Collaborate with tech4health

Training & Development

The Tech4Health programme is unique in that it offers a foundational training year prior to each PhD student commencing their research project. Training offered equips researchers with the technical, professional, and interdisciplinary skills needed to lead innovation in healthcare.

Our training areas include:

• Patient and public involvement, engagement, and impact

• Ethics and responsible innovation in healthcare

• Technical skills (e.g. MATLAB and computational methods)

• Product management and commercialisation pathways

• UX and user-centred design for healthcare solutions

• Data visualisation, storytelling, and communication

• Scientific analysis and critical evaluation

• Innovation, regulation, and risk in medical devices

Partner with Us on Training

We welcome organisations to contribute to our training programme through workshops, short courses, or specialist sessions. By getting involved, you can help shape the skills and mindset of future talent, highlight your organisation’s work and achievements, share practical expertise with real-world challenges and build valuable relationships with potential future collaborators and recruits.

Interested in training provision?

Whether you can offer a single workshop, a short training series, or specialist insight, we would love to hear from you.

Each year, we host a programme of guest seminars delivered by industry leaders, innovators, and researchers. These sessions provide PhD researchers with real-world insight while giving organisations the opportunity to share their work and thought leadership in digital health.

Recent seminars include:

• Amber Vodegel (Investor, Founder & CEO, 28X Ltd) – “Rebuilding Trust in Consumer Health: A New Systems Blueprint for Safe, Private, On-Device AI in Health”

• Saaema Ahmed-Kristenson (Professor of Design Engineering, UCL) – “Digital Technology, People and Design: AI, big data to innovate and address stakeholders needs”

• Professor Stephen Farry (Professor of Strategic Policy in Practice, Ulster University; former Minister for Employment and Learning and MP for North Down, with a PhD in International Relations from Queen’s University Belfast) discussion on Ulster’s Strategic Policy Unit

Delivering a guest seminar offers a valuable opportunity to raise visibility, share expertise, and engage directly with highly skilled doctoral researchers.

Interested in contributing a seminar?
Get in touch to discuss how your expertise could shape the future of digital healthcare.

Our mini research projects offer a flexible, short-term opportunity for collaboration, running over approximately two months (February time) and requiring around 75 hours of student effort. These projects can span the full breadth of research within the CDT, from focused coding challenges to applied health data research questions, and are developed in partnership with organisations.

By getting involved, partners can explore new ideas, gain fresh insight into specific challenges, and engage early with doctoral researchers in a low-commitment, high-impact way.

A core component of the Tech4Health CDT is our industry and clinical secondment programme which occurs during the first year. Each PhD student undertakes a ~3-month placement during the Summer with one of our partners, providing a valuable opportunity to gain first-hand experience of real-world healthcare or industry environments, user needs, and innovation challenges. Secondments enable organisations to engage directly with doctoral researchers, contribute to focused project work, and help shape the development of future talent while addressing relevant research questions.

Sponsoring a PhD studentship offers organisations the opportunity to invest in the next generation of healthcare innovators while contributing to meaningful research.

In collaboration with university supervisors, organisations can help shape research projects aligned with industry needs and priorities. If your organisation has a research question or a challenge you are facing, we have options to co-fund a PhD to support in-depth investigation and long-term innovation.

Monetary contributions provide financial support to the PhD candidate throughout their research, while also enabling organisations to build strong connections with emerging talent and engage with impactful work in digital health.

The CDT aims to ensure its training programme reflects current industry, clinical, and societal needs, and therefore welcomes involvement from external stakeholders, including industry, healthcare, and charity partners, through sub-committee membership.

Participating organisations can contribute professional insight, help shape the direction and content of training, and ensure it remains relevant to real-world challenges in digital health. This offers a valuable opportunity to influence the development of future talent, share expertise, and stay connected to emerging research and innovation.

Engagement at this level also supports the exchange of knowledge between academia, industry, and the wider health and care community, strengthening collaboration and helping to bridge the gap between research and practice.

The CDT hosts a range of events throughout the academic year, bringing together partners from academia, industry, healthcare, and the third sector.

Our annual conference, typically held in November, is a key highlight, offering opportunities to connect with PhD researchers, collaborators, and leaders in digital health, and to engage with the latest research and innovation.

For more details on upcoming events, including our annual conference, please visit the conference section of our website or get in touch to join our mailing list.