About the Project
Funded PhD Studentship to work with Hawk-Eye Innovations to advance injury identification and performance analysis in sport using video tracking systems.
Are you ready to shape the future of athlete welfare and sports performance using cutting-edge tracking technology and applied data science?
This prestigious PhD studentship offers a rare opportunity to work directly with world-leading experts in sports technology, video tracking systems, injury surveillance, biomechanics, and performance analysis. Your research will help drive transformative change in how video tracking technologies are used to identify injurious events, optimise player safety, and enhance sporting performance across elite sport.
In this exciting collaboration between Hawk-Eye Innovations and the Carnegie School of Sport at Leeds Beckett University, we are seeking an ambitious and passionate researcher to join a project with real-world impact. The project will involve collaboration with additional sporting organisations and technology partners, with opportunities to contribute to applied research across multiple sports, including rugby union and rugby league.
During the 3-year funded PhD studentship, you will be immersed in a vibrant interdisciplinary research environment focused on advancing athlete welfare, injury prevention, and performance optimisation through innovative technology and applied analytics.
The Carnegie School of Sport at Leeds Beckett University is purposefully driven to make a difference to people, communities and organisations through collaborative research and knowledge exchange. Our culture is founded upon a genuine commitment and capacity to work with others on real-world applied problems to achieve impact beyond academia. From our work examining head impacts and concussion, talent development systems and ethical coaching, to our research tackling gender equality, threats to sporting integrity and obesity, we are generating transdisciplinary knowledge to address some of the key issues facing sport and society today.
We are offering one funded PhD studentship commencing in October 2026.
The primary research location will be at the Carnegie School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University (LS6 3QS), although the role may require travel for data collection, collaboration meetings, and engagement with sporting organisations.
Project Overview
Advances in automated video tracking and computer vision technologies have created new opportunities to better understand injury mechanisms and sporting performance in elite sport. However, there remains limited evidence regarding the utility of these systems for identifying injurious events, quantifying movement characteristics, and supporting decision-making in applied sporting environments.
This PhD project will evaluate the application of Hawk-Eye video tracking systems to identify injurious and/or optimal contact techniques across multiple sports. Initial work will focus on suspected head injuries in rugby union and rugby league, with opportunities to expand into additional sports during the programme.
The project will involve synchronising Hawk-Eye tracking data with coded video footage and other available data sources to investigate movement characteristics, impact mechanisms, and contextual factors associated with injurious and non-injurious events. The successful candidate will contribute to the development and evaluation of enhanced algorithms capable of improving the identification and classification of injury-related events and performance actions.
The programme of research will initially involve:
- Applying Hawk-Eye tracking systems to describe injurious and non-injurious events in elite sport;
- Comparing tracking outputs with established injury risk factors identified through video analysis and other data sources;
- Synchronising tracking data with manually coded and labelled video footage to support model training and validation;
- Investigating movement characteristics such as player speed, positioning, and impact angles associated with injury mechanisms;
- Evaluating the utility and limitations of current tracking systems for injury surveillance and performance analysis;
- Proposing and testing algorithm developments to improve the application of video tracking systems in sport.
The project is expected to generate high-impact research outputs including peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, technical reports, and practical recommendations for sporting organisations and technology providers.
Candidate Requirements
Applicants should possess:
- A first-class or upper second-class undergraduate degree (or international equivalent) in sport science, biomechanics, computer science, data science, engineering, mathematics, or a related discipline;
- A Master’s degree in a relevant area (desirable);
- Experience in sports analytics, biomechanics, video analysis, coding/programming, machine learning, statistics, or performance analysis (desirable);
- Strong written and verbal communication skills;
- A passion for applied research with real-world sporting impact.
- Experience working within elite sport, handling large datasets, or using programming languages such as Python, R, or MATLAB would be advantageous.
Supervisory Team
The core supervisory team will include researchers from Leeds Beckett University B.Jones@leedsbeckett.ac.uk, J.Tooby@leedsbeckett.ac.uk and T.Sawczuk@leedsbeckett.ac.uk and Hawk-Eye Innovations (Jordon Gale), alongside collaborators from partner sporting organisations.
Applicants are encouraged to discuss their proposals with a member of the supervisory team.
Application Reference Number: 2026-October-HAWKEYE/CSS-PhD
Start Date: 01 October 2026
Mode of Study: Full-Time (3yrs)
Number of Opportunities Available: 1
Interviews to take place from: 07 September 2026 to 11 September 2026
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