PhD Degree (27)-Fully Funded at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), England

The project has four key objectives:

1.To create a systematically tagged, metadata-rich dataset through digitisation of undigitised artefacts and restructuring of existing records for AI-readiness.

2.To research and apply novel AI algorithms to process the lace archive for pattern recognition of intricate structures, enhancing textile recognition.

3.To critically evaluate the real-world impact of the research through prototype testing with diverse stakeholders, including archivists, educators, and designers.

Together, these objectives balance practical digitisation and AI experimentation with critical reflection and sectoral engagement. The outcome will be a prototype AI-driven archive interface, a high-quality dataset of 2,500+ lace artefacts, and a body of research that critically assesses how AI can reframe heritage archives for contemporary use.

Biofilms are one of the most successful adaptations of life on our planet. Their trace fossils date back 3.5 billion years and biofilms remain ubiquitous today.  They are the green mats on riverbeds, and the films you brush off your teeth.  They grow on deep sea vents, the metal of ship hulls and the plastics of medical devices.

The success of biofilms comes from their ability to modify their environment through extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), a thick, sticky slime that protects bacteria and helps them adhere to things.  However, the very success of this adaptation can also pose challenging problems for industry and medicine.

In this highly interdisciplinary research project, you will study how to minimise bio-film adhesion in bioreactors, a promising green technology that uses bacteria to convert light and CO2 into industrial products.   Adhesion of cells to the reactor walls currently represents one of the key bottlenecks in upscaling this technology, representing technological challenges during downstream processing.

This PhD will contribute to the film and TV production technique called Virtual Production (VP). VP has emerged as a game changer in the industry, improving efficiency and cutting costs, and is widely used in both education and professional production. It typically involves a very large LED screen as a backdrop, where virtual environments are displayed using 3D software. In front of the screen are actors interacting with a physical set and props, including e.g. furniture, foliage, vehicles, etc. This is captured by a camera that is tracked to reflect the position of the view. Nottingham Trent has a professional-grade VP installation in the Design & Digital Arts Building which is used extensively in education and available for commercial hire.

A major issue in VP is the integration of “real” assets (actors, props, sets) with “virtual” ones (computer-generated environments and lighting). Although the backdrop is more convincing than traditional green screens used for special effects, there is still a “boundary” that cannot be crossed. What happens in the real set does not affect the virtual and vice versa, so that if say an actor moves a chair on the set, the backdrop has no way of acknowledging it, and vice versa, what happens on the screen has no effect on the physical set. This creates a problem as there can be disconnect between the real assets and the digital screen; moreover greater integration would offer increased creative freedom through seamless interaction between physical and virtual spaces.

Human faces and voices provide rich cues we use to evaluate others. Investigating how these signals are processed together will advance cognitive theories of person perception and inform the design of convincing AI avatars.

Imagine speaking to someone on the phone you’ve never met: you might picture what they look like, only to discover later that their appearance matches—or clashes with—the voice you imagined. Surprisingly little is known about how people judge whether a face and voice ‘fit’ together (face–voice concordance). Our previous research shows that some faces and voices appear to go together while others seem mismatched, but the implications for attention and social interaction remain unclear.

This PhD studentship will investigate how concordant and discordant face–voice pairings influence perception and behaviour. While prior research has typically relied on crude measures (e.g., face–voice matching accuracy), this project will employ fine-grained behavioural methods, including eye-tracking, microsaccade analysis, and reaction times, to reveal the underlying mechanisms of face-voice matching decisions. Findings will guide the design of AI avatars used in digital communication and creative contexts. Key questions include: Do mismatched face–voice pairings draw more attention? Do they evoke more negative evaluations? And how can these insights optimise AI avatars so that they can communicate more naturally and effectively? This is an area of growing importance as organisations increasingly deploy human-like virtual agents.

The project is interdisciplinary, integrating psychology and computer science. The supervision team (Dr Harriet Smith, Dr Filipe Cristino, and Professor Eiman Kanjo) bring highly-relevant expertise in person perception, experimental psychology, AI, and human-computer interaction. The student will gain training in cutting-edge methods, working across discipline boundaries. They will develop a validated audiovisual stimulus set (combining authentic and AI-generated recordings) to conduct laboratory experiments (using high-resolution eye-trackers at NTU) and online studies (via Gorilla Experiment Builder and Prolific). The student will adopt open science practices, and be supported to present and publish their findings to academic, professional, and public audiences.

