The Centre for Sport, Exercise and Life Sciences offering fully funded studentships to tackle COVID-19

Coventry University’s Centre for Sport, Exercise and Life Sciences are inviting applications for nineteen PhD studentships designed to deliver research-led solutions to the challenges posed by COVID-19.

The Centre for Sport, Exercise and Life Sciences (CSELS) undertakes interdisciplinary scientific research through the application of sport, exercise and biological associated sciences to understand life from the molecular level through to the whole body.

The coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact across the world. In response, Coventry University has invested £3.4 million in a suite of 50 studentships which focus on themes related to COVID-19 and the post-pandemic future.

The CSELS studentships cover a wide breadth of health related topics, with a large proportion of the opportunities falling under the centre’s Disease Prevention, Therapeutics and Diagnostics research theme. Some of the studentships in this area include an analysis of the gut microbiome as a predictor of COVID-19 disease severity, and a study into improving virus-load measurement and preventing false negative results in testing.

Meanwhile, opportunities within the centre’s Clinical and Molecular Exercise Physiology theme include projects such as improved screening of the cardiovascular safety of COVID-19 anti-viral compounds and the development and evaluation of a home-based exercise programme in people with peripheral arterial disease. Applications are also invited for a Sport and Human Performance project exploring heat illness and health of emergency first responders wearing personal protective clothing in hot weather, and opportunities within the centre’s Physical Activity and Health theme include an investigation into immune system activity in obese/diabetic participants following an exercise intervention.

The studentships will commence in either September 2020 or January 2021 and are open to UK/EU graduates who meet the stated Coventry University Research Programme eligibility criteria. Application dates vary, with some closing on 3 August 2020 and others closing on 30 October 2020.