Research Fellow in Farm Animal Biosecurity

Project Summary: 

Research Associate/Research Fellow in Farm Animal Biosecurity

We are seeking an excellent Research Fellow as part of the European Partnership for Animal Health and Welfare (EUPAHW; https://www.eupahw.eu/) initiative. This particular project will focus on supporting farmers, vets and other important stakeholders to co-develop a framework for enhancing biosecurity practices on non-intensive farming systems as part of a consortia involving researchers from a number of European countries. The UK work will be funded by DEFRA, and will involve working closely with the farming charity Innovation for Agriculture (https://www.i4agri.org/).

The successful candidate will conduct research with farmers, vets and other stakeholders via focus groups, interviews and document analysis, which will involve some on-farm data collection. The candidate will also work collaboratively with other researchers executing similar approaches in other European countries by providing methodological support and feedback. The goal is to co-create an overarching biosecurity framework that will be trialled on farms.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone to work at the cutting edge of biosecurity-focused research, with the aim of the collective outputs generated to make significant positive impacts for the farming and veterinary communities. The applicant must have a PhD, preferably in veterinary epidemiology, the social sciences, health psychology or preventive medicine. Experience working with multiple stakeholders is required, with expertise in qualitative research approaches paramount. 

The successful applicant will join the friendly and highly motivated research team in the Centre for Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science at the University of Nottingham. The team has previously won the University’s Tri-campus award for most inclusive/supportive research team within Nottingham. This group has strong research connections across the School and University. 

The post will be primarily research focused (85%) with some limited administrative duties. There will be opportunities for the successful candidate to mentor post graduate researchers.   

This role is available on a fixed term basis from 1st December 2025 until 31^st May 2028 at 1.0FTE (36.25 hours per week), with 0.8FTE considered (29 hours/week; 1^st December 2025 to 31 November 2028).

Requests for secondment from internal candidates may be considered on the basis that prior agreement has been sought from both your current line manager and the manager of your substantive post, if you are already undertaking a secondment role.

Informal enquiries may be addressed to Marnie Brennan, email marnie.brennan@nottingham.ac.uk. Please note that applications sent directly to this email address will not be accepted. 

Further details:

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