Generative AI (GenAI) is reshaping the creative and industrial landscape, transforming how design work is imagined, produced, and valued. From generating images, 3D models, and video to supporting ideation and prototyping, these tools are becoming embedded across design practice. Yet their adoption raises pressing questions: Will designers lose critical skills if tasks are delegated to AI? How should authorship and ownership be attributed when outputs are machine-assisted? And what happens to business models if AI compresses project timelines and undermines billable hours?

This PhD will investigate how GenAI is transforming the role of the designer and the process of design in professional practice, with a particular focus on Industrial and 3D Product Design consultancies. It will combine three strands of research:

• Literature review – analysing debates on skill shifts, overreliance risks, authorship and ownership, and the reframing of design process models such as the Double Diamond.

• Ethnographic fieldwork – immersive research in design studios to capture how AI is adopted, challenged, and normalised in day-to-day practice.

• Speculative modelling – using speculative design and futures methods to reimagine established frameworks and create industry-ready models for credible futures of human–AI collaboration.

The project will deliver both academic contributions (journal articles, conference papers) and practical outputs (an open-access guide for design agencies and educators).

Eating disorders (EDs) are among the most severe and complex mental health conditions, with the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness. While families often play a vital role in supporting recovery—through meal supervision, emotional care, and social connection—the disorder can also deeply disrupt family systems. Roles shift, communication breaks down, and relationships become strained. Despite this, most treatment models focus solely on the individual, overlooking the parallel recovery needs of the family unit.

This interdisciplinary PhD project, bridging Social Psychology and Design & Digital Arts, explores how families affected by EDs make sense of the disorder together, and how they might rebuild relationships during recovery using participatory, arts-based methods. Drawing on the Social Identity Approach to Health, the research shifts the lens from individual treatment to relational recovery, investigating how families navigate the emotional and communicative “space between” them during and after the disruption of an eating disorder. The project introduces a novel conceptual framework for understanding recovery as a shared, negotiated process. It will generate new knowledge about how identity, connection, and shared meaning-making shape recovery outcomes. It will explore how families negotiate continuity and change in their collective identity, and how creative arts can support emotional expression, mutual understanding, and resilience.

You will work with families (young people aged 15–25 and their relatives) through interviews and co-creative workshops. The workshops will use both traditional and digital visual methods (e.g., including metaphor collages, family identity maps, and AI-generated imagery) to help families externalise the ED and re-author their shared narratives. You will apply thematic analysis to interview and workshop data, and visual/narrative analysis to creative outputs, focusing on symbolic content, relational themes, and identity narratives. Reflexive practice and participant feedback will support ethical interpretation and methodological transparency. Through this, you will develop a blended skillset in qualitative research, visual analysis, and creative facilitation—equipping you for interdisciplinary work across psychology, design, and health. The project will produce co-created visual artefacts, academic publications, and practical recommendations for non-clinical, arts-based family support.

This PhD, in partnership with Birmingham Botanical Gardens (BBG) and National Trust (NT), will explore the co-productive and decolonial potential of photogrammetry and extended reality (XR) in botanical heritage. The candidate will conduct archival research into BBG’s historic glasshouse and produce a high-resolution photogrammetric scan of the building. They will then pilot at least one multimodal interpretive tool (e.g., 3D printed models, AR, VR, projection mapping, dependent on their interests and career ambitions) to co-create contemporary responses with key stakeholders to climate change to generate further content. An example output may be a multimedia visualisation of the medium term impact on beloved plants in the garden over time, layering historical material with KS3 pupils’ writing on beauty and decay in the garden (Desmarais, 2018).

The project builds on the DoS’ Innovate UK-funded audience work at BBG, aiming to develop NTU’s capacity in the growing field of participatory digital heritage interpretation. It positions XR as a research tool for re-storying heritage: diversifying archives and re-situating glasshouses as climate-relevant cultural infrastructures (Leonard, 2024; Giaccardi, 2012).

The PhD would seek to answer the following research questions:

1.How can photogrammetry and XR drive the creation of new archival based knowledge on BBG’s glasshouse and its context in empire, industrialisation and climate change?

2.How can photogrammetry and XR be used as a participatory tool to develop heritage imaginaries grounded in non-Western ontologies, non-linear narratives and polyvocal storytelling to reshape heritage meaning-making? (Astudillo & Salazar, 2023; Franke et al., 2024)?

3.How might the prototypes and participatory methods created be developed beyond the PhD to create sustainable opportunities for the continued development of botanical gardens?

