Sports and Exercise Science: Fully Funded EPSRC INEOS PhD: Towards the Development of Digital Twins for Efficient Talent Identification in Professional Cycling

The landscape of professional cycling has changed dramatically over the past decade with more nations represented at a professional level. This has led to more professional teams introducing development teams (U23s), and increasingly more teams are now considering riders at the junior level to ensure a pipeline of talented riders.

The identification of talent at younger ages is becoming increasingly competitive; more efficient and effective methods are needed. Cycling remains one of the more technologically advanced sports and various forms of performance and race data are often publicly available. However, these data sources are vast and sometimes inconsistent - automated methods would enhance the collation and analysis of data to better identify talent that can consequently be invited for further testing.

The aim of this project is therefore to design and build a digital thread. This will utilise current and legacy INEOS performance metrics and associated public data streams to identify and track the trajectory of junior level riders across the world. Initially, techniques will be designed to follow national junior results across all competition formats in a select number of countries and build automated systems to flag ‘unusual and interesting’ results. This will then allow more in-depth exploration of individual training history and trajectories over time.  

Funding Details

Funding Comment

This scholarship covers the full cost of tuition fees and an annual stipend at the UKRI rate (currently £19,237 for 2024/25).
Additional research expenses of up to £1,000 per year will also be available.

EPSRC DLA studentships are available to home and international students. Up to 30% of our cohort can comprise international students, once the limit has been reached, we are unable to make offers to international students.   

We are still accepting applications from international applicants.    
International students will not be charged the fee difference between the UK and international rates. Applicants should satisfy the UKRI eligibility requirements. 

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