PhD Studentship: Information Resilience and Cognitive Adaptation to Information Overload

The Midlands Graduate School is an accredited Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP). One of 15 such partnerships in the UK, the Midlands Graduate School is a collaboration between the Universities of Warwick, Birmingham, Nottingham, Aston Leicester, Loughborough, De Montfort and Nottingham Trent.

We are now inviting applications for an ESRC Doctoral Studentship to be based at the Centre for Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE III) at the University of Warwick to commence in October 2025.

The project will explore the resilience of information processing and cognitive adaptation to information overload. It will contribute to a large-scale lab experiment investigating how individuals comprehend and re-tell scientific content under varying conditions of information density and complexity. The study will involve a diverse sample of participants, generating a rich dataset on cognitive and communicative processes in high-information environments.

This PhD will suit candidates with backgrounds in psychology, cognitive science, linguistics, or data science, with experience coding in R or Python, natural language processing, and experimental design.

Application Process

To be considered for these PhD studentships, please complete the CAGE Studentship application form available online, via the above ‘Apply’ button and upload an anonymised CV and cover letter, along with transcripts of your previous qualification. Shortlisted applicants will also be required to provide two references.

Application deadline: 14^th April 2025

Midlands Graduate School ESRC DTP

Our ESRC studentships cover fees at the home rate, a maintenance stipend, and extensive support for research training, as well as research activity support grants. Support is available to both home and international applicants. For further details, visit: www.mgsdtp.ac.uk/studentships/eligibility/.

Informal enquiries about the research projects or CAGE prior to application can be directed to Professor Thomas Hills on t.t.hills@warwick.ac.uk.

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