Motorsport UK is pleased to announce its partnership with Nottingham Trent University and the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) to offer a fully-funded PhD position, focusing on talent development across motorsport and other sports. 

The researcher will work closely with Motorsport UK’s Academy Team, encouraging more aspiring girls into karting, exploring talent development across a range of environments, including what it takes to be an elite athlete and how best to support and develop these candidates. 

TASS is an athlete support programme enabling talented athletes to progress up the talent/performance pathway. Backed by Sport England, the TASS partnership brings together education institutions, sports and expert practitioners to support athletes across the UK. 

Katie Baldwin, Head of Competitor Development, Motorsport UK, comments, “Understanding the pivotal role that sports science plays on athlete development is not only fundamental for our coaching programmes, but also working alongside Nottingham Trent University and TASS will enable us to knowledge share and ultimately ‘road test’ what works to create healthy talent development. This is also a crucial period for us as the bulk of existing research, which is limited as it is, is on male athletes, so this programme will enable us to better understand the requirements of female athletes.”  

Nathan Cobb, Senior Lecturer, Performance Analysis, Nottingham Trent University, adds, “Having the opportunity to offer a programme with Motorsport UK opens up the opportunity to undertake a longitudinal study of drivers within the Motorsport UK Academy system, in addition to exploring how the coaching experience differs for females. Through the programme we will be able to look at factors such as performance analysis, skill acquisition and developing young athletes in greater detail, which can only benefit be of benefit to young athletes already in motorsport and those who are considering this pathway.” 

Hugh Chambers, CEO, Motorsport UK, says, “We are fully aware of the importance of data analysis and the sports science required to ensure that our athletes continue to develop to become the best on track. Having the opportunity to offer a fully-funded PhD, backed by the knowledge-base that Nottingham Trent University and their TASS programme offers, highlights the importance of deepening our learning around motorsport to attract future talent into our pathway programmes.” 

Guy Taylor, Director, TASS, says, “We are really pleased to be working with Motorsport UK and one of our long-term delivery sites, Nottingham Trent University. We are looking forward to taking the learnings from this PhD and applying them across the wider talent pathway to help the development of female athletes across a number of sports.”  

Interested applicants can find out more via this link