XR for Autism: Digital therapeutic solutions for improving the wellbeing of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Doctoral Training Grant Funding Information
This funding model includes a 36 month fully funded PhD Studentship, set in-line with UK Research & Innovation values. For 2025/6, this will be £20,780 per year. The tax-free stipend will be paid monthly. This PhD Studentship also includes a Full-Time Fee Scholarship for up to 3 years. The funding is subject to your continued registration on the research degree, making satisfactory progression within your PhD, as well as attendance on and successful completion of the Postgraduate Certificate in Research Practice.
All applicants will receive the same stipend irrespective of fee status.
Application Closing Date:
Midday (UK Time) on Wednesday 17th September 2025 for a start date of 2nd February 2026.
How to Apply
To apply, please follow the below steps:
- Complete the BCU Online Application Form.
- Complete the Doctoral Studentship Proposal Form in full, ensuring that you quote the project ID. You will be required to upload your proposal in place of a personal statement on the BCU online application form.
- Upload two references to your online application form (at least one of which must be an academic reference).
- Upload your qualification(s) for entry onto the research degree programme. This will be Bachelor/Master’s certificate(s) and transcript(s).
- International applicants must also provide a valid English language qualification. Please see the list of English language qualifications accepted here. Please check the individual research degree course page for the required scores.
Frequently Asked Questions
To help support you to complete your application, please consult the frequently asked questions below:
Project title: XR for Autism: Digital therapeutic solutions for improving the wellbeing of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Project Lead: Dr Kurtis Weir
Project ID: 26 - 45489421
Project description:
Alongside heightened awareness of mental health, in the last decade there has been a significant rise in the prevalence of autism, the UK having an estimated 2% of the adult population affected with many suggested to be undiagnosed. With this rise there is an increasing pressure to provide effective support and treatment for autistic and neurodivergent individuals, yet clinical solutions are often outdated and rely on time-consuming specialist intervention. Following the NHS’ latest guidelines published on the use of digital technologies for mental health, it is clear there is a push for consideration of newer digital interventions regarding patient care and from discussions with specialists, despite a clear interest, what direction these novel solutions will take is still unknown.
With virtual reality (VR) technologies becoming more advanced, high fidelity, and supporting augmented reality (AR) capabilities, there is tremendous potential in how we can translate visuals, audio, and haptics, to enhance an individual’s sensory information and environment for multiple benefits. Despite this potential, these devices are not designed for disability or accessibility, still focused primarily on entertainment and marketed for gaming. There are large bodies of work that evidence the potential of combining gamification techniques with health care applications to create serious games, games which are designed for a goal beyond entertainment. Utilising the immersion a 3D stereoscopic VR device can bring with lessons learned from gamification allow us to create advanced health applications that can improve or even replace existing practices, and there is clear investigation into how this can be best achieved.
This project follows a pilot study in collaboration with the NHS investigating how VR could be used for improving the health and well-being of adults with autism utilising digital pet therapy for therapeutic intervention. We aim to build upon this work alongside the Black Country NHS’ Autism Mental Health Intensive Support Team to investigate how VR devices can be used to provide therapeutic care techniques (such as virtual pet therapy), reduce anxiety levels and discomfort, and overall improve the well-being of autistic individuals. Our goal is to collaborate with their team and reach out to lived experience autistic persons to explore the feasibility of these devices in both clinical (specialist delivered) and home (independent and self-delivered) settings, the development of software as an outcome for their deployment for further testing, and the analysis and dissection of results to provide a framework for utilising extended reality (XR) for autism to support their latest technology guidelines for mental health.
Anticipated findings and contributions to knowledge:
This project in collaboration with the NHS looks to investigate the capabilities of XR devices for the autism community and work alongside specialists in determining how to best design and manipulate immersive and interactive 3D environments to improve an individual’s health and well-being. The outcomes of this project aim to be tested for a clinical setting and if successful delivered as patient care. To meet this goal this project has the following anticipated outcomes:
- Conduct research working alongside care specialists in identifying key solutions and strategies that align with clinical or service requirements.
- Engage with lived experience autistic individuals and collaborate in co-design approaches to determine how to best provide technological support.
- The design and creation of 3D XR (Extended Reality) tools in areas of therapeutic intervention, leisure, education, training, safe spaces, or similar.
- Evaluation of efficacy through a series of conducted studies with autistic individuals, collecting feedback, and gathering insights in how XR can improve mental health.
Outcomes of this project will contribute to health providers with tangible prototypes and evidencable analysis that will have real world application, if successful.
Person Specification:
Entry Requirements:
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To apply for our Computing PhD Research Degree you should have, or expect to be awarded, a Master’s degree in a relevant subject area from a British or overseas university.
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Exceptional candidates without a Master’s degree, but holding a first class or upper second class Bachelor’s degree in a relevant subject area, may be considered.
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We also welcome enquiries from potential PhD researchers with appropriate levels of professional experience.
Essential Criteria:
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Prior experience in designing or developing types of systems, interfaces, or interactive environments.
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Evidence of strong prior research skills and a commitment to inclusive practices.
Desirable Criteria:
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Prior experience working with or research surrounding autism, or disability/accessibility.
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Knowledge of and evidence of work surrounding XR devices or environments (namely VR HMDs).
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Strong communication skills capable of liaising with organisations and a wide range of diverse individuals.
Overseas applicants
International applicants must also provide a valid English language qualification, such as International English Language Test System (IELTS) or equivalent with an overall score of 6.5 with no band below 6.0.
Contact:
If you have any questions or need further information, please use the contact details below:
- For enquiries about the project content, please contact: kurtis.weir@bcu.ac.uk
- For enquiries about the application process, please contact:research.admissions@bcu.ac.uk