The Highly Popular and Successful Professional Doctorate in Human Performance and Innovation at UL (4-year, part time) Enters its 6th Year of Recruitment.
Key Fact:
The PD offers a practitioner-centred programme of professional development leading to a doctoral level qualification. The PD recognises the need to create agile and tailored programmes of study moulded around the working lives of busy professionals operating in high-pressure environments.
Who is the programme for?
The Professional Doctorate (PD) is designed to cater for your own specific needs and interests and focuses on expanding the boundaries of innovation in your professional practice. The Doctoral Candidates on the programme have a global distribution (e.g. Australia, Canada, European nations including Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, UK, USA etc .), all having high national and international profiles within their respective fields; these include 2nd & 3rd level educators, leaders and researchers, business managers and leaders, high performance business and sport coaches, directors of settings demanding high performance, health and medical specialists, sports injury therapists and clinic owners, practitioners working in amateur and professional sporting leagues (e.g. GAA, EPL, Major league soccer, Major league baseball, NFL, Olympic sport etc.). Common ground professional practice and research groups around these various fields characterise the PD programme – peer learning and knowledge sharing central. Content is customised to develop the skills and knowledge necessary for the professional to drive the evolution, development, validation and implementation of beneficial innovations.
Key programme benefits to future students
- The aim of the PD is to provide experienced professionals (≥ 5 yrs of relevant professional practice) with enhanced skills and knowledge enabling them to envision, evolve, theoretically substantiate and rigorously evaluate, novel innovations beneficial to their specific domains of expertise.
- The PD recognises that mature practitioners, embedded in professional environments, already have substantial domain-specific knowledge, expertise and experiences. The PD route thus offers professionals a personally tailored programme of study designed to drive, implement and evaluate beneficial innovations which are within their realm of expertise, pivotal to their practice and serve their future career ambitions.
- The programme is a direct response to an evident and growing societal need for professionals who are both academically astute and capable of demonstrating high-level critical thinking.
- Delivery is exclusively online and via e-learning modalities and is situated in your professional practice – this link between the programme and your professional practice is essential.
Examples of Current Innovation/Doctoral Titles
- Workplace Health Enhancement through Autonomous Remote Monitoring Technologies (W-HEART)
- Can the health, fitness, nutrition and lifestyle habits of business leaders influence their cognitive performance
- Measuring the impact of people interventions on an organisation’s engagement and culture; allowing a direct cost benefit analysis of interventions.
- Evidence-based approaches in military mental health, improving resilience, performance, and long-term well-being
- Spinal Surgery for Adult Degenerative Conditions in Ireland: A Retrospective Study of Practice Trends, Outcomes, and Patient Recovery Experiences
- Leveraging the intangibles: non-physical drivers of patient outcomes in pain and rehabilitation.
- Hamstring injuries and their biomechanical contributors in the NFL
- Tracking Relative Academic Performance: Development and Validation of a Cognitive-Referenced Index for Irish Post-Primary Students
- Examining the efficacy of immersive technologies in achieving learning outcomes: A focus on immersive virtual reality in a further education and training setting
- Girls living for Sport or Not”? To investigate the disposition of young females (aged 11-16 yrs.) towards physical activity and sport participation.
- Exploring skilled rowing coaching and high intensity strength endurance training programmes: Expediting transfers in their late teens and early twenties to high performance national and international rowing programmes.
- Skill Based Assessment for Talent Development in Rugby Union: An investigation into current practices and creation of an assessment model for future practice.
- Aging Gracefully: Does maturation influence talent identification processes within academy hurling
- Identify key demographic information, work practices and levels of mental well-being among GAA Performance Analysts across a competitive season.
Professional Doctorate in Human Performance and Innovation Testimonies
‘The work I have done as part of my Professional Doctorate has become an integral part of our everyday leadership programme. It has helped me further refine my critical and strategic thinking. The evaluation tools I have developed are helping to highlight leadership and team issues long before they become problem. The applied practitioner focus of the Doctorate has greatly enhanced my professional practice’.
Keith Wood, Former Irish Rugby Captain and British and Irish Lions player, Year 4 Doctoral Candidate
‘The professional doctorate programme has enabled me to pursue research to create a piece of innovation which contributes to both academia and practical applications in my field. The program’s structure has pushed me beyond conventional thinking, fostering innovation in areas where it’s most needed’.
Tommy Gallagher, Physical Therapist, Injury Management, Letterkenny – Year 4 Doctoral Candidate
“Studying a professional doctorate with U.L. has deepened my understanding, broadened my perspectives, and refined my critical thinking skills in the areas of Physical Literacy and Physical Activity. These skills have empowered me to design and implement a Physical Literacy intervention in my school, enriching student development holistically.”
Keith Costello, Primary School Teacher, Year 4 Doctoral Candidate
“The professional doctorate course has had a significant impact on my thinking and will continue to influence my professional practice. As a professional involved in sport and physical activity, I have been able to combine my existing expertise and knowledge with the structured and flexible learning environment provided by the course. This has enabled me to develop my research skills and strategic thinking, leading to innovative and effective solutions in my work. The course has given me the ability to make meaningful changes in areas of my work, with the aim of increasing participation in physical activity”.
Fran Ronan, Head of Local Sports Partnership, Sports Active Wexford, High Performance Swimming Coach. Year 4 Doctoral Candidate
The Professional Doctorate in Human Performance and Innovation programme will close for applications on Friday June 26th, 2026.
For further information, please contact Giles.warrington@ul.ie or Ciaran.MacDonncha@ul.ie John.kiely@ul.ie
PESS News & Information 