Professor Claire Bruce-Martin

Head of School

School: Sport Exercise and Rehabilitation

Claire Bruce-Martin is Professor of Human Performance and Applied Psychology and Head of the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation. She provides strategic leadership across this large and diverse academic community, overseeing education, research and knowledge exchange, and international partnerships spanning sport, exercise and rehabilitation science.

Claire’s interdisciplinary research examines human performance, behaviour, health, and adaptation in extreme and challenging environments, with a particular focus on the optimisation of complex systems, human–equipment interaction, and recovery from physiological deconditioning. Her work brings together applied performance psychology, human factors, and rehabilitation science, with a distinctive emphasis on spaceflight, astronaut health, blood-flow-restriction exercise, and behavioural adaptation. She has secured significant external funding in collaboration with the UK Space Agency, European Space Agency, Axiom Space, the Ministry of Defence, Western Clinical Engineering, and SpaceX. Within Northumbria’s Aerospace Medicine & Rehabilitation Laboratory, she leads the development of globally unique mixed-methods approaches to understanding human spaceflight and the psychological and behavioural factors that underpin astronaut performance and rehabilitation. This portfolio is recognised internationally for its research excellence, interdisciplinary innovation, and real-world impact.

Across sport, Claire is internationally known for her work on transformational leadership, coach development, and applied human performance pathways. She has led national education and workforce development programmes with organisations including the Lawn Tennis Association, British Rowing, British Equestrian Federation, League Football Education, The Football Association, Cricket Australia, and UK Coaching. Together with colleagues across SER, she works closely with civic and regional partners such as Newcastle City Council, Healthworks, NHS Trusts, and professional sports clubs across the North East, supporting widening participation in sport and exercise, addressing regional health inequalities, and mobilising SER’s collective expertise to benefit the communities the School serves.

Alongside her academic achievements, Claire holds qualifications in athletics coaching and has extensive practical experience supporting athletes from beginners to high-performance middle- and long-distance runners. Her coaching philosophy emphasises holistic athlete development, and she contributes to the design and delivery of performance-focused training programmes. She is also a qualified Strength and Conditioning Coach, applying evidence-based methodologies to enhance athletes’ physical preparation and long-term development.

Claire brings together substantial higher-education leadership experience with a prior decade in senior commercial roles outside academia. Her values-driven, people-centred approach underpins her commitment to ensuring that research, education, and civic engagement within SER advance human performance, wellbeing, and opportunity “For Everybody and Every Life” regionally, nationally, and globally.

Campus Address

NB 235
Northumberland Building
City Campus

Email Claire

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Professor Claire Bruce-Martin’s research centres on human performance, applied psychology, and the behavioural and organisational factors that shape performance, health, and adaptation across sport, health, and extreme environments. Her work is grounded in a strong theoretical foundation in management and leadership, with particular expertise in transformational leadership and its influence on performance, motivation, and learning within applied sporting contexts.

Since 2014, Claire has led a sustained programme of research examining transformational leadership across the full tennis coaching pathway from grassroots participation to elite performance environments. This body of work has generated new insights into how leadership behaviours shape athlete development, coach effectiveness, psychological wellbeing, and organisational culture. Her expertise in mixed-methods research design underpins this work and represents a core contribution to her scholarly identity.

Claire’s mixed-methods expertise extends across a broad interdisciplinary research portfolio. She plays a central role in Northumbria’s Aerospace Medicine & Rehabilitation Laboratory, contributing to internationally recognised research on human performance, blood flow restriction exercise, physiological deconditioning, and astronaut health. This includes studies of the psychological and behavioural demands of spaceflight, adaptation in extreme environments, and human-factor considerations surrounding technical equipment, countermeasures, and complex systems.

Beyond spaceflight and sport, Claire collaborates on research exploring:

rehabilitation exercise programme design for marginalised and underserved communities,
the physiological and psychological outcomes of blood flow restriction training,
paediatric nutrition, hydration, and cognitive performance in school settings,
strength and conditioning science across youth and adult populations.

She is also active across pedagogical and curriculum-focused scholarship, examining evidence-informed teaching, learning, and assessment strategies that enhance academic development, engagement, and professional identity formation among students in sport, exercise, and rehabilitation disciplines.

Across these areas, Claire’s work consistently bridges theory and practice, integrates psychological, physiological and leadership perspectives, and contributes to high-impact, interdisciplinary research that informs applied practice, professional education, and human performance optimisation across diverse sectors and environments.

