Research Awards

This research explored dietetic students' and practice educators' preparation for healthcare placements to enable the HEI to enhance the experience and completion and success rates.

A powerful counternarrative to the epistemic whiteness of mainstream coaching. Centering Black, Indigenous and Global Majority Coaches it offers a radical shift for future development.

This thesis set out to understand the multilayered nature of integration through perceptions and experiences of a German Turkish family within a historical intergenerational context.

This thesis advocates for integrating imminent technologies into English classrooms in post-industrial state schools, highlighting their potential for addressing educational inequality and promoting social justice.

Lorraine's research explores how institutional pressures in further education fuel perfectionism, impacting adolescent wellbeing and resilience, and calls for redefining success beyond academic achievement.

This attempts to find out student’s and teachers’ perspectives regarding oral errors and their correction as there is no detailed investigation about this in Kurdistan.

Alistair’s thesis applies a Wittgensteinian lens, using possible selves and language games to explore identity and belonging, introducing the Possible Selves and Language Games Framework.

Samantha proposes the Collective-Ecological Transition Model, which aims to inform future research and conversations around parental involvement in the Reception to Year 1 transition.

This thesis exposes systemic gender inequities in UK Computer Science, demonstrating how immersive reality pedagogies can disrupt stereotypes, transform classroom dynamics, and empower female students.

The thesis examines migrant and refugee family-school engagement, developing a Partnership Empowerment Model that centres recognition, reciprocity, trust and community-mediated educational collaboration in English schools.

This study involved students, parents and community stakeholders and captures their views on the transformative role of Ujima in empowering Black children through education.

The thesis explores the area of visual rhythm studies in relation to experimental ethnography.

This research uncovers how arts practice and embodied ways of knowing are crucial to effectively disseminate the problem of air pollution to the public.

This practice-research study investigates the ethical challenges of performing parafictional personas in contemporary performance and proposes a series of ethical considerations for future parafictioneers.

Using photography, performance and autofiction, the research initiates a discussion of the role of women in visual economies through the lens of hospitality.

An examination of inclusion in the dramatic arts, offering insight and strategies for disrupting marginalisation.

This research explores artistic and practical strategies for integrating symphony orchestra with immersive electronics, advancing contemporary composition and expanding possibilities for orchestral music.

A consideration of melancholy and how this may be woven into cinematic practice as affect, that a film may transfer to an audience.

This research examines the incidental positionality of the socially engaged artist and how it presents an opportunity to address safety issues affecting marginalised gender skateboarders.

A comparative study using the concept of Anthony Vidler's 'Architectural Uncanny', applying the same to the field of contemporary sculpture.

Using existing published albums of music, this research project explores the role DIY counterculture can play in the development of a practice in sound engineering.

The practice-research PhD study focuses on the development of ethically attuned collaborative artistic practice, between the researcher and her autistic son, Fred.

A practice-led exploration of the intentional construction of a co-creative community space for artist-audience meaning-making and its impact on my creative practice.

This thesis develops a new design methodology applying behaviour theories to refugee camps, reshaping architecture as a dynamic practice transforming space, behaviour, and lived experience.

This thesis, Source Image Camera Identification Techniques, advances forensic attribution by modelling image sensor pattern noise with wavelet, curvelet and deep learning techniques, achieving high accuracy camera identification on the VISION dataset.

This research investigates how solar and battery storage improve energy use in UK schools, enhancing flexibility, cutting emissions, reducing costs, and strengthening the electrical grid.

This PhD research integrated hydrology with material science by collaborating on anthropogenic issues/hydromodifications to synthesise sustainable, eco-friendly materials for infrastructure construction and water channel stabilisation.

This study aimed to develop trust in the use of Artificial Intelligence systems for medical diagnostics by making the innerworkings of predictive models completely transparent.

An investigation of how building fabric performance measurements vary with test conditions and between different building types, enabling reliable evaluations of building energy efficiency.

