PhD Projects overview

VIVACE, an EU-financed Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) Doctoral Training Network, is recruiting 13 PhD students to train the next generation of scientists and improve the management of avian influenza virus in the context of vaccination.

Historically, outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIV) in Europe were rare and geographically contained. However the situation has dramatically changed in recent years, with thousands of outbreaks reported in domestic poultry and wild birds. Vaccination of poultry against avian influenza, which was previously prohibited in the European Union (EU) due to trade restrictions, is now being seriously considered. It is increasingly clear that traditional prevention and control strategies alone are insufficient to stop the escalating pace of HPAIV epidemics. However, vaccinating poultry presents significant challenges.

The project VIVACE, gathering 15 leading universities and research institutes, along with 5 private companies, in an ambitious doctoral network aimed at integrating poultry vaccination strategies into effective HPAIV management.

This interdisciplinary project offered funding for 13 PhD scholarships, spanning various fields from virology and immunology to spatial and molecular epidemiology, computer sciences and social and behavioural sciences. Irrespective of their background, all PhD candidates will benefit from a unique international training in these fields, as well as state-of-the-art soft skills development.

More information about the project can be found here!

Countries for which PhD scholarships are available under the VIVACE project: Belgium, Egypt, France, Italy, Morocco, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom.

See below the list of PhD projects offered by the VIVACE doctoral network. 

	Location	PhD project title	Supervisor(s) / Co-supervisor(s)	Doctoral Candidate	Status
	Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands	Assessing the antigenic evolution and pandemic potential of H5 influenza viruses in the context of vaccination	Mathilde Richard, Mariette Ducatez	Nicolas Urdaneta Piraguata	Closed
	INRAE, Toulouse, France	Identification of escape H9 and H5 mutants due to vaccina ti on	Mariette Ducatez, Siham Fellahi	Mohamed El Sayes	Closed
	University of Siena, Italy	Evaluation of poultry vaccines: translation of immunolog ical assays from human to animal	Claudia M. Trombetta, Silvia Grappi	Laura Bourgois	Closed
	National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt	Evaluation of the efficacy of commercial vaccines agai nst avian influenza viruses in field conditions in Egypt	Rabeh El-Shesheny, Christelle Camus, Siham Fellahi	Deesse  Tabet	Closed
	INRAE, Toulouse, France	Tracking minor variants in avian influenza genome RNA populatio ns to investigate virus e volution under suboptimal vaccination	Romain Volmer, Steven Van Borm, Isabella Monne	Kelly Laing	Closed
	National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt	Tracking the Genomic Evolu tion of avian influenza in vaccinated and non-vaccinated poultry	Rabeh El-Shesheny, Christelle Camus, Siham Fellahi	Jessica  Yazbek	Closed
	Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Rabat, Morocco	Rethinking avian influenza vir us surveillance in a context of vaccination	Siham Fellahi, Timothée Vergne	Oumaima Kadir	Closed
	Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands	Risk-based and cost-effective surveillance upon implementation of vaccination in the European (epizootic) context	Egil Fischer, Gerdien van Schaik	Yanshi  Rahal	Closed
	Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium	Ecological niche modelling and phylodynamic assessments of avian influenza risk and dispersal to inform vaccination implementation	Simon Dellicour, Claire Guinat	Ina Li	Closed
	INRAE, Toulouse, France	Optimizing poultry vaccination strategies against  highly pathogenic avian influenza to support policy	Timothée Vergne, Jose Gonzales	Sarah Pletts	Closed
	Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands	Influence of farmer behaviour on the effectiveness of vaccination and biosecurity to control avian influenza	Jaap Sok, Armin Elbers	Solomon Ajoseh	Closed
	Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands	Environmental and welfare impact of vaccination to control avian influenza	Henk Hogeveen, Wilma Steeneveld	Teodora Pariza	Closed
	University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom	The econo mic burden of HPAI and multi-criteria policy-supporting assessment of poultry vaccination	Jonathan Rushton, Henk Hogeveen	Sinda Sairi	Closed