Artificial Intelligence Platform for Lipid Functionality in Food Products

One full scholarship for four years is available in the School of Food Science and Nutrition in 2025. This scholarship is open to UK and international applicants and covers full tuition fees plus £19,237 (2024/25 rate) maintenance per year (plus enhanced top-up stipend of £1,540 per year). <br /> <br /> This fully funded PhD place provides an exciting opportunity to pursue postgraduate research in a range of fields relating to Food Science, Food Engineering and Data Analytics with the industry partner Nestlé.<br /> <br /> The award is open to full-time or part-time candidates who have been offered a place on a PhD degree at the School of Food Science and Nutrition and in collaboration with Nestlé as part of the Food Consortium Collaborative Training Partnership (providing additional cohort training activities). <br /> <br /> International applicants: please note that any costs associated with your arrival at the University of Leeds to start your PhD, including flights, visa costs, Immigration Health Surcharge and medical insurance are not covered under this studentship.

<p>Lipids are common components in many food products and a greater understanding on how their origin and structure determine key physical and chemical properties is required to develop new food products with enhanced nutritional, quality, environment and economic profiles. </p> <p>This interdisciplinary project will include experimental and computational work, combining lipid and data science with a focus on developing an AI platform to identify relationships between lipid structure, chemical and physical properties and ultimately their performance in food products. The AI platform will be used to:</p> <ul> <li>Prepare oil blends with specific fatty acids composition, e.g. formulation of new products and diets.</li> <li>Compare fats and oils chemical and physical properties, e.g., need to replace existing oils and/or oil blends with cost competitive ones and/or improved nutritional ones.</li> <li>Calculate nutritional indexes, e.g., index of atherogenicity.</li> <li>Predict physical oil and/or oil blends properties (crystallization, melting point, creaminess, etc.)</li> <li>Predict chemical oil and/or oil blends stability, using primary and secondary oxidation product analysis).</li> <li>Integration with existing external lipid platforms (e.g., lipidomics data, clinical trials etc.). to extract and predict lipid behaviour and metabolism using AI tools.</li> </ul> <p>The project will utilise existing datasets available from the industry partner and from literature augmented with experimental data collected in the laboratories at the University of Leeds. </p> <p>We are looking for a highly motivated candidate with a degree in data science, computer science, food science, Chemistry or Maths with a passion for interdisciplinary world changing research.</p>

<p>Formal applications for research degree study should be made online through the <a href="https://www.leeds.ac.uk/research-applying/doc/applying-research-degrees">University's website</a>:</p> <ul> <li>You will need to create a login ID with a username and PIN.  </li> <li paraeid="{6b5c258a-c75a-4ed8-83b9-58ab69f5be15}{220}" paraid="2033294586">For ‘Application type’ please select ‘Research Degrees – Research Postgraduate’.</li> <li paraeid="{6b5c258a-c75a-4ed8-83b9-58ab69f5be15}{220}" paraid="2033294586">The admission year for this project is 2025/26 Academic Year.</li> <li paraeid="{6b5c258a-c75a-4ed8-83b9-58ab69f5be15}{220}" paraid="2033294586">You will need to select your ‘Planned Course of Study’ from a drop-down menu.</li> <li paraeid="{6b5c258a-c75a-4ed8-83b9-58ab69f5be15}{220}" paraid="2033294586">For this project, scroll down and select ‘PhD Food Science and Nutrition Full-time’.</li> <li paraeid="{6b5c258a-c75a-4ed8-83b9-58ab69f5be15}{220}" paraid="2033294586">The project start date for this project is 1^st October 2025, please use this as your Proposed Start Date of Research.</li> <li><strong>Please state clearly in the research information section that the research degree you wish to be considered for is <em>Artificial Intelligence Platform for Lipid Functionality in Food Products</em> as well as <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/faculty/staff/12297/professor-nicholas-watson">Professor Nik Watson</a> as your proposed supervisor.</strong></li> </ul> <p>If English is not your first language, you must provide evidence that you meet the University's minimum English language requirements (below).</p> <p><em>As an international research-intensive university, we welcome students from all walks of life and from across the world. We foster an inclusive environment where all can flourish and prosper, and we are proud of our strong commitment to student education. Across all Faculties we are dedicated to diversifying our community and we welcome the unique contributions that individuals can bring, and particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to Black, Asian, people who belong to a minority ethnic community, people who identify as LGBT+ and people with disabilities. Applicants will always be selected based on merit and ability.</em></p>

Applicants to this scholarship in the School of Food Science and Nutrition are expected to hold a bachelor degree in a relevant subject (2.1 or above or equivalent) or a good honours degree together with a Masters degree. Applicants who are uncertain about the requirements for a particular research degree are advised to contact the Postgraduate Research Admissions team prior to making an application.

The minimum English language entry requirement for research postgraduate research study is an IELTS of 6.5 overall with at least 6.0 in each component (reading, writing, listening and speaking) or equivalent. The test must be dated within two years of the start date of the course in order to be valid. Some schools and faculties have a higher requirement.

<p><strong>Information about the Award</strong><br /> We are offering 1 full-time or part-time PhD scholarship in the School of Food Science and Nutrition for one UK or international candidate, covering a maintenance grant of £19,237 per year (2024/25 rate) and full tuition fees for four years, along with an additional top-up stipend of £1,540 per year, all subject to satisfactory progress. </p> <p><strong>Duration of the Award</strong><br /> Full-time (4 years) or part-time pro-rata. The award will be made for one year in the first instance and renewable for a further period of up to three years, subject to satisfactory academic progress, or part-time equivalent.</p> <p><strong>Other Conditions</strong></p> <ul> <li>Applicants must not have already been awarded or be currently studying for a doctoral degree.</li> <li>Awards must be taken up by 1st October 2025.</li> <li>Applicants must live within a reasonable distance of the University of Leeds whilst in receipt of this scholarship.<br />  </li> </ul>

<p>For further information please contact the Postgraduate Research Admissions team: <a href="mailto:env-pgr?subject=Artificial%20Intelligence%20Platform%20for%20Lipid%20Functionality%20in%20Food%20Products">env-pgr@leeds.ac.uk</a>. </p>