Post Doc Research Fellow (BBSRC)
About ARU:
ARU is a global university transforming lives through innovative, inclusive and entrepreneurial education and research. ARU holds a Gold award for the quality of its education, awarded through the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).
ARU’s research institutes and four faculties bridge scientific, technical and creative fields. We deliver impactful research which tackles pressing issues and makes a real difference to our communities. Our academic excellence has been recognised by the UK’s Higher Education funding bodies, with 16 of our research areas assessed as world leading. We are the largest provider of Nursing, Midwifery, Health and Social Care students in the East of England, and we are also among the UK’s leading universities for degree apprenticeship provision, working with hundreds of employers across the UK.
About the Role:
Based on our Cambridge campus the Global Sustainability Institute (GSI) was established by Anglia Ruskin University in 2011 as part of our University’s commitment to sustainability in research, teaching and operations. We now have a core group of over 40 individuals including researchers, visiting and honorary fellows, project management staff and doctoral students. With food systems optimised for efficiency rather than resilience, they are at risk of actual or apparent failure, especially due to the impacts of increasing geopolitical instability and climate change. To explore these issues the GSI has recently been awarded a £2 million project over 3 years called Backcasting to Increase Food System Resilience in the UK (BAFR-UK).
We are now seeking to employ a postdoctoral research fellow to work with key conveners in the food system to engage a wide range of stakeholders to help increase the resilience of the UK food system to cascading risks and shocks. We consider changes to UK primary production as well as supply chain, manufacturing, distribution and access, gathering new data with stakeholders on their potential impacts (including WWF, Better Food Traders, Sustain, The Trussell Trust, WRAP, Food Ethics Council, FFCC, WTW). University partners include York, UWE, LHSTM and RAU. The postholder will lead the development of the civil unrest pathways, and support the development of the policy briefs and engagement. This will include running consultation processes, including Project Partner events that convene stakeholders, supported by their networks. Techniques will include workshops, semi-structured interviews and a systematic review of potential shocks and cascading risks that lead to food system vulnerability to crisis.
The ideal candidate will have a degree plus PhD or near completion or other post-graduate research qualification (e.g. MRes, MPhil), along with experience of writing concise but comprehensive reports/papers and research undertake in a relevant field.
This is a fixed term position until 31st August 2027
Interviews are expected to take place on Thursday, 24th October
Informal enquiries can be made to Professor Aled Jones, Director, Global Sustainability Institute, at aled.jones@aru.ac.uk.
Find out more about working with us.
We have an agile working culture and offer an extensive range of benefits including generous holiday entitlement, occupational pension schemes, training and development opportunities, travel to work scheme and a competitive relocation package. Visit our benefits page for full details.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting welfare of our staff and students and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Applicants should be aware that ARU will carry out online searches as part of the due diligence on short listed candidates.
We value diversity at ARU and welcome applications from all sections of the community.
We have a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.
Committed to being inclusive and open to discuss flexible working.
We reserve the right to close this vacancy once we have received sufficient applications.