This PhD explores inclusive design in UK architecture and construction, identifying knowledge, attitudes and barriers, and developing a framework to embed inclusion in architectural practice.

A water treatment system for shallow wells in malawi using moringa oleifera.

This research involved automating progress detection to provide dynamic responsive environments which enhanced user experience through increased clarity of progress feedback, enjoyment, and immersion.

This research examined the shortcomings in standard forms of building contract and proposes a means of reducing the financial impact of unexpected events.

This thesis explored the growth of community activism, generated by the suspension of planning policies, that collided with the perceived goals of localism.

Attempt to continuously provide infrastructure for the growing Lagos megacity, the badagry agritourism is impacted socio-economically, environmentally and humanly, hence research on the spillover effects.

This research readdresses gender in accounting research by bringing men into the gender discourse and develops a theory explaining how Nigerian male accountants address gender inequality.

Examining how directors of Eswatini Stock Exchange-listed companies understand and practice Ubuntu, this thesis develops an Ubuntu-informed framework for ethical, stakeholder-centred corporate governance reform.

This study investigates practitioner attitudes towards the global fashion industry to explore the viability of marketing recycled polyester as a sustainable fibre.

This research improves gender equity in SME succession planning, offering practical tools to support inclusive leadership and empower women in Northern England’s professional service sector.

This research highlights Sudan's challenges and the need for human capital development, proposing a framework to innovate productivity in car dealerships and empower Sudan’s workforce.

This study critically examines the impact of money laundering and corruption on Bahrain’s financial market, and evaluates the effectiveness of anti-money laundering and anti-corruption frameworks.

This thesis examine the theory, method and research in sports economics that focuses on attendance demand and the concept of an ‘agent’.

An exploration of strategic management models adopted by new entrants to the UK mortgage market, the influence of FinTech, and the achievement of competitive advantage.

An overview of how Nigerians perceive the duty of care owed to them by their government in providing healthcare within the social contract framework.

This study extends SERVQUAL by integrating digital touchpoints to evaluate electronic service quality, customer satisfaction, and user experience within Ghana’s telecommunications sector.

This study explored constructions of dialogue at a university. It offers an ethnographic understanding of dialogue as an organisational phenomenon, grounded in Buber’s philosophical thought.

This thesis explores well-being and work-life balance challenges faced by female employees in supermarkets, examining stressors, job satisfaction and provides strategies for improved outcomes.

The study examined SMEs' financing in Bahrain to identify the status, key challenges and opportunities to support business growth, banking practices and government subsidy programmes.

Research explores graduate and employer perspectives on employability skills in Jordan, using mixed methods to identify gaps and recommend strategies for aligning education with industry.

This research explores how Vietnamese consumers perceive AI in life insurance, where collectivist cultural dispositions shape financial decisions and the emerging future of human‑AI hybrid trust in financial services.

This research examined protein supplementation's impact on exercise recovery, showing reduced muscle soreness, enhanced performance, and slightly greater recovery capacity in women compared to men.

This study examined the sensitivity of countermovement jump and wellness monitoring to training and competition load in late adolescent student-athletes within a sport-school.

Explore the understanding and experiences of SB and PA among people with dementia and family carers living in community settings and make recommendations for practice.

This research examines the impact of inter-organizational knowledge transfer on sustainable coastal tourism in Sri Lanka, refining the Quintuple Helix Model for resilience and sustainability.

This thesis investigated fatigue responses and perceptions in elite netball, and the schedule-travel effects on basketball matches. This research informs context driven fatigue monitoring.

Research quantified the energy expenditure, dietary intake and water turnover of male players in-season and during injury rehabilitation, while integrating practitioner perspectives on nutrition periodisation.

This research examines how concussion uncertainty threatens rugby league's insurability, analysing underwriter and RFL perspectives to develop strategies for sustainable insurance provision

The work was a collaboration with The Football Association and eight Women's Professional Game Academies, assessing acceleration, deceleration, turning demands, and evaluating player movement strategies.

