Research Assistant in Nutritional Sciences

About Us

The Department of Nutritional Sciences explores the relationship between diet, health and disease from molecules to populations. Based at King’s Waterloo Campus, the Department of Nutritional Sciences combines over 60 basic and applied scientists, dietitians, nutritionists, doctors and public health experts. Our mission is to find new ways to improve health and to prevent and treat nutrition-related disease.

We began in 1953 as the first university department of nutrition in Europe and have been at the forefront of research in nutrition science and dietetics ever since. We have developed new food applications to impact blood glucose control, collected big data through citizen science to understand individual responses to food, pioneered the low FODMAP diet as a treatment for IBS, and are developing new cereal processing techniques to unlock the natural iron and zinc in staple foods.

About the role

We are looking to recruit two Research Assistants in Nutritional Sciences to join our team and run a state-of-the-art large clinical trial that investigates the impact of plant foods on gut and cardiometabolic health. The post holder will be involved in setting up, coordinating and conducting a large trial on a dietary intervention. The project will involve the preparation and provision of foods and meals to healthy participants, and the collection of clinical outcomes related to gut and cardiometabolic health.
The post holder will assist in the day to day running of the project, including (but not necessarily limited to) preparation/sourcing of the dietary intervention products, coordination of meal deliveries, liaising with service providers, recruitment of study participants, delivery of the dietary intervention, maintaining study documentation, coordinating subject correspondence, conducting study visits, ensuring measurements of primary and secondary outcomes are conducted according to standard operating protocols, collecting and processing biological samples, acquiring relevant regulatory approvals, and assisting with data entry and analysis. The post-holder will be based within the department of Nutritional Sciences in the School of Life Course and Population Sciences (Waterloo campus) and will report to Dr Eirini Dimidi.

It is a rare and incredibly exciting opportunity to work across the research spectrum at a centre of excellence for diet and health research. This is an exciting opportunity for the post-holder to develop and refine nutrition research skills in an emerging scientific area, and work closely with a dynamic team of diet, nutrition, gut and cardiometabolic health experts.

These are both full time posts (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 31/08/2028.

About You

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. BSc or MSc in Nutrition or Dietetics
2. Ability to work independently and as part of a study team
3. Experience managing and prioritising multiple tasks
4. Ability to adapt to changing circumstances and priorities
5. Ability to use problem-solving skills to solve routine and complex problems that arise
6. Flexible approach to working in terms of travel, hours, locations, different roles on different studies

Desirable criteria

1. Experience of working on a human dietary intervention trial
2. Experience in feeding trials
3. Experience in the safe handling of food
4. Experience of recruiting participants to a study

Advert information