) for the duration of this research degree project will be at: City St George’s – Clerkenwell campus, London

Travel requirements for this project: There are no specific planned site visits at this moment but depending on student interests, site visits may be planned over the course of the project.

Eligibility/Requirements

Particular prior educational requirements for a student undertaking this project

  • Minimum standard institutional eligibility criteria for doctoral study at City St George’s
  • Master’s programme in Health economics, Economic Evaluation, Mathematics, Statistics, Operational Research, Economics or related field with a strong quantitative component

Other useful information

  • Potential Industrial CASE (iCASE) conversion? = No

PROJECT IN MORE DETAIL

Scientific description of this research project

Economic evaluation assesses the costs and health benefits of new interventions and programmes, with the aim of providing policy makers with the evidence required to make informed and fair decisions. Some countries (e.g. UK) have established standards on what economic evaluation evidence is required before decisions are made. Our work in small European countries (<2 million population) shows that economic evaluation guidelines and evidence are often lacking in small country settings. In this project, we are seeking to expand our current work to study small countries globally.

Project objectives:

  • Map published economic evaluation evidence generated for small countries globally, to understand regional, country-level and health area-specific differences. 
  • Understand the attitudes, perceptions and experiences of policy makers in small countries, in relation to economic evaluation.
  • Undertake economic evaluation analysis for selected interventions and/or programmes in small country settings.

Techniques to be used:

  • Systematic literature review.
  • Survey and/or qualitative interviews with policy makers. 
  • Economic evaluation (e.g. cost effectiveness) analysis, which may include mathematical modelling.  

Confirmed availability of any required databases or specialist materials:
Case studies for economic evaluation analysis will be selected from the supervisors’ portfolio of studies. Data for analysis will be extracted from literature and will be combined with local data where these are available. To source the latter we will capitalise on the supervisors’ local links and networks, while further local links will be developed during the PhD project (e.g. see qualitative analysis component). Expert opinion will be used where data are not available, alongside sensitivity analysis to identify influential parameters for future data collection.

Potential risks to the project and plans for their mitigation:

  • The economic evaluation literature for small countries may be too extensive for a single systematic review study. If necessary, we will limit the scope of the work (e.g. one region) to mitigate this.
  • Recruiting sufficient number of policy makers could be challenging to achieve. To minimise this risk  we will reach out to policy makers through the supervisors’ networks, and we will make use of institutional networks (e.g. School of Health and Medical Sciences, Centre of Health and Care Innovation Research, Institute of Infection and Immunity), while we will also engage with stakeholders at the WHO (e.g. Small Countries Initiative).

Further reading

Relevant preprints and/or open access articles:
(DOI = Digital Object Identifier)

Other pre-application materials: A manuscript on our European small countries study is currently in preparation and a link will be shared once available.

Additional information from the supervisory team

The supervisory team has provided a recording for prospective applicants who are interested in their project. This recording should be watched before any discussions begin with the supervisory team.

Giorgakoudi & Moore Recording

MRC LID LINKS

To apply for a studentship: MRC LID How to Apply
Full list of available projects: MRC LID Projects
For more information about the DTP: MRC LID About Us

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