PhD Studentship on Gaming and Sustainability

Length of Contract: 3 years

Salary Range

The studentship is fully funded by the NWCDTP, with fees paid plus an annual stipend at the UKRI standard rate (£19,237 per year for 2024-2025).

This full-time fully funded PhD is funded by the AHRC The North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership (NWCDTP). It is part of a group of three PhD studentships focusing on Sustainable Game Design and Consumption. Two of the PhDs will be based at Manchester Metropolitan University, and this third studentship at the University of Salford.

In particular, this PhD completes the ecosystemic investigation of sustainable design and play by researching the consumption of games. The study aims to understand how gaming practices contribute to (un)sustainable behaviours and explore strategies to foster more eco-friendly consumption and production in gaming. Key research questions may include: How do gaming cultures and consumer behaviours contribute to environmental impacts? What sustainable practices can developers, publishers, and platforms adopt to reduce their ecological footprint? How can sustainable gaming practices influence broader consumption habits?

The study will employ a mixed-methods approach, which may include: a literature review to assess research on sustainable consumption, gaming, and the broader entertainment industry, surveys and interviews with consumers, developers, and industry professionals to explore attitudes towards sustainability and gaming habits, case studies of consumer perspectives on sustainability and games, and comparative analysis to generate insights about the different cases. Expected outcomes include a deeper understanding of how consumers understand the sustainability of games consumption, recommendations for developers to integrate sustainability into their communication/design of gaming products and services, and insights into how games can raise awareness about ecological issues. The project aims to influence both industry practices and player behaviours by establishing frameworks for sustainable play.

The project will be supervised by Prof. Garry Crawford (Salford) and Dr Tom Brock (MMU).

The studentship is fully funded by the NWCDTP, with fees paid plus an annual stipend at the UKRI standard rate (£19,237 per year for 2024-2025). Successful applicants will start in October 2025. This project is open to both Home and International students.

Interested applicants should contact Prof. Garry Crawford (g.crawford@salford.ac.uk) for an informal discussion.

To apply you will need to submit a research proposal addressing the project’s focus, demonstrating how the skills you have maps to the area of research, and why you see this area as being of importance and interest.

This should be submitted as part of the online application (via the ‘Apply’ button above) for a full-time PhD in Sociology in the School of Health & Society.

Expected start date: October 2025

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