Current Doctoral Supervision:

Collaborative Doctoral Research Studentship with the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, funded by Delfi Medical Innovations Inc. (Vancouver BC, Canada) ‘REVIVE: Remote Home-Based Blood Flow Restriction Exercise to Enhance Rehabilitation After Knee Replacement’ – recruitment in progress.
Luke Gray: ‘Optimising the therapeutic effects of blood flow restriction exercise within UK Defence Rehabilitation practice’. 2025 – Present
Bradley Barbour: ‘Aerobic and plyometric exercise with blood flow restriction as a spaceflight countermeasure for lunar missions’. 2024 - Present
Victoria Duke: ‘Nutritional interventions to support thyroid function in female high intensity functional training (HIFT) athletes: a mixed methods exploration’. 2024 – Present
Kirsty Boak: ‘Moo’ving towards better hydration and cognition in school children: Existing knowledge, current practice and experiences of influential stakeholders’. 2022 – Present
Catrin Roberts: ‘Moo’ving towards better hydration and cognition in school children: Applying novel neuroimaging technology to determine a neurophysiological basis’. 2022 – Present

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Entering a new era for exercise countermeasures in human spaceflight, De Martino, E., Swain, P., Lindsay, K., Bruce‐Martin, C., Jacobs, E., Barbour, B., Buckley, C., McDonnell, A., Caplan, N., Hughes, L. 1 Sep 2026, In: Experimental Physiology
Exercising with the Function Re-Adaptive Exercise Device (FRED) to improve stress incontinence in women following childbirth: A feasibility study, Lindsay, K., Barry, G., Calder, J., Bruce-Martin, C., Audsley, S., Caplan, N., Steen, M. 14 Jun 2026, In: European Journal of Midwifery
Hypogravity Simulation using the Variable Gravity Suspension System: A Technical Report, Swain, P., Swain, A., Santos, F., Hughes, L., Lindsay, K., Lomax, I., Bruce-Martin, C., Caplan, N. 1 Apr 2026, In: Experimental Physiology
Hydration, mood, and cognition in primary school aged children in the United Kingdom, Roberts, C., Boak, K., McCullogh, N., Brownlee, I., Haskell, C., James, L., Green, B., Tempest, G., Bruce-Martin, C., Rumbold, P. 1 Dec 2025, In: Physiology and Behavior
University course choice: Views and experiences of undergraduate sport and physiotherapy students from a United Kingdom higher education institution, Hibbs, A., Thornton, C., Hayes, P., Johns, K., Bruce-Martin, C., McCullogh, N., Peart, D., Baker, K., Rumbold, P. 27 Nov 2025, In: Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education
Benefits and Motives for Peer Mentoring in Higher Education: An Exploration Through the Lens of Cultural Capital, Hayman, R., Wharton, K., Bruce-Martin, C., Allin, L. Mar 2022, In: Mentoring and Tutoring: Partnership in Learning
Exercise countermeasure preferences of three male astronauts, a preliminary qualitative study, Laws, J., Bruce-Martin, C., Caplan, N., Meroni, R., Winnard, A. 1 Dec 2022, In: Acta Astronautica
Using animations to support student learning in undergraduate physiology, Peart, D., Keane, K., Allen, G., Bruce-Martin, C., Rumbold, P. 8 Aug 2022, In: Journal of Biological Education
Developing, Implementing, and Applying Novel Techniques During Systematic Reviews of Primary Space Medicine Data, Winnard, A., Caplan, N., Bruce-Martin, C., Swain, P., Velho, R., Meroni, R., Wotring, V., Damann, V., Weber, T., Evetts, S., Laws, J. 1 Aug 2021, In: Aerospace medicine and human performance
Exploring the Practical Knowledge of Eccentric Resistance Training in High- Performance Strength and Conditioning Practitioners, Harden, M., Bruce-Martin, C., Wolf, A., Hicks, K., Howatson, G. 1 Feb 2020, In: International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching

PGR Supervision

Kirsty Boak ?Moo’ving towards better cognition: ‘thirsty work’ for primary schools? Start Date: 01/10/2022 End Date: 20/06/2026

Qualifications

Sports Science PhD September 29 2022
Teaching & Learning PCAPL September 15 2005
Sport Management MSc July 31 2005
Recreation Management BA (Hons) September 01 1991
Professional Member of the Chartered Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences 2024
Fellow (FHEA) Higher Education Academy (HEA) 2005