If you are thinking about doing a PhD with me.

I supervise PhD students within the Employment Systems and Institutions (opens in a new tab) research group at Norwich Business School. The work I supervise tends to be quantitative, organisational-psychology in flavour, and tightly scoped around a question that can be answered with a designed study.

Topics I can supervise.

My research is concentrated in a few areas, and the strongest PhD applications tend to sit squarely in one of them. The following are all in scope, provided the project is well-defined and the candidate has a credible plan for the data and methods:

• Work–nonwork boundary (segmentation, integration, conflict)
• Assessment centres (rater variance, dimensions, scoring)
• Wellbeing at work (engagement, burnout, rumination, embitterment)
• Remote and hybrid work (wellbeing, recovery, segmentation)
• Psychometrics of AI-generated ratings (reliability across prompts/models, dimensionality, bias, criterion validity)
• Methodological work (diary studies, multilevel modelling, Bayesian approaches)

Topics I am not the right supervisor for.

Being clear about this saves everyone's time:

• Pure qualitative work; I am not the right supervisor for narrative or interpretivist projects.
• Topics that require extensive lab or neuro-imaging methods; I do not run a lab.
• Anything in HRM that is purely strategic, with no empirical or psychological component.

What I'm looking for in an application.

I do not need a fully formed research design (the PhD is for figuring that out), but I do want to see a clear research question, a sense of which methods you would use to answer it, and a brief argument for why this question matters. A short initial email is the right place to start; please attach a CV and a one-page sketch of the project you have in mind.

The strongest candidates I have supervised have usually had prior research experience: a research assistant post, an MSc with a dissertation, a publication or working paper in progress. None of this is a hard requirement, but it does help.

Funding.

PhD funding in the UK is highly competitive. Some suggested routes that you may want to explore are:

• ESRC studentships (SENSS DTP) (opens in a new tab)

  The ESRC-funded South and East Network for Social Sciences Doctoral Training Partnership (SENSS DTP) supports funded PhD studentships across eight partner universities, including UEA, in work and organisational psychology and related social sciences.

• Commonwealth Scholarships (opens in a new tab)

  For applicants from eligible Commonwealth countries.

I am also open to candidates with their own funding (employer-sponsored, government scholarship from your home country, charitable trust, etc.). If you have a specific funding route in mind, mention it in your initial email.

How to apply.

The email enquiry is the first step, not the application itself. Once we have agreed that a project is a good fit, you will need to submit a formal application through UEA's postgraduate research admissions portal. The official pages below set out the process, deadlines, and what you will need to prepare:

• Apply for a postgraduate research degree (UEA) (opens in a new tab)

  The starting point for the formal application, with links to begin or resume an application.

• How to apply: UEA guidance (opens in a new tab)

  What the application involves: documents, proposal structure, references, and timing.

How to get in touch.

Email me at g.michaelides@uea.ac.uk. Attach a CV and a research proposal or a one-page project sketch. I read everything that comes in, though I cannot always reply within a week, particularly around teaching and editorial deadlines. For the formal UEA application and funding deadlines, see the How to apply section above.