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2010

 

    • PHD STUDY AND SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES IN INJURY PREVENTION AND SAFETY PROMOTION

    • School of Human Movement and Sports Science
      University of Ballarat

      The University of Ballarat has recently established new strategic research directions for the next 5-10 years.  One of the four supported research strength areas is Injury Prevention and Injury Control (see http://www.ballarat.edu.au/ard/ubresearch/docs/UB_IRRRI_FutDir_web.pdf for further details).

      Opportunities currently exist for new PhD students to join this internationally recognised research group, led by Professor Caroline Finch, within the School of Human Movement and Sports Science at the University of Ballarat.  Whilst all student places will be funded, up to two new PhD scholars will also be eligible to be awarded Australian Postgraduate Awards (APA) to provide further support during their PhD candidature.  These scholarship opportunities are only available to Australian citizens/residents.

      Scholarships will be awarded on merit and full information is available at: http://www.ballarat.edu.au/ard/ubresearch/hdrs/scholarships/index.shtml

      Higher Degree by research application forms can be obtained at http://www.ballarat.edu.au/ard/ubresearch/forms.shtml and applicants are encouraged to phone 03 5327 9608 for advice.

      Closing Date is 23rd March 2009.

      Candidates with an interest in undertaking research into the following topic areas are particularly encouraged to apply for these scholarships:

      A.  Novel statistical applications into injury data and injury data systems

      1. Critical analysis of existing sports injury surveillance definition statements and national data collection systems, with a view to developing/refining international guidelines for the ongoing collection, classification and reporting of sports injury statistics
      2. Modelling the impact of injury recurrence on population-level estimates of injury incidence
      3. Modelling the impact of different definitions of injury exposure (denominator data) on sports injury incidence rate estimates
      4. Applying newly developed statistical methods (e.g. functional data analysis, recursive residuals, time series, etc) to the analysis of injury data, particularly in the context of sports injuries or falls in the elderly

      B.  Understanding the implementation context for sports safety interventions

      1. Understanding how coaches, club officials and other key stakeholders make formal decisions about sports safety and set safety policy for community sport
      2. Understanding the context of community sport delivery and how it impacts on how individual sports participants change their safety-related behaviours
      3. Strategies and guidelines for working with peak sports bodies to set national, state and/or regional sport safety policy
      4. The interface and interactions between injury prevention (safety) policy and practice, particularly in the context of sports injuries or falls in the elderly
      5. New approaches for measuring the uptake/compliance/adherence with safety interventions, particularly in longitudinal studies
      6. Development of new methodological and conceptual approaches (either qualitative or quantitative) for the conduct and/or evaluation of studies evaluating the uptake and sustainability of implemented community sports safety interventions in community sport

      Successful candidates will hold an Honours (First Class), or equivalent, degree with a good academic track record in research-related subjects.  Candidates with backgrounds in biostatistics, statistics, epidemiology and other quantitative disciplines would be highly suited to projects in topic area A.  For topic area B, suitable backgrounds would include epidemiology, public health, psychology, behavioural sciences, health promotion.

      Main supervision will be provided by Professor Caroline Finch (http://www.ballarat.edu.au/ard/hmss/staff/profiles/caroline_finch_research.shtml) with appropriate co-supervision based on the chosen topic area.  For further information about possible research projects, she can be contacted on (03) 5327 9878 or c.finch@ballarat.edu.au.

      It is intended that the successful candidates will be based full-time at the Mount Helen Campus of the University of Ballarat.

      For information regarding Timetables associated with meeting Ethics requirements in research ,Please Click Here

      For information regarding Funding for Research for Post Graduate students ,Please Click Here