Post-Doctoral Research Associate on ‘UK Fruit and Veg Resilience Project’

Full time, fixed-term (24 months) post. Position available from 1st September 2025.

Closing date: 23:59 on 28 August 2025

We seek a Post-Doctoral Research Associate with mathematical modelling and numerical/data analysis background to join our food system resilience project, led by University of Reading, joining a large interdisciplinary team with an excellent track record in food system and mathematical modelling research.

The project aims to: 1) assess resilience of both the current UK fruit and vegetable (F&V) system plus several scenarios of future possible states (e.g. greater domestic production versus imports, more vertical farming versus field-based etc.), 2) analyse the resilience of transformation pathways both in terms of systemic risks they are exposed to and the transition risks generated to the agri-foods sector, finance and wider society, 3) identify potential resilience-building interventions, in order to find ‘win-win’ interventions that protect against short term shocks, but do not lock food systems into non-ideal states in the longer term (i.e. avoiding building in ‘undesirable’ resilience).

You will form a member of a close-knit project team consisting of four other PDRAs and several PhD students, academic leads from the University of Reading, University of Oxford and Northumbria University as well as project partners including government agencies (e.g. Defra, Food Standards Agency), industry bodies and F&V producers.

You will develop mathematical models, based on systems of nonlinear differential equations combined with asymptotic analysis and machine learning methods for optimisation and decision making, to describe the F&V supply chains for various products at regional UK scale and assess their resilience to cascading risks identified in other WPs. The model construction will be informed by qualitative and quantitative knowledge of supply chain processes through dialogue with stakeholders, and model parameters will be estimated using public and proprietary data as well as sensitivity analysis of analytical modelling results against known outcomes. The developed models will then be applied to examine the impacts of various changes in the overall national supply chain structures to resilience, and suggest interventions, together with those informed via stakeholder consultation in WP1, for finding optimal solutions to mitigate the risks.

You will have:

• PhD or PhD close to completion in one of the relevant STEM disciplines, such as mathematics, statistics, computer sciences, theoretical food, ecological or physical sciences, etc.
• skills in mathematical/statistical modelling, numerical/data analysis, and programming using Python or other languages
• a motivation to engage in systems approaches to understand complex risks

Contact details for advert

Contact Name: Zuowei Wang

Contact Job Title: Associate Professor

Contact Email address: zuowei.wang@reading.ac.uk

Alternative Contact Name: Tom Oliver

Alternative Contact Job Title: Associate PVC for Research (Environment) & Professor of Applied Ecology

Alternative Contact Email address: t.oliver@reading.ac.uk

The University is committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce, supports the gender equality Athena SWAN Charter and the Race Equality Charter, and champions LGBT+ equality. We are a Disability Confident Employer (Level 2). Applications for job-share, part-time and flexible working arrangements are welcomed and will be considered in line with business needs.