Leeds University Business School/Food Standards Agency PhD Studentship

Application deadline: 17 June 2022

Project start date: 1 October 2022

Country eligibility: UK only, fully funded 

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) commissioned an innovative study that involved installing motion sensitive cameras in food businesses and domestic kitchens to record and analyse behaviour around food hygiene and safety practices. The aim of this study was to better understand people’s behaviours in the kitchen in as close to real-life settings as possible to inform risk assessment processes and inform behavioural interventions to ultimately improve food safety behaviours. The research process has generated huge amounts of rich data where the raw footage can be reanalysed. This project has been conducted in collaboration with Dr Gulbanu Kaptan and Dr Joshua Weller from Centre for Decision Research at Leeds University Business School.

The FSA and the Business School have agreed to co-fund a PhD studentship to deliver secondary data analysis for (1) data collected through the above study, (2) FSA’s flagship Food and You 2 survey, an official statistic that is used to inform government policy-decision making by collecting robust and representative data on consumers' self-reported food safety behaviours, and (3) other FSA data and surveys, including both consumer and business research.

As a jointly-funded doctoral student, you will have the opportunity to conduct applied quantitative research to conceptualise food safety behaviours. In particular, the FSA is interested in exploring the “Say-Do” gap, and better understanding how observed food safety behaviours differ from self-reported behaviours; which can be subject to biases. Outputs from this project will have strong potential to support the development of FSA policy recommendations, along with informing the development of FSA communications, behavioural interventions, and guidance and support offered to food businesses. The research will also make a valuable contribution to the psychological literature on the intention-behaviour (or “say-do”) gap. Additionally, you will benefit from a supportive environment led by experienced Business School academics and FSA practitioners, specialised in the fields of judgment and decision making, consumer behaviour, and food safety.

How to apply

Information on how to apply can be found on the Leeds University Business School website .

Entry requirements

Full entry requirements can be found on the Leeds University Business School website .