PhD Project in Causal Network Analysis for Compliance Management

Compliance Management (CM) refers to the process of ensuring that an organisation adheres to legal, regulatory, industry, and organisational standards and requirements. This involves developing, implementing, and maintaining policies, procedures, and practices that ensure the organisation operates within the bounds of applicable laws and regulations. Effective CM helps organisations mitigate risks, avoid legal penalties, and maintain a positive reputation. The Applied Research and Engineering Centre (ARC) in Queen’s has been working in CM since 2022, having developed tools for compliance checking based on obligation extraction and mapping.

Building on existing work on CM in ARC, this PhD project will investigate how causal network analysis can enhance CM in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. It is expected that causal network analysis can enable to (1) explain compliance status (to clarify why a company is compliant or non-compliant with specific regulations) (2) identify root causes (to pinpoint the underlying causes of non-compliance) (3) optimise compliance measures (to recommend cost-effective actions to achieve and maintain compliance) (4) determine compliant policies (to identify specific policies that ensure compliance with multiple regulations).

Objectives:

[1] Literature Review: Review existing methodologies in causal inference and network development.

[2] Algorithm Development: Create algorithms for constructing causal networks from regulation and policy documents using techniques like Bayesian networks, structural equation modelling.

[3] Validation: Validate the constructed causal networks through CM case studies.

[4] Software Integration: Integrate these algorithms into the existing compliance management system.

Funding Information

To be eligible for consideration for a Home DfE or EPSRC Studentship (covering tuition fees and maintenance stipend of approx. £19,237 per annum), a candidate must satisfy all the eligibility criteria based on nationality, residency and academic qualifications.

To be classed as a Home student, candidates must meet the following criteria and the associated residency requirements:

• Be a UK National,
or • Have settled status,
or • Have pre-settled status,
or • Have indefinite leave to remain or enter the UK.

Candidates from ROI may also qualify for Home student funding.

Previous PhD study MAY make you ineligible to be considered for funding.

Please note that other terms and conditions also apply.

Please note that any available PhD studentships will be allocated on a competitive basis across a number of projects currently being advertised by the School.

A small number of international awards will be available for allocation across the School. An international award is not guaranteed to be available for this project, and competition across the School for these awards will be highly competitive.

Academic Requirements:

The minimum academic requirement for admission is normally an Upper Second Class Honours degree from a UK or ROI Higher Education provider in a relevant discipline, or an equivalent qualification acceptable to the University.

Entrance requirements

Graduate
The minimum academic requirement for admission to a research degree programme is normally an Upper Second Class Honours degree from a UK or ROI HE provider, or an equivalent qualification acceptable to the University. Further information can be obtained by contacting the School.

International Students

For information on international qualification equivalents, please check the specific information for your country.

English Language Requirements

Evidence of an IELTS* score of 6.0, with not less than 5.5 in any component or equivalent qualification acceptable to the University is required (*taken within the last 2 years).

International students wishing to apply to Queen’s University Belfast (and for whom English is not their first language), must be able to demonstrate their proficiency in English in order to benefit fully from their course of study or research. Non-EEA nationals must also satisfy UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) immigration requirements for English language for visa purposes.

For more information on English Language requirements for EEA and non-EEA nationals see: www.qub.ac.uk/EnglishLanguageReqs.