Research Assistant - GCRF double burden of malnutrition

Are you enthusiastic, well organised and versatile, with a strong research project management ability?

Do you have interests in working with an international collaborative research team and want to use your skills and experience to support research and help our academic staff and deliver an excellent research experience?

We are looking for a Research Assistant to join our BBSRC funded GCRF double burden of malnutrition (DBM) project, a multidisciplinary programme grant aimed at establishing academic partnerships between UK and China

The double burden of malnutrition (DBM) refers to the coexistence of undernutrition, with overweight and obesity in a society. The DBM, accompanied with micronutrients deficiency (MND) in childhood, is a significant risk for impaired physical and cognitive growth and development, with clear consequences for population health, wellbeing, and adult productivity. China's fast economic development has seen increasing incidence of overweight/obesity in children in affluent regions resulting from an imbalance of energy consumption and expenditure. At the same time undernutrition in less developed regions remains a serious public health concern. In recognition of these problems, China has developed national dietary guidelines to promote healthy diets in children. Furthermore, nutritional intervention strategies have been undertaken and shown effectiveness in addressing MND and undernutrition in children. However, a major challenge is to scale-up these interventions to the whole population using a combined food system approach and this is the aim of the research for which this post is advertised.

The research will be conducted in partnership with the Nutrition and Health Institute of China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) and China National Health Development Research Centre (CNHDRC). The research aims to assess the social economic and environmental barriers and develop novel approaches to improve the scalability of food-system based strategies (supplementation, biofortification, culturally acceptable educational materials and nutritional guidelines for schools) aimed at reducing MND associated with the DBM in China and beyond. There will also be the opportunity to be involved in experimental research within the project, assessing children's preferences and cognitive and physical functions as well as behavioural interventions to increase liking of certain foods.

As a Research Assistant supporting the project, you will be liaising with the research partners between China and UK. You will be involved in the collecting, organising and summarising research data reporting to partners. You will actively maintain communications relevant to the research activities, organising servicing, maintaining standard operating procedures (SOPs) and risk assessments for the project, keeping accurate records of all activities and periodic reports for the project team with the supervision from researchers on the project.

You will work with the project investigators and members of the research teams, participating actively in group discussions. You will be involved in supervising and training other team members including visiting researchers, students and staff.

You will have experience of working within a research or academic administrative environment, alongside a BSc or ideally a MSc in a relevant subject. You will also have good organisational and communication skills, and the ability to work on your own initiative and as part of a team. You may be required to travel overseas to support field work and conferences etc.

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact:

Dr Yun Yun Gong

Tel: +44 (0)113 343 1415, email: y.gong@leeds.ac.uk