PhD Title: Can incorporating force assessment technologies improve rehabilitation in military personnel with ankle and calf injuries?
This studentship is with University of Salford and The Academic Department of Military Rehabilitation
Academic Supervisor: Professor Paul Comfort
Academic Co-Supervisors: Dr Christopher Bramah & Dr Nicholas Ripley
Industrial Co-Supervisors: Dr Peter Ladlow
The studentship is fully funded and includes:
A fee waiver
A stipend of £19,237 in Yr 1 PA for three and a half years
All bench fees and consumable costs
Final date for applications: Monday 25th August 2025, before 16:00
Interviews will be held on 1st & 2nd September 2025 at the UK Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Stanford Hall. Applicants should ensure that they are available on these dates.
The candidate must be in a position to register with the University by 22nd September 2025. Please note, there is no expectation that the candidate be based in the local area (Catterick) by this date.
Description:
The partnership with UK Defence Rehabilitation is a unique opportunity to pioneer innovative new approaches to rehabilitation, including new technologies providing real time feedback for clinicians and patients, and is a clinical model that it is hoped will form the basis of future UK Defence Rehabilitation Best Practice Guidelines.
Background:
The UK Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC), located at Stanford Hall is a state-of-the-art Ministry of Defence clinical rehabilitation facility, providing expert care and support for wounded, injured and sick Armed Forces personnel. The partnership with the Academic Department of Military Rehabilitation (ADMR) based at DMRC Stanford Hall is a unique opportunity to pioneer innovative new approaches to rehabilitation, but within a primary care rehabilitation setting. This includes new force assessment technologies which can provide real time feedback, regarding muscle function, for clinicians and patients. This model of rehabilitation is being delivered alongside the development of the UK Defence late-stage rehabilitation best practice care pathway. If the programme demonstrates meaningful results, it is likely to transform the delivery of rehabilitation across Defence rehabilitation.
Aims and Objectives:
Objective measures of force production capability are required to allow rehabilitation practitioners and physical training staff to accurately measure functional status and exercise or treatment adaptations over time. Currently, normative strength reference values using healthy service personnel employed in their primary role are unavailable. Access to normative reference values from annual fitness tests and strength data derived from portable force plates will provide important metrics (e.g., relative maximum force, rate of force development [RFD]) to better understand the functional requirements of military personnel within different trades and population characteristics (e.g., age and sex). The determination of such data will inform rehabilitation practices for musculoskeletal injury (MSKI) and return to duty criteria. The ‘STRength prOfiliNG of Army Personnel’ study (‘STRONG – Army’) has already commenced and will provide normative strength reference values (based on age, sex and job role) in ≥2000 Army personnel.
Funding has been awarded by the Defence Medical Services Research Steering Group to develop this line of research with foci on performance, injury risk mitigation and rehabilitation. ‘STRONG-Army’ will identify normative muscle strength reference values in Army personnel to inform relevant policy and practices. Data derived from the ‘STRONG-Army’ study will form the basis of the ‘STRONG-Rehab’ study.
Located at two Army garrison primary care rehabilitation facilities (PCRFs [Tidworth and Catterick]), the ‘STRONG Rehab’ ‘study will aim to integrate the ‘STRONG-Army’ data into UK Defence Rehabilitation practice. The primary aim of the ‘STRONG-Rehab’ study is to compare force plate and strain gauge informed lower leg injury rehabilitation versus ‘conventional’ practice. This will also permit potential re-focusing of rehabilitation priorities, based on changes in maximal and rapid force production characteristics, which may expedite the rehabilitation process and reduce the incidence of injury reoccurrence upon return to duty.
Academic Scope and Novelty: While force plates and strain gauges have been used for such testing methods, there are numerous different protocols for the assessment of the plantar flexors, with no consensus on the standardization of protocols for the assessment of peak force, force at different time-points or RFD. Additionally, to date no direct comparisons between testing protocols has been conducted to determine the most valid and reliable assessment methods.
The majority of return to sport or return to duty criteria that have been established for lower leg injuries rely on measures of peak force, however, many of these injuries and re-injuries occur during tasks not only requiring high levels of force production, but also rapid force production, making the assessment of such characteristics (e.g., RFD) essential during the rehabilitation and return to duty process. This novel approach to assessment will be used to inform rehabilitation practices, which is anticipated to increase the efficiency and success of such practices, which will be demonstrated via the results of a randomized control trial.
Collaboration Need: While the rehabilitation staff across UK Defence are experts in musculoskeletal rehabilitation, their skills and experience with the use of portable force assessment technologies is limited. However, the proposed supervisory team from the University of Salford have extensive expertise (>10 years) in the use of such technologies and have published numerous peer reviewed journal articles (>50) on the use of such technologies in sports performance and rehabilitation. The combination of these two areas of expertise should lead to a symbiotic approach to the refinement of the testing protocols and how they may be used to inform rehabilitation practices.
The findings of this iPhD will play a crucial role in the development and implementation of the assessment of force time characteristics for the plantar flexors, in injured military personnel treated at primary care rehabilitation facilities. The findings will also help to inform assessment and rehabilitation practices for military personnel with lower leg injuries, enhancing and expediting the rehabilitation process. The findings from the project will be embedded into the education and knowledge exchange between research practitioners and the applied expertise of the exercise rehabilitation instructors and physiotherapists.
Overall research question: Can portable force assessment technology be exploited by UK Defence to better inform/guide rehabilitation practices after lower leg (i.e., angle and calf) injuries?
Candidates: The successful candidate will be expected to be based near and collect data at PCRF Catterick (North Yorkshire) and assist with other data collection events at military units located across the UK throughout the PhD, as required.
Essential - Candidates must hold a minimum bachelor’s degree in physiotherapy, sports science, strength and conditioning, sport rehabilitation, exercise and health sciences or a related field (minimum of upper second-class honors).
Desirable – An MSc in a related field. Applied rehabilitation experience working with clinical, athletic or military populations. Experience in the use of force plates and / or strain gauges. Experience in conducting systematic reviews and empirical research. Use of common statistical analysis software packages.
Funding Eligibility: This studentship is only available to students with settled status in the UK, as classified by EPSRC eligibility. Please visit: https://www.ukri.org/councils/epsrc/career-and-skills-development/studentships/industrial-case/
Enquiries: Initial enquiries may be made to Professor Paul Comfort by email: p.comfort@salford.ac.uk
Curriculum vitae and supporting statement explaining their interest and a 5 page research proposal should be sent to: m.watts@salford.ac.uk The 5-page proposal should consist of an initial introduction a concise review of literature and an outline of the proposed studies for the PhD. This should be no longer than 5 pages, excluding the reference list.
Note to applicant: In addition to applying for this role the successful candidate will also be required to complete the University application process which applies to all students wishing to study at The University of Salford. How to apply for research studies can be found here: https://www.salford.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/applying/applying-for-research