Zain’s Project

PhD Research:

RB invest significantly in R&D processes to conceive, design, test and validate their new products against well defined consumer needs. This involves interactions between many different professionals, from marketing, design, innovation, regulatory and business delivery. Processes are iterative, often run against very tight schedules, and necessarily involve risk of escalating costs, failure to meet time tables, and sub optimal product performance.

RB therefore wishes to speed up, make more efficient and reduce risk within R&D activities wherever possible. One key area is the avoidance of clinical and laboratory studies that involve human participants. These are slow, costly, can be difficult to predict, and can have variable outcomes. Furthermore, due to these issues, product conception and development prior to testing can be influenced by the knowledge that downstream clinical or laboratory studies carry risk.

To address these issues it is proposed that a foot simulator model is developed and deployed within ongoing RB Scholl innovation and product development activities. The research is intended to have impact the following commercial areas:

  1. Faster screening of product concepts and designs through physical testing
  2. Faster time to prototype and reduced iterations of prototypes
  3. Improved product design and effectiveness due to greater control, time and flexibility in the innovation process that current processes allow.
  4. Scientific data underpinning product conception, design and evaluation
  5. Improved internal technical file data and thereafter regulatory requirements.
  6. Product claims and marketing
  7. Patent on foot simulator device


The aim of the PhD is to design loading mechanisms and a phantom foot that enables the mechanical and physiological behaviour of the human foot to be mimicked under realistic conditions. The purpose of this is to enable Scholl product concepts tested in sufficiently realistic in vivo setting that innovation is sped up risk reduced and new products conceived.


The loading mechanism and foot should be modular/adaptable in order to enable variations in foot type (i.e. consumer type), physical activity and footwear, and thus ensure a close fit between consumer market and in vitro testing conditions.


Year 1 of the studentship blends compulsory and elective taught modules, self directed study, industry/clinical placements, accessing external training/development opportunities, and a first experimental study. The details of how these bleed into year 2-4 and the PhD research are to be developed in collaboration with the student in year 1 of the 4 year PhD journey.


However, the outline tasks for year 1 are:

  • Induction to commercial partner context
  • Development of commercial impact plan by mapping existing innovation/R&D processes
  • Literature review
  • Training needs analysis
  • Mapping of existing Salford and Imperial robotic and engineering facilities against project need
  • Project over months 7-11 to include pilot work for PhD
  • Detailed scheduling of research for years 2, 3, and 4
  • Including impact planning for Year 2-4.


Specific role of Sponsor/Scholl in PhD project:

  • Definition of overall research topic
  • RB/Scholl based supervisor to shape the detailed PhD plan during Year 1
  • Support development of suitable training package with the PhD student for Year 1 (which M level modules and/ or external training)
  • Enable access to internal RB training as appropriate
  • Support student placements at RB
  • Participate in PhD student supervision and consider further development opportunities as appropriate



Jenny’s Project

PhD Research:

An area of knowledge that spans multiple Scholl product areas has been agreed, such that many areas of the business benefit. The breadth of benefit will be discussed and manitained through the project. It is proposed that the area of foot skin and soft tissue physiology and biomechanics is the general area of research activity. The research is intended to have impact the following commercial areas:

  1. Scientific data underpinning product conception, design and evaluation
  2. Internal and external communications of foot science need and product effects
  3. Product claims and marketing


Industry need for the research.

Scholl footcare offers products that both affect foot skin properties and alter the interface between footwear and foot skin. This includes but is not limited to:

  • Topical applications of emollients, medicaments, plasters/materials at sites of callus/corn and nail tissue. Some of these include components that alter skin properties such as hydration and elasticity.

  • Insoles, spanning both comfort and orthotic insole categories, the former using gel based products and the latter largely EVA products.

(There are potential new areas for development including hosiery, and specific markets may present different opportunities that the PhD will impact on during the 4 year studentship)


The challenge for Scholl is that these products are sometimes developed with minimal insight into the properties of the skin and foot soft tissues that are being affected by the products. These properties may vary by gender and age of the user, location on the foot, physical activity profiles and diseases such as diabetes. Understanding the properties of these tissues is a prerequisite for defining product benefits for consumers, improving the effectiveness of current products and underpinning strategies that lead to innovation.


The aim of the PhD is therefore to map the biophysical properties of foot soft tissues relevant to the concepts underpinning a wide range of Scholl footcare products (i.e. help define product concepts), and changes in these properties that might be created due to product use (evaluate product effectiveness).


By way of examples, products that are expected to be advanced within the PhD include:

  • Comfort insoles: impacted by understanding skin and plantar soft tissue properties at different foot locations and changes due to age or diabetes.
  • Orthotic insoles: impacted by understanding changes in foot shape or the relationship between foot and orthotic shape and comfort/consumer choice.

Year 1 of the studentship blends compulsory and elective taught modules, self directed study, industry/clinical placements, accessing external training/development opportunities, and a first experimental study. The details of how these bleed into year 2-4 and the PhD research are to be developed in collaboration with the student in year 1 of the 4 year PhD journey.


However, the outline tasks for year 1 are:

  • Induction to commercial partner context
  • Development of commercial impact plan
  • Literature review
  • Training needs analysis
  • Ethics for experimental work
  • Project over months 7-11 to include pilot work for PhD
  • Detailed scheduling of research for years 2, 3, and 4
  • Including impact planning for Year 2-4.


Specific role of Sponsor/Scholl in PhD project:

  • Definition of overall research topic
  • RB/Scholl based supervisor to shape the detailed PhD plan during Year 1
  • Support development of suitable training package with the PhD student for Year 1 (which M level modules and/ or external training)
  • Enable access to internal RB training as appropriate
  • Support student placements at RB
  • Participate in PhD student supervision and consider further development opportunities as appropriate