Area: Engineering
Host University: University of Nottingham
School/Department: Engineering
Location: United Kingdom (Nottinghamshire)
Reference: ENG285
Closing Date: Sunday, 30 November 2025 (11:59 pm)
Start Date: Wednesday, 1 April 2026
Funding and Working Arrangements
Funding Offer: Full tuition fees (worth approximately £15,000–£17,000 across the PhD programme)
Working Hours: Full-time (minimum 37.5 hours per week)
Working Style: Primarily in-person at the University of Nottingham; flexible working arrangements supported.
Working Pattern: To be agreed between the successful candidate and the lead supervisor.
Supervisory Team
Lead Academic Supervisor: Dr Michael Craven (University of Nottingham)
Academic Co-Supervisor: Dr Adeolu Badi Adewoye (Nottingham Trent University)
Academic Co-Supervisor: Dr Shreyank Narayana Gowda (University of Nottingham)
Community Supervisor: Dr Beili Shao (Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust)
Project Overview
Caring for individuals living with dementia can be emotionally and physically demanding—especially when carers are unfamiliar with the specific challenges faced by residents. This interdisciplinary PhD project aims to improve the experience of both carers and residents in Nottinghamshire care homes by developing personalised digital avatars that simulate realistic dementia care scenarios.
Working closely with carers, families, care home staff, and community organisations, the project will co-design and evaluate these avatars to create immersive training tools. These will help new carers prepare for the specific communication styles, behaviours, and emotional needs they may encounter in each care home.
A major focus will be ensuring that the avatars reflect diverse cultural experiences and expressions of dementia, particularly those that are underrepresented in conventional Western training models. For instance, some residents may express distress or confusion in ways shaped by their cultural, linguistic, or religious background. By embedding these nuances in avatar simulations, the project aims to promote inclusive, compassionate, and culturally responsive dementia care.
Ultimately, the research seeks to enhance carer confidence, reduce stress, and improve the quality of care for residents living with dementia.
About the Collaboratory Programme
This project is part of the Collaboratory (Collab) — a pioneering £7.4 million, 8-year research programme funded by the Research England Development Fund and launched in 2022. Collaboratory brings together universities, community organisations, and citizens to co-create research that delivers tangible benefits to local communities in Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and Rutland.
Through this programme:
77 PhD candidates and 37 research placement candidates will be recruited from local communities.
Participants will be trained as future leaders in community-engaged research, fostering positive, evidence-based change.
The University of Nottingham is a supportive, inclusive, and diverse community that values people of all cultures, ethnicities, and beliefs. We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer (Level 2) and the first university to achieve an Athena Swan Gold Award.
We actively encourage applications from all backgrounds and are committed to fair and accessible recruitment processes.
Applicants will be considered on an equal basis, subject to UK Right to Work regulations.
In your application, please refer to Polytechnicpositions.com
#J-18808-Ljbffr