PhD Studentship: From nutrition science education to behaviour change: development and evaluation of a Brain Health Score (BHS) within a developed digital nutrition intervention

Oxford Institute of Applied Health Research, the Centre for Nutrition and Health, and Think Through Nutrition.

3 Year, full-time PhD studentship

Eligibility: Home UK/Settled and Pre-settled

Bursary p.a: The stipend is at the UKRI rate  (current 2026/27 bursary rate is £21,805)

University fees and bench fees: The studentship covers bench fees, stipend, and tuition fees

Closing date: 30 September 2026

Interviews: Interviews are expected to take place online in November 2026

Start date: 18 January 2027

Project Title: From nutrition science education to behaviour change: development and evaluation of a Brain Health Score (BHS) within a developed digital nutrition intervention

Project Description:

Diet is an underexploited modifiable influencer on brain health. Women within the justice system experience poor diets alongside significant brain health needs, yet remain hard to reach with nutrition and health information. This PhD tackles that translation gap, focusing on the evaluation of diet on female health within a carceral environment.

In collaboration with TTN you will develop and validate the Brain Health Score; a novel measure of diet quality for cognitive health, delivered through TTN’s LANAH digital platform. You will test the BHS against established indices and run a comparative intervention to investigate the effect on dietary behaviour change. You will examine whether dietary changes translate into improvements in mental health, cognition, and wellbeing. 

Focusing on two under-served perinatal cohorts; women in MBUs and community perinatal care, this novel intervention has potential to shape how nutrition support reaches underprivileged populations. 

This project offers a rigorous doctoral programme embedded in an established OBU-TTN research partnership investigating real-world health technology.  You will be supervised by academics with direct experience in translating nutrition research into national policy. 

You will have access to TTN’s LANAH digital platform, active data sets, and diverse implementation settings. The mixed methods design will develop interdisciplinary skills across nutrition science, psychometrics, digital health, and behaviour change.

Your findings will contribute directly to impact case study development, conference dissemination, and academic publications. You will help build a transferable framework with applications across health, justice, and community settings, opening opportunities for future collaborative research. 

You will benefit from a multidisciplinary supervisory team spanning colleagues from HMPPS, MoJ, OBU and TTN.

Director of Studies: Professor Jonathan Tammam

Supervisors:  Dr Shelly Coe, Tahani Saridar (Think Through Nutrition), Ann Roberts (Think Through Nutrition)

Requirements:

Entry requirements: 

Applicants are required to hold/or expect to obtain a UK Bachelor’s Degree 2:1 or higher (or overseas equivalent) in a relevant academic subject.

English language requirements:

International/EU applicants must have a valid IELTS Academic test certificate (or equivalent) with an overall minimum score of 6.5 to 7.0 and no score below 6.0 issued in the last 2 years by an approved test centre.

Application process

Contact hlsapplications@brookes.ac.uk for information on how to apply

Programme queries: Dr Jonathan Tammam  jtammam@brookes.ac.uk

The studentship requires you to undertake the equivalent of up to 6 hrs of teaching per week on average, during semester time, and to include preparation and marking (but no more than 20 hrs per week), and to participate in a teaching skills course without further remuneration.

The studentship is subject to funding confirmation.

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