INFUZE: Household decision-making on car ownership

One full scholarship is available at the Institute for Transport Studies in 2025/26. This scholarship is open to UK and international applicants and covers tuition fees plus maintenance stipend at the UKRI rate (£19,237 in 2024/25) for three and a half years, subject to satisfactory progress.<br /> <br /> This fully funded PhD place provides an exciting opportunity to pursue postgraduate research in a range of fields relating to environmental science and climate change.<br /> <br /> The Institute for Transport Studies invites applications from prospective postgraduate researchers who wish to commence study for a PhD in the academic year 2025/26 for the Institute for Transport Studies INFUZE Scholarship. <br /> <br /> The award is open to full-time candidates (UK and international) who have been offered a place on a PhD degree at the Institute for Transport Studies.

<p>This PhD project will be part of the INFUZE research project, which aims to co-design solutions to allow people to own and use fewer cars without foregoing access to opportunities and leisure. Most of the existing research looks at how many cars people own, how they use them and how this changes over time focused on an individual perspective. Such studies link individual characteristics such as gender, age and events in a person’s life to their car ownership and use and used these factors to predict how it might change in the future. The interdependencies among the activity and travel decisions of the household members in the long, medium or short term (e.g. whether to work or not, own a car or not, who is in charge of a particular errand on a given day, etc.) are largely ignored. Even when the social context is considered (generally the household that individuals are a part of), the characteristics of such households, such as size or presence of children, are used, assuming that the family unit is viewed as a homogeneous decision maker. </p> <p>The issue with this approach is that it does not take into account that car ownership and car use decisions (as well as other mobility-related outcomes) are often the product of interactions, negotiations and other decision-making processes within a household, and not taken by an individual in isolation or complete agreement. Households that are very similar in terms of characteristics (such as size) might have different potential to change their car ownership status if their in-household dynamics change, and understanding such processes could help researchers and practitioners better understand the potential of different policies and interventions. </p> <p>This PhD project will require an inter-disciplinary approach. The candidate will be required to work on a  suitable behavioural theory to accommodate the relevant processes. This could draw upon social psychology, social-network theory, game theory or social theories of practice. The theoretical framework will then be operationalised through econometric models to allow understanding and prediction of behaviour at a large scale and providing inputs for computational simulations, such as agent-based models. As such, this research is likely to use a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques to develop the socio-technical perspective and capture the dynamic processes of change within households.</p> <p>In addition, a key part of the INFUZE project will consist of conducting trials where Leeds (UK) households will be offered different mobility solutions and monitored to observe how their travel changes. As part of this activity, there will be an opportunity to conduct in-depth research with trial participants to investigate the dynamic interaction between the contextual changes taking place as a result of the trial, and individual attitudinal and behavioural response, by focusing on the household as a unit and conduit of change. The INFUZE trials will allow a longitudinal approach to follow individual families as they interact (or not) with the selected interventions. It may be noted that depending on the background and interest of the student, there will be some flexibility in choosing how methodological versus applied the PhD topic will be. </p> <p>Due to the inter-disciplinary nature of the proposed project, we welcome applications from candidates with backgrounds in social psychology, social-network theory, social theories of practice and choice modelling. There is scope for refining the focus of the analyses based on the strengths of the successful candidate, although an openness to work across disciplines and willingness to learn is essential to the role. </p>

<p>Formal applications for research degree study should be made online through the <a href="https://www.leeds.ac.uk/research-applying/doc/applying-research-degrees">University's website</a>. You will need to create a login ID with a username and PIN.</p> <ul> <li>For ‘Application type’ please select ‘Reseach Degrees – Research Postgraduate’.</li> <li>The admission year for this project is 2025/26 Academic Year.</li> <li>For ‘Planned Course of Study’ please select ‘PhD Institute for Transport studies Full-time’.</li> <li>For ‘Proposed Start Date of Research’ please select 1 September 2025.</li> <li><strong>In the research information section, you must state clearly that the project you wish to be considered for is ‘INFUZE: Household decision-making on car ownership’ and name <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/transport/staff/915/professor-jillian-anable">Professor Jillian Anable</a> as your proposed supervisor. If you do not do this, your application may not be considered.</strong></li> </ul> <p>If English is not your first language, you must provide evidence that you meet the University's minimum English language requirements (below).</p> <p><em>As an international research-intensive university, we welcome students from all walks of life and from across the world. We foster an inclusive environment where all can flourish and prosper, and we are proud of our strong commitment to student education. Across all Faculties we are dedicated to diversifying our community and we welcome the unique contributions that individuals can bring, and particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to Black, Asian, people who belong to a minority ethnic community, people who identify as LGBT+ and people with disabilities. Applicants will always be selected based on merit and ability.</em></p>

Applicants should normally have at least an upper second class British Bachelors Honours degree (or equivalent) or a good performance in a Masters level course. Applicants who are uncertain about the requirements for a particular research degree are advised to contact the Postgraduate Research Admissions team prior to making an application.

The minimum English language entry requirement for research postgraduate research study is an IELTS of 6.0 overall with at least 5.5 in each component (reading, writing, listening and speaking) or equivalent. The test must be dated within two years of the start date of the course in order to be valid. Some schools and faculties have a higher requirement.

<p><strong>Information about the Award</strong></p> <p>We are offering 1 full-time PhD scholarship in the Institute for Transport Studies for one UK or international candidate, covering tuition fees and a maintenance grant matching the UKRI rate (£19,237 in 2024/25) for three and a half years, subject to satisfactory progress.</p> <p><strong>Duration of the Award</strong></p> <p>Full-time (3.5 years). The award will be made for one year in the first instance and renewable for a further period of up to two and a half years, subject to satisfactory academic progress.</p> <p><strong>Other conditions</strong></p> <ul> <li>Applicants must not have already been awarded or be currently studying for a doctoral degree.</li> <li>Awards must be taken up by 1^st October 2025.</li> <li>Applicants must live within a reasonable distance of the University of Leeds whilst in receipt of this scholarship.</li> </ul>

<p>For further information, please contact the INFUZE team: <a href="mailto:infuze@leeds.ac.uk">infuze@leeds.ac.uk</a>. </p>