𝐌𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥 𝐎𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 with 𝐐𝐔𝐓 + 𝐀𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭

Applications close: 18 September 2026

Complex systems modelling of people, organisations and factors around coaching impact: towards successful trajectories for team and athlete performance

Themes: Personalised performance and team performance
Student type: MPhil
Host University: QUT

Coaches can play a crucial role in the success of an athlete or team in competitive sports, but quantitative evidence of their impact is challenging to obtain, due partly to the interactions and interdependencies between people, organisations, multidimensional factors and events including performance and injury. These are characteristic of a complex system. Probabilistic networks provide a visual and quantitative way to integrate diverse data, expert knowledge and models to understand system sensitivities and provide predictive decision support via ‘what-if’ scenario analysis.

The overarching aim is to quantify with uncertainty the impact of the coach on the performance of the athlete or team over time – developing new tools co-designed and tested with applied partners to be practical and impactful. There are 4 major objectives:

To develop a complex systems, probabilistic network model of coaching and targeted scenarios of how they can be used to support decisions. The model must capture the key stakeholders, performance factors and other factors (e.g. health, wellbeing) to understand the links and cumulative effects on key performance indicators.
To develop a framework of metrics and criteria for peer grouping and benchmarking performance of the athlete or team, to enable analysis of causal pathways and evidence-based quantification of coaching impact on performance outcomes.

To apply to priority team(s) and/or individual sporting context(s) the complex systems model and historical data, analysing and enabling predictive ‘what-if’ determination of factors and events affecting athlete/team performance and their interplay with coaching performance.

To apply for this opportunity, please contact admin.sportsdata@qut.edu.au and supply your resume, academic transcript, confirming your residency/citizenship status.