Master’s by Research opportunities
Sport, Exercise, and Rehabilitation Sciences at Kent provides an excellent environment to undertake your first steps into postgraduate research. Choosing to study for an MSc (by research and thesis) allows you to work directly with our research-active staff who have a considerable breadth of interests and can supervise you across a range of areas in sport and exercise sciences, sports therapy and sports management.
How to apply
Once you have identified a project you are interested in, contact the named supervisor by email to discuss the possibility of undertaking an MSc under their supervision. Please outline your interest in the research project and supply a CV, including all relevant experience and details of how you will fund your study. After securing a project and a supervisor, you can proceed to make an online application.
For further information on how to apply online for Postgraduate research degrees, see our website. Alternatively, please contact information@kent.ac.uk with any questions on how to proceed.
Please note that additional research fees of £500+ apply to each of the listed projects.
Our projects
Explore our staff expertise and the projects on offer for Master’s by Research students below:
Master’s Projects (by Research and Thesis)
- Caffeine and immune responses to exercise: is there a genetic influence?
- Nutritional strategies to protect the gut during exercise
- Nutrition, immunity and illness in athletes
- Why does pain not always feel the same? Investigating the variation in response to exertional pain
- Sport, exercise, and/or clinical biomechanics
- The role of exercise-induced pain in fatigue and endurance performance
Master’s project descriptions
Caffeine and immune responses to exercise: is there a genetic influence?
Supervisor: Professor Glen Davison
Caffeine has been studied extensively as an ergogenic aid and there is some evidence showing it may protect some components of immune function in response to prolonged exercise. There is, however, large inter-subject variability in responses to caffeine, with some individuals suggested to be ‘non-responders’. Recent research shows this may be related to genetic factors, with a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the CYP1A2 gene identified as a key predictor of responses to caffeine. However, there is no current research on the influence of this SNP on immune responses to caffeine, and this will be the aim of this project.
Nutritional strategies to protect the gut during exercise
Supervisor: Professor Glen Davison
Heavy exercise may cause damage to gut cells and a temporary increase in intestinal permeability. This may contribute to gastrointestinal complaints frequently reported by athletes. Strategies that reduce the effects of exercise on gut damage and permeability may be of benefit. Numerous nutritional interventions have been studied, but further research is required to better determine the optimal type, dose and duration of supplementation for optimal benefit. This project will allow the student to investigate the effects of novel nutritional strategies on gut damage and permeability markers in response to exercise.
Nutrition, immunity and illness in athletes
Supervisor: Professor Glen Davison
Exercise has been shown to affect most areas of the immune system in some way. Moderate exercise or training may enhance immunity and lower upper respiratory illness (URI) risk whereas intensive training may have the opposite effect in some athletes. Strategies to maintain or enhance immunity are of benefit to such individuals. Nutritional strategies and supplements are an attractive intervention as they are easy to implement within a normal training programme. However, much of the research on their effectiveness is limited in the markers used to quantify immune function and illness risk. This study will investigate a nutritional intervention in this context, with the use of high value (i.e. in vivo and/or clinically relevant) outcome measures.
Why does pain not always feel the same? Investigating the variation in response to exertional pain
Supervisor: Dr Samuel Smith and Professor Lex Mauger
Naturally occurring muscle pain during physical exertion is a well-recognised phenomenon that occurs across all populations. Whilst non-damaging, the perception of exertional pain is typically interpreted as an aversive threat to the body that should be avoided or overcome. Pain is however complex and subjective and is experienced differently both between individuals and for the same individual across different situations and states. The aversive and unpredictable experience of exertional pain can therefore have implications for exercise adherence and performance.
Sport, exercise, and/or clinical biomechanics
Supervisor: Dr Jake Bowd
Jake is open to supervising new PhD and MSc students focused on sport, exercise, and/or clinical biomechanics and can be contacted via the email above.
The role of exercise-induced pain in fatigue and endurance performance
Supervisor: Professor Lex Mauger
Lex’s principal research focuses on the regulation of work rate during exercise, and specifically how conscious sensations arising from intense exercise influences this process. This overarching theme influences his main area of study – the role of exercise-induced pain in fatigue and endurance performance. This work explores how the naturally occurring and non-pathological muscle pain that occurs when we exercise intensely for a sustained period impacts both our physiological ability and our psychological desire to exercise. In a psychophysiological approach, Lex employs a variety of techniques and methods, including; transcranial magnetic stimulation, peripheral nerve stimulation, electromyography, experimental pain induction, online gas analysis, think aloud, and post-exercise interview, and a variety of exercise paradigms including isometric muscle contraction, cycling and running ergometry and training studies.
Academic staff and research areas – Sport, Exercise, and Rehabilitation Sciences
- Anatomy and Function of Fascia
- Myofascial Pain
- Adaptation of fascia to mechanical loading
- Sports Nutrition
- Exercise Immunology
- Respiratory problems in athletes
- Disordered breathing during exercise
- Sport Nutrition
- Response to exercise training
- Endurance performance
- Regulation of work rate during exercise
- The role of exercise-induced pain in fatigue and endurance performance
- Regulation of pain during exercise
- Use of physical activity as an alternative or adjunctive therapy in the treatment and prevention of chronic diseases