We are inviting applications for a fully funded, full-time PhD position (4 years) in an interdisciplinary research group at Nottingham Trent University. The project sits at the nexus of immersive technology, artificial intelligence and consumer experience design. Its goal is to create AI-driven VR interfaces that adapt interactive narratives in real-time to minimise cognitive load and maximise engagement for shoppers in connected fashion retail environments.

Consumers today face information overload when browsing online or through virtual stores, leading to decision fatigue, increased return rates and lost revenue. Our research will design a dynamic storytelling framework that uses user experience design principles and eye tracking data to tailor the flow of visual narratives, product placement and recommendation pathways in a VR setting. By aligning the interactions with users’ cognitive state, we aim to reduce mental effort while preserving emotional resonance and deeper brand experience.

This project aims to develop nature-inspired, sustainable scaffolds from next-generation non-food, non-wood cellulose for biomedical applications, advancing the principles of a circular bioeconomy. Regenerative medicine increasingly demands biomaterials that are biocompatible and functional but also environmentally responsible, reducing waste and supporting the renewal of resources. UK-sourced plant fibres, such as those from the Typhaceae family, provide an abundant, renewable source of cellulose suitable for scaffold fabrication without competing with food or forestry resources.

The project will focus on the following objectives. First, cellulose will be isolated and characterised from plant fibres, and scaffolds will be fabricated in fibrous, foam, and hydrogel forms. These scaffolds will undergo structural, mechanical, and biological evaluation to ensure biocompatibility and functional performance. Second, the adaptability of the scaffolds will be explored for applications including wound healing, and orthopaedic tissue engineering. Third, the project will assess the circularity of the materials and scaffolds, including biodegradation, recyclability, and environmental footprint, to evaluate their contribution to sustainable biomedical engineering.

We invite applications for a fully funded PhD studentship exploring how inclusive digital storytelling formats, co-designed with families and powered by creative technologies, can support engagement and wellbeing for neurodiverse families particularly those with autistic children navigating paediatric cancer.

This interdisciplinary research project brings together creative digital practices through inclusive design, visual storytelling, health communication and psychology.

Through mixed-methods research, creative co-design workshops, and prototype development, the PhD student will:

*Investigate how a range of inclusive digital storytelling formats—including interactive illustrations, animated sequences, sensory-rich environments, customizable interfaces, and multimodal design elements—can be tailored to support engagement, communication, and emotional wellbeing for autistic children and their families navigating paediatric cancer.

*Research the lived experiences of parents and children using a paper-based storybook as a communication tool during paediatric cancer treatment, with particular attention to diverse developmental needs and neurodivergent (especially autistic) communication styles.

*Co-design and develop revised and creative digital adaptations of the storybook in collaboration with families, illustrators, designers, and psychologists, using participatory and inclusive design methods.

*Create a practical Accessibility Toolkit to guide designers and developers in creating interactive, inclusive digital storytelling experiences for neurodiverse audiences, supporting both pedagogical practice and wider application in health and wellbeing contexts.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (2024), 107 countries—responsible for 82% of global GHG emissions—have pledged net-zero targets. Yet most lag behind in establishing legal frameworks, transitioning from policy development to implementation, and aligning actual emissions with these goals.

At the same time, in autocratic states that are heavily dependent on fossil fuel revenues (e.g. Saudi Arabia or Azerbaijan), governments actively hinder progress toward carbon neutrality (Guliyev 2023). In Western democracies such as the US or the UK, the rise of populism, climate ‘scepticism’, anti-Net Zero rhetoric and the trend towards ‘backsliding’ slows down climate action, ostensibly due to its excessive cost (Huber et al 2021).

In both settings, media outlets play a pivotal role in shaping public discourses, by either endorsing or critiquing climate sceptic narratives. Similarly, politicians and interest groups often seek to exploit media outlets, particularly where they are state-owned and/or command high levels of public trust and respect.

Understanding how climate change is communicated across global, national, and subnational levels is a growing academic concern. Scholars argue that climate communication research reveals the underlying priorities and policies of environmental governance and identifies key actors who frame climate narratives. This framing process generates divergent meanings of climate action across contexts.

The increasing use of electric vehicles (EVs) is important for lowering carbon emissions and meeting net zero targets, but it is posing a growing risk to pedestrian safety with recent studies suggesting that pedestrians in urban areas are three times as likely to be hit by an EV or hybrid vehicle compared with an internal combustion engine vehicle. Noise from traditional combustion engines is, in general, more familiar and associations between that noise and vehicle size and speed provide an auditory alert to potential risk. Electric motors emit lower-level and higher frequency noise than combustion engines, which is inconsistent across the sector. Out of sight approaching vehicles pose a significant risk to pedestrians, and vehicle manufacturers need to balance competing demands for minimising noise pollution without compromising safety.

