Overview
As part of the AHRC MusicFutures Creative Custer programme at University of Liverpool, this fully funded full-time PhD studentship post will work with the MusicFutures research team and alongside the programmes 27 industry delivery partners to explore, propose, develop, trial and evaluate innovative, inclusive and sustainable approaches to mentoring, coaching and training within the UK’s music ecosystem
About this opportunity
Applications are open for a fully funded UK only studentship in the Department of Music at the University of Liverpool, held in collaboration with MusicFutures, to commence study full time only from 1st October 2025.
MusicFutures is an AHRC funded programme hosted by the University of Liverpool. It brings together academics and creative industry partners to deliver a programme of equality focused/inclusive research and design (R&D) led innovation and business development for the Liverpool City Region. Operating out of a hub at the Arena and Convention Centre Liverpool, MusicFutures will foster collaboration with a variety of partners to generate sector insights and career pathways for increasing diversity and representation for existing and future artists and music professionals. This environment will empower small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs to innovate, attract investment, scale up, and adopt inclusive and sustainable practices. Through diverse cross-sector programmes, MusicFutures will fuel growth, drive environmental innovation, and champion inclusivity. MusicFutures will elevate both the region’s and the UK’s competitiveness in the global music market.
MusicFutures scoping on Liverpool City Region music sector needs has highlighted the importance and demand for effective mentoring, coaching and training across all levels of the music industry ecosystem. While many methods and models already exist across music and the creative industries, sports, business practice, education, government and the third sector, there is a clear need to use emergent technologies and re-imagine and experiment with new and integrated mentoring, coaching and training models that meet the professional development and well-being requirements of 21st century music practitioners, and help foster a more sustainable, equitable and inclusive music industry. This studentship will research existing models of mentoring, coaching and training and inform, influence and enact the development, delivery and evaluation of innovative models and approaches across MusicFutures workstreams. The successful candidate will:
- Identify and evaluate historic and current models and methods of mentoring, coaching and training within and outside music and creative sectors
- Work with the MusicFutures team and delivery partners across the programme to devise, develop, deliver and analyse innovative, experimental, inclusive and sustainable approaches and models and devise methods to test and evaluate their effectiveness in real world trials
- With the support of the MusicFutures team, periodically produce internal and public facing reports, materials and media that showcase and evaluate the range of mentoring, coaching and training trials and programmes delivered across the programme
- Be responsible for ensuring all ethical approvals, risk assessments and any other legal and safeguarding requirements are in place and met for all the related research
- Deliver a PhD thesis in one of two formats:
- 80-100,000-word standard thesis that conceptualises, theorises and evaluates the effectiveness of range of mentoring, coaching and training work delivered across MusicFutures and identifies pathways to sustainable music sector adoption for any successful and proven approaches
- A practice-based thesis that explores, develops and demonstrates new kinds of “digital practices”; where a substantial demonstration of the practice-based component produces a suite of tools submitted together with a written thesis of no more than 50,000 words which contextualises that work within an academic framework.
Given the dynamic and evolving nature of MusicFutures, the commitment to either pathway can be determined and finalised in discussion with the supervision team in the first year of study.