PhD Scholarship Position-specific Nutrition in Elite Football

The international doctoral program is academically hosted by the Institute of Sports and Preventive Medicine, Saarland University, Saarbruecken (Germany). However, this particular scholarship is funded by the DFB-Academy (Deutscher Fußball Bund, German Football Association) and conducted in close cooperation between both institutions.

Further established scientific cooperations exist with the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg, the University of Technology in Sydney, the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre (Norway) and the University of Basle (Switzerland) as well as the universities Groningen (Netherlands), Liverpool (UK) and Capetown (South Africa). The program aims at enhancing the scientific approach to football (i. e. soccer) by investigating health issues as well as improving training standards and performance diagnosis for soccer players.

Saarland University will be the formal research and teaching environment. However, a considerable part of the PhD period will have to be spent in Frankfurt (DFB location) or other places where studies may take place. The Institute of Sports and Preventive Medicine is a licensed FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) Medical Centre of Excellence and a Medical Examination Centre of the German Olympics Sports Federation (DOSB). Due to numerous activities with highly trained football players and the long-term extensive cooperation with the DFB-Academy it offers a profound expertise in football science and medical care for athletes and patients.

Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB; German Football Federation) is the largest national football federation of the world with more than 7,000,000 members and is in the process of building a central football academia in Frankfurt. It runs national selection teams for males and females starting from the age of 15. Below that age, hundreds of talent centres and club-based youth academies are established nation-wide to support youth football. An equally important pillar is represented by amateur and recreational football mainly organized by regional federations and lower bodies. Scientific input has been and will be the main basis for improvement of the DFB itself and its academia. Within the DFB-Academy, the Think Tank is responsible for the scientific projects, focusing on the high-performance Football.

The doctoral researchers will work under the co-supervision of Prof. Dr. med. Tim Meyer (head of the programme), Dr. phil. Sabrina Skorski the programme coordinator and Dr. rer. nat. Thomas Hauser (Head of Think Tank, DFB-Academy). 

A multidisciplinary study program, including courses about the theoretical background of the research topic, practical work in performance diagnosis, teaching and transferable skills courses will complement the PhD project.