Sleep and performance in elite athletes – industry PhD scholarship with top up funding

Monash University is seeking a high-calibre and ambitious PhD candidate to work in the sports industry examining the relationships between sleep, circadian timing, recovery and performance in elite athletes. Specific sporting groups will include AFL, NRL and NBL. The project will be jointly located with Monash's newly established Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health and industry partners. The Turner Institute is one of Australia’s largest Institutes for brain and mental health established through the generosity of the late David Winston Turner, who presented Monash University with Australia’s largest single gift to mental health. A key area of activity within the Institute is collaboration with industry in order to achieve research impact. The Turner Institute's Sleep and Circadian Rhythms Program includes over 70 researchers and represents one of Australia's largest and most diverse academic sleep groups. This fully funded scholarship (up to $29k p/a over 3.5 years) with top up ($5k p/a over 3 years) will involve working with a cross disciplinary world class research team and prestigious industry partners under the joint mentorship of Dr Elise Facer-Childs, Prof. Shantha Rajaratnam and Prof. Sean Drummond. The candidate will have the opportunity to work closely with professional athletes to increase understanding of the role of sleep and chronobiology in performance and the development of intervention programs. The candidate will receive specialist training in state-of-the-art techniques in sleep and chronobiology research, and develop their knowledge of commercial research environments. The candidate must have completed an honours degree (with first class honours or equivalent) in Psychology, Sports Science, Human Biology or a related discipline. It is expected that the candidate will also be applying for an RTP scholarship as an alternative option. NOTE: The candidate must be an Australian/New Zealand citizen or permanent resident of Australia.