Modelling high-frequency noise in urban environments is a challenging problem in applied mathematics with importance in the automotive industry, where predictions of EV noise are needed to improve their virtual design workflows. This project will build upon the state-of-the-art high-frequency wave simulation methodology developed within a current EPSRC project in collaboration with Dr Lama Hamadeh (UCL). Alongside mathematical modelling, we will conduct experiments investigating the psychoacoustics of both recorded EV noise emissions and artificial noise in terms of the risk perception by participants and its dependence on the amplitude and frequency of the noise. AI will then be employed to identify patterns in the experimental data and recommend amplitude and frequency ranges for EVs depending on their size and speed. Finally, the experimental results will be used to produce a policy document and specify a design space for optimised EV component design in terms of noise emissions.

Research Questions

1- How do feminist activists in the UK use visual practices to confront race, gender, and other systemic inequalities?

2- In what ways do these visual practices contribute to shaping activist identities and articulating intersectional feminist leadership?

3- What forms of leadership and resistance emerge from these visual strategies, and how do they reshape dominant narratives?

The successful applicant will undertake qualitative research using a combination of visual analysis, ethnographic observation, and participatory methods. This may include working collaboratively with feminist activist communities to co-create public-facing outputs such as exhibitions, digital storytelling platforms, or creative workshops. The successful applicant will be supported in developing a tailored methodological approach that reflects their interests and the needs of the communities they work with.

As the UK expands its renewable energy capacity, large-scale solar farms are producing increasing amounts of surplus electricity, energy that may otherwise be curtailed or “wasted” when supply exceeds demand. At the same time, the UK relies heavily on imports of fruit and vegetables, with domestic production limited by climate and energy costs. This PhD will investigate how these challenges can be linked to deliver solutions: using surplus solar energy to power controlled environment agriculture (CEA) such as greenhouses and vertical farms.

Working with industry partner Elements Green and using their proposed Great North Road Solar Park as a modelling case study, the project will explore how smart energy flows can be directed into food production. The research will model energy availability, crop demand, and optimisation strategies, and assess the economic, environmental, and policy implications of integrated solar-agriculture systems.

Age-related declines in cognitive and motor functions often manifest subtly and progressively, affecting mobility, daily activities, and overall quality of life. Early identification of these changes is critical for timely intervention and prevention of adverse outcomes such as falls, behavioural drifts, accelerated cognitive impairment, and loss of independence. With the global population aged over 65 expected to double by 2050, innovative approaches to predict, monitor, and address decline are urgently needed. This project responds by integrating artificial intelligence, bioscience, and clinical practice to deliver advanced digital health solutions that promote independence and healthy ageing.

The project aims to design and validate a hybrid, adaptive deep learning framework that fuses multimodal sensor data including gait, grip strength, orthostatic blood pressure, and body composition into robust AI-driven digital biomarkers. These biomarkers will act as early warning systems for cognitive and physical decline, enabling proactive, personalised interventions. Moving beyond episodic assessments, the project will enable continuous, AI-enabled monitoring that bridges predictive analytics with biological interpretation and clinical translation.

The research will address key questions: how can spatio-temporal dependencies in physiological signals best capture subtle markers of decline? Which digital biomarkers provide the most reliable indicators of deterioration? How can predictive models remain both powerful and interpretable for clinicians and caregivers? And how can these tools be embedded into healthcare and community contexts to support independence and reduce hospitalisations?

This PhD project investigates how co-creative approaches can empower women and girls (W&Gs) in deprived neighbourhoods to actively shape safer, more inclusive urban spaces. It aims to develop a participatory framework that outlines effective strategies for co-designing public places, while exploring how to embed gender-sensitive participation and address power dynamics in urban policymaking. The research is grounded in Design Science Research (DSR) and draws on interdisciplinary perspectives from criminology, the built environment, and creative arts. It seeks to foster resilient, inclusive, and safe environments by ensuring that W&Gs are not only consulted but meaningfully involved in shaping the spaces they inhabit.

