PhD candidate in Evaluation of international and national policies influencing food environments (1.0 FTE)

Worldwide, diet-related chronic diseases (such as obesity, diabetes type 2 and cardiovascular diseases) increased over the past decades. An important explanatory factor for this increase are the concurrent changes that occurred to our food environment. The food environment consist of all food-related exposures that we come across in our day-to-day lives, including the accessibility of different food outlets (e.g. supermarkets, school canteens, fast food outlets), availability of food products and food labeling, food marketing and food prices. It is critical that within the European Union (EU) as well as within European countries, governments implement preventive policies and actions towards creating healthier food environments. Although monitoring the level of implementation of policies and actions is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), systematic efforts to monitor the implementation of preventive policies and actions are scarce in Europe. Therefore, in this European JPI-funded PhD project, the implementation of European-level and national food policies (e.g. in the Netherlands) will be assessed. Further, the effectiveness and impact of these policies will be determined, with special attention to effects on socio-economic differences in food consumption.

Main purpose of the job

In this PhD project, we aim to test and implement the INFORMAS Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI) in an European and Dutch context and in doing so, benchmark (EU and national) policies, with direct/indirect influence on food environments, against international best practices. Also, the effectiveness of particular policy actions will be studied in-depth. In the final year, a Food-EPI to assess food policies in the city of Utrecht will be developed and tested. This PhD project is embedded in the larger, European, JPI-funded "Policy Evaluation Network (PEN)" project. Within PEN, 29 research groups from nine different countries across Europe collaborate on better understanding the implementation and effects of policies related to physical activity and diet across Europe.

Tasks of the PhD candidate consist of (but are not limited to):

conduct scientific research in the field of food policy and public health nutrition; data collection, e.g. collecting and analyzing European policy documents (for which trips to Brussels are likely needed); publish results in scientific journals and fact sheets; organize multi-stakeholder meetings and collaborate with (inter)national researchers; present study findings at international conferences and stakeholder meetings.

To develop your teaching skills, you are expected to contribute to the teaching programme of the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning.