Join our dynamic team: PhD Scholarship opportunity – Healthy and Sustainable Food Retail Environments

Excessive consumption of unhealthy foods is leading to a global rise in diet-related diseases such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes. At the same time, the world faces a climate crisis, with the production of unhealthy foods being a major contributor to negative environmental impacts, including excessive water and land use, pesticide application, biodiversity loss, and high greenhouse gas emissions. Retailers and food manufacturers frequently use powerful marketing strategies to promote foods that are often both unhealthy and unsustainable, with serious negative impacts on the health of both people and the planet.

A significant opportunity exists to instead promote food that is both healthy and good for the planet. This PhD program will explore strategies to simultaneously improve population diets and reduce environmental harm and is part of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded RE-FRESH: Next Generation Centre of Research Excellence in Food Retail Environments for Health based at the Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition (GLOBE) at Deakin University.

This project aims to explore ways to incorporate environmental sustainability into healthy food retail initiatives. The RE-FRESH: Next Generation Centre of Research Excellence has streams of work focused on creating change through government policy, encouraging and directing voluntary action by the food industry, and monitoring for accountability. This project could focus on one or more of these strategies for impact.

To be eligible you must:

• be a domestic candidate. Domestic includes candidates with Australian Citizenship, Australian Permanent Residency or New Zealand Citizenship.
• meet Deakin’s PhD entry requirements
• be enrolling full time and hold an honours degree (first class) or an equivalent standard master’s degree with a substantial research component.

Please refer to the research degree entry pathways page for further information.

Additional desirable criteria include:

• Have a background or extensive knowledge in one or more of these areas: Public Health, Environmental Science / Sustainability (or related fields), Nutrition or Epidemiology

Please email a CV and cover letter to Dr Tailane Scapin. The CV should highlight your skills, education, publications and relevant work experience. If you are successful you will then be invited to submit a formal application.