The Role

Primarily, the post holder will be expected to expand our food data science capabilities, which depending on priorities may include identifying new foods and recipes, gap filling missing nutrient data, linking with environmental sustainability data, modelling nutritional data across food systems, and work with our data users in industry and academia in projects related to linking/aggregating/matching data.

Some current examples to demonstrate the diversity of projects we are involved in include working with European partners on machine-learning algorithms for personalised nutrition (FNS-Cloud project), working with the Department of Health and Social Care on delivering accurate nutrition information in their BetterHealth apps, working with a nutrition SME on allergen flagging in restaurant menus, and developing an iron bioavailability calculator for plant-based recipes. Work will also include development of new web-based tools (e.g. RShinny apps) around CoFID data for a variety of users.

Secondarily, the post holder will manage our plant-bioactives database (eBASIS), and in particular improve new data capture (e.g. through natural language processing) and improve functionality and accessibility of a new user-facing web-app interface for researchers.

Central to this role will be the ability to interact with our food and nutrition stakeholder communities by maintaining good working relations with our existing network, developing new collaborations, share best practice, adopt cutting edge food and nutrition-related data tools, and be a champion of our activities.

The Ideal Candidate

This post will be well-suited to a graduate in Data Science/Computational Science with a strong interest in nutrition, or a Food Science/Biological Science graduate with a strong interest and experience in computational biology/data science. You will have a BSc in a relevant area, and a PhD or MSc with equivalent relevant experience.

• Prior experience with Python/R programming and developing RShiny apps.
• Experience in analysing large data sets, preferably around food/nutrition/health, and visualising complex information for both specialised and lay users.
• Experience in modelling nutrition data and natural language processing skills will be an advantage.
• Good organisational skills, ability to work independently and a demonstrable ability to interact and collaborate with researchers from different disciplines.

Additional Information

Salary on appointment will be within the range £33,050 to £40,750 per annum depending on qualifications and experience for the SC6 level post, and £42,050 to £51,950 per annum for candidates who meet the SC5 level criteria. This is a full-time post for a contract of 3 years.

For further information and details of how to apply, please visit our application website or contact the Human Resources team on [contact hidden] or [contact hidden] quoting reference 1004369.

We are committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sectors of society. The Institute supports equality of opportunity within the workplace. As a Disability Confident employer, we guarantee to offer an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for this vacancy.

The closing date for applications will be 5 January 2023.

The [Employer hidden] Bioscience is a registered charity (No. 1058499) and is an Equal Opportunities Employer.