PhD fellowship in sustainable diets and cardiometabolic diseases

The Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen
We are offering a PhD fellowship in sustainable diets and cardiometabolic diseases commencing May 15, 2025, or as soon as possible hereafter.

Our group and research
The successful candidate will join a research group that is focused on investigating the role of dietary and lifestyle factors in cardiometabolic diseases in an interdisciplinary and international research environment.

The research group, Guasch group, which the PhD candidate will join is part of the Section of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and is also affiliated with the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR) and the PhD will be able to attend seminars, courses, and use resources at CBMR www.cbmr.ku.dk.

Project description
The candidate will primarily work with a newly funded randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the role of sustainable diets in cardiometabolic health. The trial is a 6-month parallel RCT in 180 adults at high cardiovascular risk to test the effects of sustainable diets on traditional and novel cardiometabolic health biomarkers including changes in the metabolome and proteome.

The specific work tasks will include the preparation of materials, protocols, day-to-day operations and fieldwork of the trial, dietary intervention, scientific work related to the project, data management, statistical analysis of data, writing scientific papers, and presentation of findings at professional meetings. The PhD student could also be involved in other current projects at the research group.

The fieldwork of the clinical trial will be conducted at the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports (NEXS) at the University of Copenhagen. The PhD will be collaborating closely with researchers and staff at NEXS.

Dr. Guasch-Ferré (Department of Public Health, UCPH) will be the primary supervisor of the PhD candidate and Professor Inge Tetens will be the co-supervisor (NEXS, UCPH).

The principal supervisor isDr. Guasch-Ferré (Department of Public Health, UCPH), [email protected]

Start: May 15, 2025, or as soon as possible hereafter.

Duration: 3 years as a PhD student. + 3 months as a research assistant for enrolment, if relevant

Job description
Your key tasks as a PhD student at SUND are:

• Carrying through an independent research project under supervision.
• Completing PhD courses or other equivalent education corresponding to approximately 30 ECTS points.
• Participating in active research environments including a stay at another research team abroad.
• Obtaining experience with teaching or other types of dissemination related to your PhD project.
• Teaching and disseminating your knowledge.
• Writing a PhD thesis on the grounds of your project.

Key criteria for the assessment of applicants
Applicants must have qualifications corresponding to a master’s degree related to the subject area of the project, e.g. nutrition, dietetics, clinical nutrition, epidemiology, or public health. Please note that your master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree (two years).

Other important criteria are:

• The grade point average achieved
• Professional qualifications relevant to the PhD project
• Previous publications
• Relevant work experience
• Other professional activities
• A curious mindset with a strong interest in nutrition, lifestyle, metabolomics & proteomics, cardiometabolic diseases, and/or precision health.
• The candidate is fluent in English and knows Danish
• Experience with clinical trials.
• Experience with handling data sets and statistical analysis.
• Statistical programming (SAS, STATA, R).
• Possess good interpersonal and communicative skills both written and spoken.
• A team player, and “can do” attitude.

Place of employment
The place of employment is at the section of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. We offer creative and stimulating working conditions in a dynamic and international research environment.

The Department of Public Health’s focus is to improve the health of the population and the connection between health and society. The Department provides the scientific foundation for efforts that aim to improve public health, both nationally and globally, and to create greater insight into the links between health, the individual, and society as well as the ethical, equity and political implications. This is achieved through research, education and engagement with stakeholders and the public at large with a wide-ranging multidisciplinary research agenda covering most aspects of public health at a high international level. You can read more about the Department of Public Health here.

Section of Epidemiology contributes to the development of the field of theoretical epidemiology, with a specific focus on causal inference, complexity, and life course epidemiology. The dynamic interplay between genes, environment and health across the life course and across generations are objects of research in the section. You can read more about us here.

Terms of employment
The average weekly working hours are 37 hours per week.

The position is a fixed-term position limited to a period of 3 years. The start date is May 15, 2025 or as soon as possible hereafter.

The employment is conditioned upon the applicant’s success­ful enrolment as a PhD student at the Graduate School at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen. This requires submission and acceptance of an application for the specific project formulated by the applicant during an initial three-month employment as a research assistant.

The PhD study must be completed in accordance with The Ministerial Order on the PhD programme (2013) and the Faculty’s rules on achieving the degree.

Salary, pension and terms of employment are in accordance with the agree­ment between the Ministry of Taxation and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State. Depending on seniority, the monthly salary starts at approximately 32,900 DKK/Roughly 4,400 EUR (April 2024 level) plus pension.

Questions
For specific information about the PhD fellowship, please contact the principal supervisor.

General information about PhD studies at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences is available at the Graduate School’s website: https://healthsciences.ku.dk/phd/guidelines/

Application procedure
Your application must be submitted electronically by clicking ‘Apply now’ below. The application must include the following documents in PDF format:

1. Motivated letter of application, including motivations for applying for this position and a summary of your past research and plans. (Maximum 1 page)

2. CV incl. education, experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position

3. Certified copy of original Master of Science diploma and transcript of records in the original language, including an authorized English translation if issued in other language than English or Danish. If not completed, a certified/signed copy of a recent transcript of records or a written statement from the institution or supervisor is accepted. As a prerequisite for a PhD fellowship employment, your master’s degree must be equivalent to a Danish master’s degree. We encourage you to read more in the assessment database: https://ufm.dk/en/education/recognition-and-transparency/find-assessments/assessment-database . Please note that we might ask you to obtain an assessment of your education performed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science

4. Publication list (if possible)

Application deadline: 26 of February 2025, 23.59pm CET
We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.

The further process
After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor.

The assessor makes a non-prioritized assessment of the academic qualifications and experience with respect to the above-mentioned area of research, techniques, skills and other requirements listed in the advertisement.

Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant him/herself.

You find information about the recruitment process at: https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/

The applicants will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.

Interviews are expected to be held in week 13 (24 - 31 of March 2025)

The University of Copenhagen wish to reflect the diversity of society and encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.

Københavns Universitet giver sine knap 10.000 medarbejdere muligheder for at udnytte deres talent fuldt ud i et ambitiøst, uformelt miljø. Vi sikrer traditionsrige og moderne rammer om uddannelser og fri forskning på højt internationalt niveau. Vi søger svar og løsninger på fælles problemer og gør ny viden tilgængelig og nyttig for andre.

Kontakt
Marta Guasch Ferré
E-mail: [email protected]

Info
Ansøgningsfrist: 26-02-2025

Ansættelsesdato: 15-05-2025

Arbejdstid: Fuldtid

Afdeling/Sted: Institut for Folkesundhedsvidenskab