Food Shines work placements and conference for doctoral students
Published: 31 October 2025
We're pleased to launch Food Shines: six paid consultancy placements and a conference exploring current wide-ranging food system challenges. These opportunities are open to UK-based doctoral students of any discipline.
Food Shines is part of the BBSRC-funded BAFR-UK (Backcasting to Achieve Food Resilience in the UK) project.
Food Shines consultancy placements – apply by 1 December 2025
Food Shines is offering six paid consultancy placements with BAFR advisory board member organisations – each of which has identified a food system challenge for the successful candidate to tackle.
These placements, open to UK-based doctoral students of any discipline, will involve desk-based/field research and the delivery of a 10-15 page report addressing the assigned challenge. Placement hosts include the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), the Met Office, WWF, WRAP, Better Food Traders and Sustain.
You'll work full- or part-time between March and September 2026, for 185 hours (five weeks FTE) at £15.59 per hour.
Placements will involve remote or hybrid working – for further information, please see individual placement descriptions as outlined in Document 2 below. Budget is available to cover travel and subsistence related to the placement, including travelling to the placement office on occasion.
The deadline for applications is 11.59pm on Monday 1 December 2025, with online interviews scheduled for 15-17 December. If you have any questions about the placements, please contact [email protected]
All doctoral students applying for a Food Shines placement will receive a place at the Food Shines Conference in Cambridge on 19 February 2026.
Person specification
We encourage you to apply, even if you do not have much previous experience to demonstrate how you meet the non-essential criteria.
- Current doctoral student in any discipline at a UK university (essential).
- Based in the United Kingdom (essential).
- Available to attend the Food Shines Conference on 19 February in person in Cambridge (essential).
- Self-motivated to work remotely/on a hybrid placement and manage workload.
- Confidence to work independently with initiative on a research project, conduct research as required, and produce a 10-15 page report addressing the agreed challenge.
- Willing to work as part of a team and communicate effectively, including with the host team, the work-based mentor, and the academic supervisor.
How to apply
To apply for one or more Food Shines placements:
- Download and read documents 1-5 from the application pack (below).
- Complete the application form (Document 4).
- Send your CV and application form to [email protected] by 11.59pm on Monday 1 December 2025.
If you have any questions, please contact [email protected]
Application pack
Document 1: About the BAFR-UK project (PDF)
Document 2: Individual placement details (PDF)
Document 3: Job advert and person specification (PDF)
Document 4: Application form (Word doc)
Document 5: Food Shines Conference advert (PDF)
We particularly encourage applications from groups underrepresented in doctoral studies:
- Mature PhD students (over 25 years old)
- BAME students
- Students specifically from British Black, British Pakistani and British Bangladeshi backgrounds
- Students who were eligible for free school meals
- Students with disabilities
- Women studying STEMM subjects
- Other groups that may be marginalised in doctoral studies
Food Shines Conference – Thursday 19 February 2026, Cambridge
This conference is free to attend. Food and refreshments will be provided, and travel expenses for UK students will be covered by arrangement. Please email [email protected] to discuss travel expenses in advance.
You can find out more about the conference below or on the conference Eventbrite page, where you can also register for the conference if you're not planning to apply for a placement (all placement applicants will receive a conference place by default).
This conference offers opportunities to:
- Attend presentations on:
- Making an impact with your research, delivered by Defra.
- Securing employment after your studies.
- Understanding current interdisciplinary food system challenges.
- Network with Defra, the Met Office and Food and Environmental third sector organisations WWF, WRAP, Better Food Traders and Sustain.
- Contribute your expertise to help solve UK food system challenges during dynamic breakout sessions. Themes spanning the challenges include:
- Climate risk, agricultural resilience and UK food system implications.
- Strengthening local and sustainable food systems through policy and procurement innovation.
- Driving measurable environmental improvements in the food system through evidence based action.
- Food system resilience and nutrition security.
- Climate and economic risk modelling, scenario modelling and food basket and nutrition modelling.
- Obtain a CPD attendance certificate.
The conference will be exploring the six food system challenges that are linked to the Food Shines consultancy placements. Document 2: Individual placement details (PDF) outlines these challenges in detail. For further background information on the conference, read Document 1: About the BAFR-UK project (PDF), and Document 5: Food Shines Conference advert (PDF).
You can find a full agenda and travel advice on the Conference Eventbrite page, where you can also register to attend if you're not planning to apply for a placement.
Placement host organisations