The study identifies how national sports organisations can maximise their operational effectiveness in addition to complying with statutory governance frameworks.

This research contributes to tourism scholarship, integrating underrepresented Indigenous perspectives through the Mi’kmaw guiding principle of Etuaptmumk/Two-Eyed Seeing, advancing decolonized, relational, place-based tourism governance.

As AI transforms service industries globally, this study explores the perceptions and readiness of event professionals to incorporate AI into their practices, employing stakeholder theory.

In collaboration with the Rugby Football League, the thesis was a quantification of contact and non-contact exposures during training and matchplay in Rugby League.

In collaboration with World Rugby and the Rugby Football League, this thesis validated instrumented mouthguards to quantify head acceleration exposure, revealing implications for player welfare.

High-fat diets raise intramyocellular lipid and impair insulin sensitivity. Exercise improves insulin sensitivity, but its impact on IMCL and IS during high-fat feeding remains unclear.

This unique qualitative study used an intersectional lens to explore how being care-experienced and seeking asylum shaped experiences in sport, physical activity, and everyday life.

This thesis investigated selection biases and playing level and their influence on psychological components in rugby union. All factors were found to influence player development.

Exploring the phenomenon of structural changes within professional sport leagues, an interpretative analysis of the Rugby League Ecosystem to illuminate the co-creation of value.

This project combines new evidence on volunteering and leadership to understand the ways women experience power in voluntary rugby leadership roles.

This thesis explores inequities in cardiac rehabilitation, applying an intersectional lens to reveal barriers, amplify diverse voices, and inform more inclusive, equitable service design.

This thesis highlighted salient issues in rugby that need addressing to improve player welfare and body composition culture.

The Risk-Aesthetic Framework provides a novel way of understanding high-performance sport practices and experiences. The framework combines critical realist research methodology and virtue ethics perspectives.

An investigation into the incidence and progression of acute sarcopenia and how to effectively manage it in clinical populations through nutritional supplementation.

Manish developed a computer-vision model for the identification of head impacts and head acceleration thresholds in rugby league.

This thesis explores the consumer to participant using San Fermin as a case study, showing the impact of co-creation and cultural participation.

This thesis explores novel GNSS data applications in rugby, demonstrating advanced movement pattern analysis, player proximity tracking, and tactical insights beyond traditional physical workload monitoring.

Paul's identified for the first time psychosocial skills required by elite Gaelic Games coaches to perform & subsequently implemented and validated development workshops on psychosocial skills.

This thesis investigates how multidimensional player profiling data can be collected and analysed to inform talent identification and development practices in youth rugby league.

This thesis has investigated the between-day reliability, menstrual cycle related variability, and the long-term adaptability to loading of muscle-tendon unit properties in female athletes.

This research conceptualises the maximal intensity periods in youth soccer by integrating physical, physiological, technical, and tactical components, providing novel insights with practical training implications.

A Novel Case Study in Accelerating the Professional Development of a Strength and Conditioning Coach in an Elite Environment through Reflective Practice.

This research examined the reliability and validity of goalkeeper GPS units and investigated the load placed on goalkeepers throughout a football season.

How growth and maturation influences countermovement jump height performance in school sport athletes across an academic year using biological and chronological age as assessment tools.

This study looks into the effects of maximal deceleration training on deceleration ability in elite youth academy soccer players in collaboration with crystal palace football club.

The Active Gaming Spectrum represents purposeful, strategic, and pragmatic categorisation of pertinent technology, and terminology, offering a functional step toward unified, holistic and optimal impact.

Explores how Africa’s uneven data transfer regulations hinder digital integration and trade, and proposes continental standards, stronger institutions, and capacity-building for intra-African data flows.

The thesis explores Nigeria's failure to criminalize marital rape, revealing patriarchal influences. Interviews unveil cultural and religious intricacies, shaping legislative reform proposals.

This thesis differentiated the role of multiple dimensions of impulsivity and stages of attentional bias amongst e-cigarette, cigarette, and dual users.

