The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is inviting applications for a 3-year full-time PhD studentship, starting in September 2026, funded by National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Only those applicants who meet all the eligibility criteria outlined below can be considered for this studentship.
The research training environment
Students, academics, and professionals come to LSHTM from all over the world because of its international presence, collaborative ethos, research excellence and prestigious study programmes in public and global health. Find out details of the School’s rankings and awards as well as current research in action.
General information about the MPhil/PhD programme structure at LSHTM can be found on the Research Degrees and Doctoral College pages. Students will be mentored by supervisors at LSHTM, and can be guided by an Advisory Committee consisting of at least two other experienced researchers who may be external to LSHTM. Students are expected to take part in the academic life of their department and can also be members of Academic Centres. All research seminars and journal clubs are open to PhD students from across LSHTM. Students are able to take up to four Master’s level Study Modules per academic year, subject to approval from their supervisor. The PhD programme also facilitates national and international conference attendance by students. Support for research students’ future career development is covered through the supervision process, through the Transferable Skills Programme (in the School and the Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network) and the LSHTM’s Careers Service.
The studentship will be based in the Faculty of Public Health & Policy and the student will become a member of Population Health Innovation Lab (PHI-Lab) – a dynamic and social research group committed to supporting and developing the careers of talented early-career researchers. The successful applicant will have excellent opportunities to network and establish professional contacts through formal and informal interactions with members of staff and students at LSHTM.
Doctoral research project
We are seeking a motivated and engaged PhD student to develop their knowledge and research skills in food systems and public health nutrition research.
The PhD project centres on the Out-of-Home Food Sector (OOHFS), which includes outlets such as restaurants, cafés, and takeaways, as well as third-party aggregators facilitating delivery from these such as delivery apps. The OOHFS is experiencing rapid growth, particularly through delivery platforms, and makes a significant contribution to the national diet. The use of price-based promotions to encourage purchasing and consumption of out-of-home foods is also increasingly common in the sector. These promotions include discounts, multibuy offers or meal deals, free products, and free delivery. Such incentives increase demand, posing a particular public health concern due to the generally poor nutritional quality of much of this food. The UK government has recently passed legislation to ban price promotions on packaged (i.e. supermarket) unhealthy foods, but this does not currently extend to the OOHFS. Very little evidence exists to date on the extent to which these promotions are used across the sector, their impact on food consumption and health, and what kind of policy action may be needed to better align regulation with the grocery sector in order to improve population dietary health.
The PhD project will predominantly use quantitative methods to improve understanding of price-based promotions in the OOHFS and identify which policies may work best to limit the impact of such promotions on consumption of unhealthy out-of-home food in the UK. The PhD will have two key components. First, the student will have an opportunity to work with large-scale web-scraped data to investigate the use of price-based promotions in the online food delivery sector. This will involve learning about automated approaches to data collection (the student is not expected to conduct the web-scraping), data cleaning, and multivariate regression analysis. Second, the student will contribute to testing price-incentive-based policy interventions in an experimental setting. This will involve proposing and designing the intervention, as well as collecting and analysing data. The student will gain experience in experimental study design, intervention development, and analysis. At least part of the PhD is expected to consider loyalty-based and individualised price incentives to understand differences between universal and personalised offers in shaping food purchasing and consumption decisions.
The PhD student will be encouraged to develop their own ideas and research studies alongside programme work, supported by an experienced supervisory team.
The position would be ideal for a graduate from a quantitative discipline (e.g. economics, statistics, data science, epidemiology) with an interest in research that informs local and national public health policy in the UK and has the potential to improve health through real-world change. Relevant research experience is desirable.
The supervisory team has an excellent record of supervising PhD students and supporting early-career researchers in transitioning to long-term research careers.
The research project will be supervised by one of the following staff:
- Dr Alexandra Kalbus
- Dr Laura Cornelsen
- Dr Stephen O’Neill
- Prof Steven Cummins
This fully funded studentship is supported by a NIHR programme which aims to understand how we can change the food environment to prevent diet-related disease and obesity. The studentship will be primarily based at the host institute (LSHTM). Students will be actively encouraged to engage with and learn from the collaborating institutes in the programme, including University of Liverpool, University of Oxford and City St George’s University. Each studentship has a dedicated budget for personalised training, study visits and external placements, which we anticipate students will use during the studentship. Students will also become members of the NIHR academy: a dedicated network to support their training and development as a researcher.
Financial support
Funding is available for one 3-year full-time PhD studentship to start in September 2026. The studentship award covers tuition fees and a tax-free stipend at the UKRI rate (which is £22,780 in 2025/26). This PhD Studentship award is only available to candidates who meet the eligibility requirements for the Home fee rate. Please see the LSHTM fee assessment policy in particular the ’criteria‘ section, for further details. Further information about fee status assessment can be found on the UKCISA website.
Eligibility criteria
All applicants must meet minimum LSHTM entry requirements.
Eligibility criteria
- An undergraduate and Masters degrees with strong quantitative element (economics, statistics, epidemiology, data science), both degrees awarded at a high grade. Applicants with a very strong undergraduate degree and relevant work experience may also be considered
- Some research experience (ideally applying multivariable regression models) and strong interest in quantitative methods
- Interest and some understanding of experimental study designs
- Demonstrable familiarity with R/Python (or other equivalent) software
- Demonstrable attention to detail
- The ability to work independently, manage own workload and work to deadlines
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
- An interest in food systems and public health nutrition research in the UK
Please note that due to the high volume of enquiries we receive, we will not be able to respond to emails from applicants who do not meet these eligibility criteria.
How to apply
Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact Dr Laura Cornelsen ([email protected]) and Dr Alexandra Kalbus ([email protected]) for an informal discussion before applying.
To apply, submit a completed research degree application online using the LSHTM application portal by the scholarship deadline of 23:59 (BST) on 20.04.2026.
Applicants must confirm that they meet the eligibility criteria before contacting their proposed primary supervisor. When contacting their proposed supervisor, applicants are encouraged to write a short paragraph about their experience and research interests, and explaining how these match the proposed topic for the PhD, and to provide a short CV.
Applicants must ensure all information and standard required documents outlined on the LSHTM ‘before you apply’ page is included/uploaded with the application, including:
- academic transcripts (official transcripts for all completed study; interim transcripts for any ongoing programmes of study);
- a two-page Curriculum Vitae;
- a research proposal (the research proposal should identify a specific research question or hypothesis, summarise the relevant background information (with no more than five key references) and should outline an appropriate research methodology by which the question can be addressed); and
- References.
In addition, applicants for this scholarship must upload the following documents:
- A personal statement outlining why you are interested in, and suited to, undertaking a PhD in this area at LSHTM; and
- A writing sample (this may consist of your dissertation, an essay, a blog post or other piece of long-form writing and should be around 5,000-10,000 words long).
Applicants must indicate that they wish to apply for this funding by writing ‘NIHR PhD Studentship in Food Systems Change and Obesity Prevention' in the funding section of the application form.
Incomplete applications will not be considered for this studentship. This includes any applications missing supporting/supplementary documents (eg transcripts or references) at the deadline. It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that the application is complete and therefore applications should be submitted as early as possible to give referees time to submit their references prior to the deadline.
By submitting an application for this funding applicants agree to its Terms & Conditions.
Applicants short-listed for funding will be invited for interview. Interviews will likely be held remotely (via Teams or Zoom).