The project addresses two critical gaps: the lack of input from W&Gs in the design of public housing environments, and the short-term, reactive nature of current crime prevention strategies. It proposes a novel synthesis of theory and practice, integrating criminological insights on crime and place (e.g. routine activity theory, urban mobility, crime generators/attractors) with participatory design and graphic communication methods. This interdisciplinary approach will enable the development of tools and frameworks that are both theoretically grounded and practically impactful.

Smart agriculture is transforming food production by applying advanced technologies to boost productivity and sustainability. Central to this is a detailed understanding of soil conditions, especially moisture and nutrient availability, which are critical for crop health and yield. Current measurement methods, however, are often costly, require laboratory preparation, and cannot provide real-time, multi-parameter monitoring in the field.

This PhD project will address these limitations by developing a novel integrated optical fibre sensor for real-time, in-situ soil monitoring, with an initial focus on moisture and nitrate detection. Efficient water use is becoming increasingly vital as climate change intensifies drought events, while nitrate overuse contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, and rising farm costs.

Optical fibre sensors offer a transformative solution: they are compact, low-cost, robust, and immune to electromagnetic interference, making them well-suited for agricultural environments. This project will build on the supervisory team’s expertise to engineer sensors capable of detecting multiple parameters simultaneously. Methods will include fibre processing, nanostructure deposition, and functional coatings to enable sensitive and selective measurements of soil conditions.

Objectives

The project aims to:

– Optimise carbon stability during biochar production using NTU’s high-temperature high-pressure (HTHP) reactor.

– Quantify greenhouse gas fluxes (CO₂, CH₄, N₂O) through soil incubation trials.

– Model soil carbon stocks and dynamics using GIS and remote sensing.

– Develop a soil–carbon digital twin to simulate biochar impacts under changing land use and climate conditions.

– Provide policy recommendations for integrating soil carbon capture into UK Net Zero strategies.

The successful candidate will have the exciting opportunity to join a multidisciplinary, international team aiming to investigate how modulation of both the gut barrier and its resident microbes through targeted prebiotic interventions can enhance the health, wellbeing, recovery, and performance of female exercisers. Despite growing recognition of the gut microbiome’s role in metabolic and immune function, and psychological wellbeing, little is known about how dietary strategies can be optimised to address the unique physiological demands of females engaged in exercise and high-level sport. This project addresses this gap by examining the role of prebiotics to beneficially shape gut microbial communities and downstream host outcomes.

The central research questions are: (1) How does prebiotic supplementation alter gut microbiome composition and function in female exercisers? (2) What are the effects of these microbial changes on gut barrier function, and markers of health and wellbeing (3) Can prebiotic-driven modulation of the microbiome contribute to measurable improvements in post-exercise/training recovery/neuromuscular function, performance capacity, and psychological wellbeing?

• Material Innovation: Identify and formulate printable magnetoelastic materials suitable for sensor fabrication.

• Performance Validation: Characterise material response under varying pressure conditions.

• Circuit Design: Develop an interface circuit to interpret magnetic field changes under load.

• System Testing: Evaluate the sensor system in laboratory settings and through trials with human participants.

This project, titled “Second Wind: Developing multi-disciplinary decision-support tools for adopting second-hand wind turbines in UK community energy projects”, investigates the potential of adopting second-hand wind turbines for community energy projects in the UK. Using the Hockerton community wind turbine as a case study, it will apply a multidisciplinary approach that evaluates the socio-technical, economic, and environmental impacts of these initiatives.

The project will adapt life-cycle analysis (LCA), combined with problem structuring methods and statistical analysis, to develop a holistic sustainability evaluation framework tailored to second-hand wind turbines. By addressing technical, economic, and societal factors, this research seeks to assess whether the adoption of second-hand wind turbines aligns with circular economy principles and supports the UK’s net-zero goals.

The key deliverables include the development of an adapted LCA methodology specific to reconditioned wind turbines, a multidisciplinary sustainability assessment framework, and predictive models for future energy production and sustainability of community wind projects. Insights gained from this study will offer actionable recommendations on enhancing the second-hand wind farm market’s role in achieving net-zero emissions.

We are inviting applications from an ambitious, creative, and adaptable graduate to undertake a funded PhD focused on the design and development of an intelligent  rainwater harvesting and attenuation system. In collaboration with Stormsaver, the UK market leader in rainwater harvesting solutions, the successful candidate will have the opportunity to contribute to both academic knowledge and real-world industrial practice using AI, optimisation techniques, product innovation and commercialisation.

This PhD will integrate the use of AI, software integration, product development  and commercialisation to research the new generation of rainwater harvesting and attenuation systems.