This study of religion in nineteenth century British travel writing applies new theoretical approaches to chart religious gazes and the agency of objects within them.

Fiona's research applies sociological concepts of liminality to the Western Front, through thematic analysis of an extensive sample of written and visual creative responses.

A project that has developed services for women with a rare pregnancy related cancer and created new knowledge about the condition from the patient perspective.

A blend of praxis-informed research and structural analysis that examines the strengths, weaknesses, claims and untapped potential of journalism in virtual reality.

A creative/critical exploration of Derrida’s genre theory's narrative potential, using Greek myth as a lens through which to experiment with form and rewrite perpetuated ideas.

An investigation into the stresses and strains of warfare experienced by soldiers and civilians alike. A study which illustrates the long-lasting effects of warfare.

Constructs of two psychologically beneficial forms of unconditional love were developed. One was relationally contained. The other was transpersonal: a wakeful experience of non-localised consciousness.

An ethnographic exploration of patient, carer and healthcare professional experiences.

Via archive research and literary analysis, this thesis demonstrates the significance of of women on Stevenson’s life and writing.

This study explores whether engagement in the Shannon Trust’s peer-led prison reading scheme indicates aspects of personal change supportive of desistance processes.

Ruth used the novel approach of ‘information interventions’ in qualitative interviews to find out what is understood about the barriers to upward social mobility.

This thesis examines how my novel The Archive employs autofiction to process late autism diagnosis, challenge normative life writing, and foster empathy through innovative strategies.

Research examined how physiological signals were associated with emotional processing across the lifespan, indicating a mid-life peak in sensitivity to bodily cues for ambiguous emotions.

This thesis used a systematic review, a survey and case series to explore speech and language therapy interventions for young children who have speech difficulties.

A critical examination of the curatorial strategies found within the independent art projects of 1990s East London and their impact on the institution of art.

A thesis exploring the safety behaviours of heavy mobile equipment drivers working in the construction and extraction of raw materials industry.

The decision-making experiences of individuals with dysphagia when they are advised to modify their food and drink to improve swallow safety.

This thesis investigates how social and urban inequality was embedded and experienced in early twentieth-century Sheffield through a comparative micro-spatial study of two contrasting streets.

The study examined the physical demands, workload exposure, and physical performance responses in ice hockey players competing in the British National Ice Hockey League.

A purpose-built, single-molecule FRET instrument and hidden Markov modelling were used to determine the dynamic structure of viral replicative structures within the Dengue Virus genome.

This project explored injury patterns and muscle adaptations in barefoot and shod runners, highlighting neuromuscular benefits, muscle efficiency, and practical challenges of grass-based barefoot running.

Studying how statins can prevent the spread and aggressiveness of colorectal cancer by targeting platelets and platelet-induced cancer progression.

The research defines prison playwork, exploring its practice across prisons and highlighting its importance in supporting children and families affected by parental incarceration.

The thesis examines how street triage practitioners make decisions, alongside how these decisions are shaped and constrained by macro neoliberal reforms within mental health practice.

An ethnographic study of child protection practice in a front-door team which examines decision making processes and professional judgement.

This research adopted a critical realist, mixed methods approach to investigate the relationship between postnatal care satisfaction ratings and postnatal depression.

This research explores barriers & facilitators for South Asians in the Low-Calorie Diet programme, highlighting the need for culturally tailored interventions to enhance inclusivity and effectiveness.

This Phd has developed, validated and deployed a new player reported outcome measure, the Rugby Shoulder Function questionnaire, to identify shoulder dysfucntion with fit players.

This study integrates quantitative and qualitative evidence to show how household, cultural, and systemic factors shape teenage pregnancy in Rwanda, highlighting need for multi-level interventions.

This research is important to the UK because it revealed the complex narratives shaping the psychological-well being of African migrant women.

Compassion shapes communities, policies and organisations. Listening to voices of lived experience, demonstrates that people are not merely subjects of care but profound compassionate architects.