Research Fellow

This post is based in the School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture at the University of Aberdeen. The successful candidate will primarily work with Professor Eleonora Belfiore, who specialises in culture and policy, and the connections between research, policy and practice.

The candidate will be associated with the Interdisciplinary Centre for Health Nutrition and Wellbeing, led by Professor Jennie Macdiarmid, where the project will be coordinated and the research fellows and other researchers working on the project in Aberdeen will come together.

This interdisciplinary project will explore the use of plant-based convenience foods (e.g. ready meals) to achieve realistic environmentally sustainable and healthy diets. Current diets in the UK are unhealthy and contributing to environmental damage, with recommendations to move towards plant-based diets and reduce meat consumption (‘sustainable diets’). However, changing diets is notoriously difficult and proposed sustainable diets are often idealistic and do not consider the true cost, accessibility, convenience and appeal of these types of diets in the realities of modern living. This project will bring together the balance of these attributes to explore the inclusion of plant-based convenience foods as part of a sustainable diet, which if nutritionally adequate, healthy and appealing, with a low carbon footprint, could provide an opportunity to accelerate the transition to realistic sustainable diets. Scenarios will be co-created with young women and modelled to illustrate trade-offs between nutrition, carbon footprints, cost, convenience and appeal. The focus is on young women because they are more likely to adopt plant-based diets using convenience foods and are at higher risk of micronutrient deficiencies, such as iron. Visuals and narratives of the scenarios will be created depicting real-life sustainable diets to increase ease of use of scientific evidence by policy makers and practitioner. The project will take an interdisciplinary approach to developing sustainable diets and provide the insights into what needs to be fully accounted for in the policy development and decision-making process to be successful to achieve actionable climate change mitigation polices with health co-benefits.

Four research fellows, with different areas of disciplinary expertise will be recruited and work together on this interdisciplinary project. These include environmental science and modelling, nutrition and health, behavioural science and environmental psychology, and public political science.

This post provides an exciting opportunity to work in a strong multidisciplinary team on a project that will have real impact on changing policy.

Salary will be at the appropriate point on the Grade 6, £37,099 - £40,521 per annum and negotiable with placement according to qualifications and experience.

Informal enquiries should be made to Professor Eleonora Belfiore, Interdisciplinary Director for Social Inclusion and Cultural Diversity (e.belfiore@abdn.ac.uk).

To apply online for this position visit www.abdn.ac.uk/jobs

The closing date for the receipt of applications is 16^th October 2023

The School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture embraces a diverse working environment and recognises the many benefits this can bring.  Applications from individuals from across all of the equality protected characteristics are encouraged.

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