PhD Studentship in Safe listening in music venues: scalable technologies for citizen science and knowledge building.

Supervisor 1: Ian Wiggins [[email protected]]

Supervisor 2: Graham Naylor [[email protected]]

Supervisor 3: Adam Hill [[email protected]]

Location: NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Building 40, University Park Campus, Nottingham. 

Funding status: This studentship is funded by the NIHR (National Institute of Health and Care Research) Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre. The studentship will cover home University rates which includes a stipend of £18,622 per annum and tuition fees. UK/Home students only.

Project description:

Loud sound has the capacity to excite and injure in equal measure. Through projects such as the World Health Organization’s ‘Make Listening Safe’ initiative, the Audio Engineering Society’s ‘Healthy Ears, Limited Annoyance (HeLa) programme, and the Night Time Industries Association’s ‘Listen for Life’ campaign, there is growing awareness of the need for the professional audio industry to take a pro-active approach to protect audience members’ hearing.

Join a dynamic, multi-disciplinary team, that includes lead contributors to some of the above-mentioned projects, to conduct groundbreaking PhD research into how live sound can be made simultaneously safer and better quality, to the benefit of audiences in Nottingham and beyond.   

As a PhD candidate, you will be involved in setting up long-term sound monitoring systems in local venues, developing a smartphone app that will allow venue goers to contribute their experience of sound quality and hearing symptoms for research, and using data science techniques to improve our understanding of how the details of the sound exposure influence hearing-injury risk and perceived sound quality. 

We seek highly motivated candidates with a first-class or upper 2.1 honours degree (or equivalent), or an MSc/MA, in audio engineering, acoustics, audiology, computer science, or a relevant scientific discipline. Research experience in hearing, psychology, or a related field will be advantageous, as will demonstrable skills in programming, data science, or app development. 

Subject area:

Audio, acoustics, hearing, audiology, music, app development

Funding notes:

This studentship is funded by the NIHR (National Institute of Health and Care Research) Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre. The studentship will cover home University rates which includes a stipend of £18,622 per annum and tuition fees. UK/Home students only.

Studentship start date: Choice of 1 July 2024 or 1 October 2024. Duration is 36 months full time.

How to apply:

Please email [email protected] with the following documents and put “Safe listening NIHR Nottingham BRC PhD studentship” in the title. 

• A maximum of a 2-page C.V. 
• Degree certificate and transcript (if already graduated) or a recent transcript.
• 800 words personal statement (maximum but excludes references) about why you are interested in doing this PhD, how the ideas outlined align with your interests and experiences and any specific ideas you have for research projects you have in this area.
• Either two references (in a non-editable format, on headed paper and signed by the referee) or the details of two referees that we can contact. One of the references must be academic.

Additional enquiries:

Informal enquiries may be addressed to Ian Wiggins email: [email protected]