Qualification Type: | PhD |
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Location: | East Sussex, Falmer |
Funding for: | UK Students, EU Students, International Students |
Funding amount: | Annual stipend for 3 years to cover living costs. The amount is tied to the UKRI studentship rates; for 2025/26 it is £20,780 per year. UK or International fees are covered for 3 years. |
Hours: | Full Time |
Placed On: | 27th June 2025 |
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Closes: | 25th July 2025 |
We are seeking an exceptional candidate for a fully funded PhD studentship investigating the role of sleep and circadian rhythms in elite athletic performance, co-funded by Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (BHAFC). This exciting interdisciplinary project will explore how individual sleep patterns and circadian patterns influence performance and recovery and injury with a view to informing evidence-based interventions in elite sport environments.
The successful candidate will be integrated in a programme of research involving the continuous collection of physiological and behavioural data via state-of-the-art wearable devices. Applicants should have strong experience in data collection in applied settings, advanced statistical analysis skills (particularly in time-series data), and proficiency in machine learning methods for pattern recognition and prediction.
An academic or practical background in sleep science and/or elite sport is highly desirable. The candidate will be embedded within both academic and professional sports performance environments, gaining unique insights and opportunities to translate cutting-edge science into practice. The candidate will work closely with the team at BHAFC and a supportive supervisory team with expertise in sleep, sports medicine, sports science, and data analytics.
The PhD researcher will design, conduct, and analyse data and review literature on topics around sleep/circadian rhythms in elite sport. The precise focus and research studies will be agreed with collaborators at BHAFC so that they are of mutual scientific and commercial interest and will also likely include analysis of existing data collected by the club on their players.
Supervisory team:
Dr Giulia Poerio with expertise in sleep/circadian rhythms and emotion currently funded by at £1.2million project on Sleep and Mental Health.
Dr Dominique Makowski with expertise in psychophysiology and computational neuropsychology.
Dr Sean Figgins with a background and expertise in Sports Science, and Sport and Exercise Psychology.
Professor Florian Pfab who is Head of Medicine at Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club and Professor at Technical University of Munich.
Dr Daniel Hudson who is the Men’s First Team Doctor at Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club.
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