SPORTS AND EXERCISE SCIENCE: FULLY FUNDED UKRI & INEOS PHD STUDENTSHIP: RACE STRATEGY IN PROFES[...]

Organisation/Company Swansea University Department Central Research Field Other Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions PhD Positions Country United Kingdom Application Deadline 23 Jun 2025 – 11:59 (Europe/London) Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Offer Starting Date 1 Jul 2025 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

The main aim of this project is to develop the evidence on professional cycling racing trends and define the best indicators of how and when races are won. This evidence will be used to inform race future race strategy and live race tactics.

There are multiple factors that influence the strategy and tactics in professional cycling racing, and these have changed significantly since Covid. Some of these factors include the course design, environmental factors, the peloton strength, rider type, and power profiles of individual riders. All of these are dynamic and the way they interact to impact on racing trends and race outcome remains relatively unknown.

The specific objectives include:

• Historical analysis of racing from the past 3-5 years across Grand Tours, one day races (monuments and semi-classics) and select World Tour 1 week stage races. The data sources will include video and previous race commentary to ‘code’ key events in races that help define observable events based on expert knowledge and available evidence.
• Development of a post-race analysis structure, process and data ‘toolkit’ that can build on historical understanding of race trends to provide immediate post-race feedback to Sport Directors that can be used to assess race strategy and tactics.
• Research, review and develop models based on objectives 1 and 2 to develop a race prediction model for stage racing that can be used to inform live in race decisions based on emerging events.

The successful candidate will also spend time embedded in a professional cycling environment and gain significant experience in hands on data collection, data analysis, data presentation and interpretation.

UK Students Only-Due to funding restrictions, this scholarship is open to applicants eligible to pay tuition fees at the UK rate only, as defined by UKCISA. Full list of categories for HE in Wales

Applicants for PhD must hold an undergraduate degree at 2.1 (or above) in Mathematics, Physics, Computer Sciences, Sport Science. For non-UK qualifications please see – Country Specific Entry Requirements page.

IELTS 6.5 Overall (5.5+ each comp.) or Swansea University recognised equivalent. Full details of our English Language policy, including certificate time validity, can be found here .

It would be desirable for candidates to have experience in some or all of the following:

• Experience in working in professional sports environments
• Data visualization solutions (i.e. Power BI, Tableau, Google Data Studio) for producing reports
• MATLAB/PYTHON/R/C programming
• Application of Machine Learning Algorithms

If you have any questions regarding your academic or fee eligibility based on the above, please email pgrscholarships@swansea.ac.uk with the web-link to the scholarship you are interested in

Additional Information

This scholarship covers the full cost of tuition fees, an annual stipend at UKRI rate (currently £19,237 for 2024/25) and a minimum additional top up of £3000 per annum.

Additional research expenses of up to £1,000 per year will also be available.

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