PhD Studentship: Playing in Public: Game-Based Interventions for Sustainability, Community and Environmental Engagement

Doctoral Training Grant Funding Information

This funding model includes a 48-month funded PhD Studentship, set in-line with UK Research & Innovation values. For 2026/7, this will be £21,805 per year. The tax-free stipend will be paid monthly. This PhD Studentship also includes a Full-Time Home Tuition Fee Scholarship for up to 4 years. The funding is subject to your continued registration on the research degree, making satisfactory progression within your PhD, as well as attendance on and successful completion of the Postgraduate Certificate in Research Practice. 

International applicants are reminded, that it if they are successful following interview, they are liable to pay the fee difference between the Home and International Tuition Fee Rate. The tuition fees for new doctoral researchers are listed here.

All applicants will receive the same stipend irrespective of fee status.

Application Closing Date: 

Midday (UK Time) on Friday 10th April 2026 for a start date of 7th September 2026.

How to Apply

To apply, please follow the below steps:

• Complete the BCU Online Application Form.
• Complete theDoctoral Studentship Proposal Form in full, ensuring that you quote the project ID. You will be required to upload your proposal in place of a personal statement on the BCU online application form.
• Upload two references to your online application form (at least one of which must be an academic reference).
• Upload your qualification(s) for entry onto the research degree programme. This will be Bachelor/Master’s certificate(s) and transcript(s).
• International applicants must also provide a valid English language qualification. Please see the list of English language qualifications accepted here. Please check the individual research degree course page for the required scores.

Frequently Asked Questions 

To help support you to complete your application, please consult the frequently asked questions found on the BCU Studentship Advertisement.

Project Title: Playing in Public: Game-Based Interventions for Sustainability, Community and Environmental Engagement

Project Lead: Dr Poppy Wilde

Project ID: CreaTech – 50928241

Project Description: 

This project explores socio-economic and environmental challenges faced by local communities, contextualised in local histories, through playful interventions with CreaTech, tested through public activations. There is increasing interest in sustainability and its intersection with technologies of play informed by smart/playable city programmes, and research and discussions around VR/AR/XR. Game-making and play have been central to a range of successful public interventions that enable people to engage directly with their environment, and with their community and its history, in an accessible manner. Consequently, this project offers a timely reconsideration of explorations grounded in site-specific public engagement and play. 

The research is part of a wider doctoral programme supported by CreaTech Frontiers, a 5-year, £7.2 million project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The project aims to establish a thriving CreaTech ecosystem across the West Midlands by developing skills and talent, funding collaborative R&D, and supporting business innovation. Led by Birmingham City University, CreaTech Frontiers is delivered by a consortium of six core partners that includes Coventry University, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the University of Birmingham, the University of Warwick, and Digital Catapult. The successful candidate will join the CreaTech Frontiers academic community and play a key role in delivering the project’s objectives.

The project asks:

• How can game-led media arts interventions successfully engage diverse audiences with sustainability?
• How can gamifying the public realm bring people together to support social cohesion and reduce social isolation?
• How can playful interventions incorporate data to increase understanding of hyperlocal changes and challenges in urban environments?
• How have public play practices changed since pre-2020?
• How can engagement with nature through CreaTech improve health and wellbeing?
• How can we celebrate local/community histories/heritage through immersive storytelling?

Methodology

The project draws together work around communities, place, and play, mapping a state of the field in terms of theory and practice. It explores interventions that have focused on community orientation, site-specific audience engagements in urban and industrial environments, and the role of play in bridging these domains and fostering a sense of belonging and social purpose; and contemporary theorisations of play, community, and space.

This is a predominantly practice research project, supplemented by a written exegesis. Principles elaborated in theorisation and contextual research will shape a series (patchwork/portfolio) of proof-of-concept games/game-related artefacts, produced through media arts and/or creative technology practice. Testing of proofs of concept will be supported by evidence gathered using audience research: interviews and surveys.

Collaboration

This project will be a collaboration with Birmingham Open Media (BOM). A hotbed of experimental research with CreaTech and a dynamic new cultural anchor, BOM offers space to explore and develop practice-based research interventions that activate the surrounding public realm and draw audiences together. BOM creates immersive experiences that delight public audiences and devises ground-breaking interventions that tackle digital exclusion.

BOM is at a critical point in its development, with the recent acquisition of an historic building in Digbeth which will be its future home. BOM’s new building forms a key part of Digbeth’s early industrial heritage, containing part of the historic Duddeston viaduct, to be activated through BOM’s plans as the first section of the publicly accessible Sky Park. Located between Birmingham’s creative industries in Digbeth and East Birmingham, in an area of low cultural engagement and high deprivation, this is a critical opportunity to research and develop a series of socially impactful interventions with CreaTech, leveraging partnerships with organisations like the Canal and River Trust and National Trust. This project will develop a programme of CreaTech commissions timed to coincide with the opening of the new building, and develop new knowledge about the importance of creative technologies in the city.

This project will deliver its findings via a series of practice-based playful artefacts that will constitute a new programme of CreaTech commissions, addressing the research questions and connecting with the launch of the new BOM premises. These artefacts will be supported by a written exegesis reflecting on the practice and explaining its contribution to knowledge.

We anticipate that the project will develop new knowledge and understanding of the value of playful interventions using CreaTech in reducing social isolation and increasing health and wellbeing in the public realm, and in promoting climate justice and amplifying environmental research.

The project has wider impact on local creative opportunities. It will enable BOM to fundraise to meet costs for further development and installation of CreaTech works in future years, and provide a new structure for community and environmental engagement, as well as opportunities for future jobs and supply chains. In doing so, the project acts as a model for interventions nationally and globally in the creative industries.

Person Specification:

Essential

• knowledge of, and experience using, a range of different creative technologies (e.g. VR, AR, XR, 360 video, binaural sound) and software packages (e.g. Unreal, Unity, Godot)
• a track record of high academic achievement or equivalent professional experience
• a track record of successful delivery of playful projects
• experience in successful project management
• strong organisational skills
• clear written and oral communication skills
• evidence of ability to work independently and in collaboration with project partners
• adaptability, and openness and responsiveness to feedback

Desirable

• experience in conducting research projects
• experience in delivering funded projects for arts organisations
• a degree and/or Master’s qualification in a relevant subject area
• publications (academic/white papers/reports) of research
• exhibition or installation of art/CreaTech-based projects for public audiences
• experience working in contexts that include issues around cultural heritage; environment and sustainability; health and wellbeing; access and inclusion

The successful candidate will be expected to work between Birmingham City University’s City Centre Campus and BOM’s premises in Birmingham throughout the project.

Entry Requirements:

To apply for our Media and Cultural Studies PhD research degree you should have, or expect to be awarded, a Masters degree in a relevant subject area from a British or overseas university.

Exceptional candidates without a Masters degree, but holding a first class Bachelors degree in media studies, may be considered.

We also welcome enquiries from potential PhD researchers without formal academic qualifications but with appropriate levels of professional experience.

International applicants must also provide a valid English language qualification, such as International English Language Test System (IELTS) or equivalent with an overall score of 7.0 with no band below 6.5 or equivalent.

If you have any questions or need further information, please use the contact details below:

• For enquiries about the project content, please contact: Dr Poppy Wilde – poppy.wilde@bcu.ac.uk
• For enquiries about the application process, please contact: research.admissions@bcu.ac.uk